A piece of history: Learning a thing or two from the Old Country

By Joseph Keller

Although Carroll Shelby's place in history as an American icon is unparalleled, much of the legendary muscle and performance car driver and builder's first major success stories took place overseas. Yet it wasn't just for bolstering his driving ability that Shelby chose to concentrate his early efforts in Europe; ever the businessman and car builder, he wanted to take the best of American engineering and combine it with European precision to create a new breed of sports car.

Shelby's early victories in Europe were by no means insignificant; they firmly cemented him as one of the world's great racing drivers of all time. Last year, in fact, represented the 50th anniversary of Shelby's 1959 victory at the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans, the culmination of the young sports car driver's career.

Although he wasn't yet behind the wheel of a motoring machine that bore his own name, Shelby himself certainly added his touch to each of his impressive wins in Europe.

Shelby's first victory, in 1952 on an air field in Norman, Oklahoma, came at the wheel of an MG-TC, so his experience driving British-designed and engineered cars got off to a start well before the first Ford V8 motor found its way under the hood of an English AC Ace.

A series of racing successes in the United States gave Shelby something of a reputation overseas. Here was a brutish, twangy Texan who wasn't afraid of anything, as far as the Europeans could tell.

John Wyer, Aston Martin's team manager in the mid-1950s, had been closely following Shelby's endeavors and he decided to give the young driver a shot in Europe. And what a first effort it was: Shelby manhandled an Aston Martin DB3S to second place in his first European outing, finishing just behind Le Mans winner Duncan Hamilton.

A kid out of Texas who could keep pace with the very best? Aston Martin knew they had to hang onto Carroll Shelby.

The automaker's racing outfit decided to enter Shelby into the 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans. Paired with veteran driver – and noted journalist later in his own illustrious career – Paul Frere, the Aston Martin team performed strongly until being sidelined by an axle that snapped during a pit stop.

The unfortunate accident didn't dent Shelby's career, however; he and Wyer grew close as the manager took him under his wing and taught him a thing or too.

“He taught me how to plan for myself,” Shelby recalled later. “You have to plan each race and drive as you plan it... no wild, crazy-driving fool ever gets to the top.”

Shelby capitalized on his European season by returning to the United States. Named Sports Illustrated's driver of the year in 1957, Shelby re-joined Aston Martin for 1958 and 1959 in an effort to be both victorious – a plain and simple goal so characteristic to Shelby's later endeavors – and to learn a thing or two about how to build his own high-performance sports car with an American twist.

By closely observing the skilled European mechanics, as well as the factory's that built his racing cars, Shelby knew that he would gain the experience and know-how to take on his own operations at a later date – and it was with these lessons learned that Shelby was able to approach AC and Ford to create the legendary Cobra.