The man responsible for creating this masterpiece of a performance car, Carroll Shelby was born in Leesburg, Texas, in 1923.Shelby got his start as a race car driver in the 1950s. He claimed victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1959, becoming only the second American to win that famous endurance race.

Heart problems forced his retirement from driving race cars in the early 1960s, so he turned to designing high-performance cars. He's best known for his race cars, such as the Cobra, the Ford GT40 and one of the premier muscle cars of that era, the Shelby GT 350. Besides partnering with Ford, in later years he worked with Chrysler and designed the Dodge Viper sports car introduced in 1992.

Shelby Sports Cars
Credit: Fox Photos, Getty Images
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Turns out, Shelby was also very fond of chili. His name was associated with a chili fixings kit that featured packets of spices sold in a small brown paper bag along with a drawing of a big black western hat, Shelby's trademark attire.

He also was one of the founders of the Terlingua International Chili Championship, held each November, in Terlingua, Texas.

He even got into men's grooming products in 1967. He promoted "Carroll Shelby's Pit-Stop," in car magazines. It was billed as a Real Man's Deodorant.

 

 

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