2019 Carroll Shelby Tribute

The 7th annual Carroll Shelby Tribute and Car Show was held on Saturday, May 4th, 2019 at Carroll's early HQ (and his Goodyear Racing Tire distributorship) in Gardena, California. These days, the facility is the headquarters for Carroll Shelby International, the Carroll Shelby Foundation, and the Carroll Shelby Store. This is also the location for OVC's (Original Venice Crew) reconstruction shop where the Crew is building 36 continuation 1965 R-Models (but that's another story!).

The day started off a bit grey and cool, so upon an early arrival we were at the head of the line for entry.

One car in particular stood out from the rest in line...a brand new and gorgeous Superformance GT40!

And a very unique '64 Fairlane (more photos and details later in this story).

We started to load cars onto the Shelby HQ property a bit after 7AM. The grounds were configured with late-model cars spread around the outside of the building and 'early cars' inside.

And inside was a feast for the eyes! 👀

Several original Cobras!

We'll start with a slideshow gallery of original Cobras... (click on the left < or right > arrowheads)

Mix in several early Shelby's in another slideshow...

...and another slideshow of assorted replicas....

My first car was a '64 Fairlane Sport Coupe, like this one, however, this one has a twin-turbo monster motor and fully reconfigured tube chassis that's very well concealed. Also in this slideshow are several other interesting '60's Fords....and one gorgeous '39 Ford!

Cool kidney bean wheels

Great engineering - twin turbos and and a very highly disguised tube frame!

Here's another slideshow of a few Fords outside the building.

There were several speakers, including Rich McDonald with a very moving legacy presentation about his father Dave McDonald.

Rich McDonald presenting his father's racing legacy when Dave McDonald was the winningest driver ever for Shelby American.

In addition, Carol Connors spoke about the song she wrote, Hey Little Cobra, which was sung by the Rip Chords.

Carol Connors Cobra

Carol Connors Cobra

Carol Connors Cobra

Carol Connor in the '60s

Carol Connors today.

Expensive "Help"...

Joe's beautiful '67 G.T. 500

A VERY highly modified Mustang engine room!

Hilbank's Superformance always draws a crowd.

...and the band played on...

The new Shelby GT. What could possibly go wrong with a 600-HP supercharged Shelby Mustang rental car with partner SIXT?

Camilo's 'new' Ford GT. Camilo was Chief Designer of the Ford GT and the SVT Studio, Camilo’s team worked on the 2005 and 2006 production Ford GT.

A beautiful Superformance GT40!

Joe's '66 Shelby

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