Is the Carroll Shelby Museum worth seeing?
We say yes. And you don't have to be into cars to appreciate it. Here are the deets, as the kids say.
Carroll Shelby was a superstar of the automotive industry for the nearly six decades, right up until he died in 2012 at the age of 89.
He was born in Texas in 1923; the museum celebrate his 100th birthday a few years ago. He served as a flight instructor and test pilot during World War II. After the war, he got into car racing as an amateur, then turned pro. He drove for Aston Martin and Maserati, setting 16 U.S. and international speed records. In 1959, he and a teammate won the 24 Hours of Le Mans sports-car endurance race in Sarthe, France.
Health concerns prompted Shelby to quit racing after the Le Mans race. From there, he launched the Shelby-American car company. He teamed up with Ford to build the famed Cobra series of sports cars, considered by car enthusiasts to be the finest American sports car ever built. He also designed Mustang-based Shelby GT cars, then moved on to work with Dodge, where he designed the Viper, and GM.
Carroll Shelby was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1992. In 2003, he formed Carroll Shelby International Inc., based in Nevada, where, at 80 years of age, he continued to develop the Cobra series (again teamed up with Ford); it remains the only automobile manufacturing facility in the state.
The Carroll Shelby Heritage Center is located at 6405 Ensworth St,. just north of Sunset Road and the I-15/215 interchange; www.shelby.com. The 100,000-square-foot facility consists of a museum/showroom and the car factory. The museum displays a number of the Cobras, old and new; it's free and open daily. A number of YouTube videos are posted where you can see what the tours are like.
We've taken the tour and we can highly recommend it.
