Description
My Years Designing, Testing and Racing Carroll’s Legendary Mustangs
When the Ford Motor Company needed a new car aimed at the youth market of the 1960s, it created the instantly-popular Mustang. When it decided to turn the Mustang into a true sports car it turned to Carroll Shelby. And when Shelby needed an engineer to develop what would become the classic Mustang GT350 he hired Chuck Cantwell.
In Shelby Mustang GT350: My Years Designing, Testing And Racing Carroll’s Legendary Mustangs Cantwell delivers a unique first-hand account of his years at the Shelby American company. Working alongside Shelby and a dedicated team, he succeeded in producing a car that was an immediate success on the race track and an iconic muscle car whose reputation remains unmatched after more than half a century.
When Shelby hired Chuck from General Motors, he got more than an experienced project engineer. He also got an accomplished driver, a three-time SCCA Division class champion in cars that he prepared himself. That background helped Chuck engineer solutions for the Mustang and accurately evaluate them, even in competition. The Shelby GT350 won the SCCA’s B- Production National Championship three years in a row, and Ford won two consecutive Trans-Am Manufacturers Championships in Mustangs prepared and campaigned by Shelby American.
On a subject as popular as the Shelby Mustang GT350 fresh, definitive information is hard to come by, but that is exactly what Chuck provides. He shares fresh technical details, never-before-heard anecdotes, and corrects popular misconceptions about the GT350’s origins and development. Chuck also covers his work on later cars like the GT500, as well as his critical role with the Shelby racing team in the Trans-Am series. And his month-by-month narrative is supported by scores of photographs (including many rare images from his own collection and those of other Shelby insiders) as well as technical drawings and company memos. Additional background information, data, and details are provided by co-author Greg Kolasa, an automotive historian who has spent decades researching and writing about Carroll Shelby’s cars.
Shelby Mustang GT350 is a vivid, fact-filled account of how the man Carroll Shelby dubbed “Mr. GT350” led the effort to create an American automotive legend. It’s precisely the book that Shelby Mustang owners and other enthusiasts have been waiting for.
