About Shelby Middle East
Bringing Shelby to the Middle East!
Shelby Middle East is the officially licensed distributor for Shelby in the Middle East, dedicated to delivering high-performance Shelby vehicles, parts, and merchandise to enthusiasts and collectors in the region. Our commitment to excellence ensures that we provide authentic Shelby products, supported by exceptional customer service and expert guidance. As the only licensed distributor in the Middle East, we cater to a diverse market of automotive enthusiasts, ensuring that every product reflects the legendary performance and iconic design associated with the Shelby brand.
Our mission is to promote the Shelby legacy and enhance the driving experience for our customers, while continually expanding our offerings to meet the growing demand in the Middle East market. With a focus on quality, reliability, and customer satisfaction, Shelby Middle East strives to be the premier destination for all things Shelby, fostering a vibrant community of Shelby enthusiasts across the region.
About Shelby
THE SHELBY
Mystique
At the core of the Shelby Mystique is the man himself. His impact on the automotive scene as a driver is impressive, to say the least. During the 1950s he drove for Cad-Allard, Aston Martin and Maserati. While driving for Donald Healey he set no less than 16 U.S. and international speed records in a specially modified Austin-Healey 100s.
He was Sports Illustrated’s Driver of the Year in 1956 and 1957. In 1959 he drove for Aston Martin and took the 24 Hours of Le Mans with teammate Roy Salvatori. That same year Carroll won the overall USAC driving championship. He also retired from competitive driving and began the next phase of his career as a designer of high performance vehicles for both track and street.
Carroll’s competitive racing career ended, arguably, at its height due to health concerns. But like so much of his personal history, he turned this event into an opportunity to recreate himself and redefine the role he would play on the motoring scene. As a visionary and manufacturer, Shelby’s influence is considerable. So much so that even competitors often wore clothing featuring the Shelby mark. The Shelby brand both redefined the meaning of performance and united a wide swath of motoring enthusiasts who held the Shelby brand in undeniable admiration and esteem. This included such disparate groups as the traditional Detroit-based automakers, national and international competitive racing teams and the street-prowling hot-rod crowd that dominated westcoast car culture through-out much of the 1960s. Shelby was truly a unifying force.
The impact of the Shelby brand is still felt to this very day. Such modern Shelby classics as the Series 1 and aluminum body CSX1000-series Cobras have brought the brands mystique into the modern era.
Shelby’s recent collaboration with Ford’s 5th Generation Mustang encompasses all of the qualities of the golden age of Shelby Mustangs and brings this icon of car culture into the new century. In the process, it has also created a whole new generation of Shelby enthusiasts who will continue to drive the Shelby legend forward for years to come.
the COBRA
years
‘I woke up from a dream and named the little car the “COBRA”’ Carroll Shelby
The Cobra concept was realized in 1962 in a back-room at the Moon Eye manufacturing facility in dusty Santa Fe Springs, California. The genesis of the name is proof-positive that dreams do come true. In March of that same year, Carroll and team launched ShelbyAmerican Inc. and soon migrated to Venice, California where they set up shop at 1042 Princeton Drive.
In August of the same year, the Cobra prototype made its debut. It was the fastest production car ever made at the time, hitting 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds. Carroll summed up the Cobra concept nicely when he said “It’s a massive motor in a tiny, lightweight car.”
In 1963 the racing world felt the Cobra’s venom for the first time as it snapped up a victory at the United States Road Racing Championships. By the Fall of 1963 Shelby-American pushed the development of the prototype further up the performance ladder when it created an enclosed, aerodynamically improved version resulting in even more speed.
In February of 1964 this development track resulted in the Daytona Coupe. The same year, the Cobra repeated its USRRC victory and then took the checkered flag at the Sports Car Club of America National Championships bringing down the likes of Ferrari, Porsche and Chevrolet’s Corvette. It was obvious to all that the Cobra was a force to be reckoned with. And just to make sure that its emerging dominance wasn’t perceived as a passing fad, the Cobra would go on to take the SCCA National Championship 5 more times in a row.
In 1965 the Daytona Coupe claimed victory at the FIFA World Championship and took Shelby-American into the history books as the first American company to win that illustrious race. This monumental achievement did not go unnoticed by Carroll’s friend, Lee Iacocca, who had aspirations of using his Mustang in the SCCA B-Class to beat his archrival, the Chevrolet Corvette. Iacocca, ever the shrewd operator, saw Carroll Shelby as just the man he needed to achieve this goal.
racing with
Ford
“That’s a secretary’s car. Why the hell do you want to turn it into a race car?” Carroll Shelby
The only place that Ford was coming up short was with its super-car, the Ford GT, known today as the GT40. The car failed to live up to expectations in its first outing and was soundly trampled by Ferrari’s prancing stallion. Acknowledging Shelby American’s success in the world of Sports Car racing, they turned the GT program over to SAI and the results speak volumes. With the program under new leadership for only a few short months, the revamped GT succeeded in placing first, second and third in the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. It went on to repeat victories at Le Mans in 1967, 1968 and 1969 thus ending Ferrari’s dominance and relegating the prancing stallion to the back-forty.
Lee Iacocca’s vision wasn’t limited to the street. With an eye on the bottom line, he saw a vast audience for a high-performance version of his popular Mustang that bridged the gap between street and track. A car that buyers could purchase right off the show room floor and serve double-duty as weekly hauler and weekend racer. This forward-thinking concept was instrumental in the birth of an American icon—the GT350. On the track, the GT350 was a voracious competitor consuming successive victories at the SCCA Championship in 1965, 1966 and 1967 and chewing through a veritable buffet of worldclass competitors that included the likes of Ferrari, Jaguar, Lotus, Mercedes Benz and the ubiquitous Corvette.
Rental-car giant, Hertz bought into this concept and immediately snapped up over a thousand models from the 1966 inventory. The model, dubbed the GT350H fueled Hertz’s highly successful “Rent-a-Racecar” campaign and it was a big hit with customers who fancied themselves a Dan Gurney in the making.
Ford was enjoying previously unimaginable success as Mustang sales seemed to follow the GT350’s meteoric rise on the race scene. Ford dealers simply couldn’t keep enough Mustangs in their inventories to match consumer demand.
In 1968, Shelby produced the GT500KR which many consider to be the ultimate example of the Shelby’s influence on the Ford Mustang. KR stood for “King of the Road,” a name which the vehicle had no problem living up to. In the summer of 1969, Shelby and Ford parted ways with the last Shelby Mustang produced for the 1970 model year. The public would have to wait another 36 years before it saw the release of a new Shelby Mustang.
1982-1992
“Lee (Iacocca), the engineers won’t let me to name the car the GLH.” Lee asked, “What’s it stand for? Goes Like Hell!” Carroll Shelby
For many Shelby traditionalists, the Chrysler/Shelby collaboration of the 1980s would appear to be a less than ideal relationship—long on hype, short on product. But then whenever Carroll Shelby is involved in a venture, expectations are bound to run high.
This negative view is somewhat unfair. Carroll’s prior relationship with Ford was nothing less than stellar and repeating the unique magic of those golden years was unlikely no matter what the situation.
By the 1980s, the automotive scene in the U.S. had changed drastically. Big blocks and massive horsepower had all but departed the scene. Carroll echoed that fact when he said “There is no sense fooling yourselves or the public. The days of those kind of cars is over. What we are honestly trying to do is to build cars that are overall more fun to drive and accelerate adequately.”
In 1982, Carroll struck a deal with Chrysler to produce high-performance vehicles based on the Dodge product line-up. If you measure the Shelby vehicles produced for Dodge during the mid1980s, and compare them to their contemporaries rather than the 1960s vehicles, you will be pleasantly surprised to find that cars like the Dodge Shelby Charger fit the Shelby mold—it was fast, it cornered well and stopped better than most cars on the road at the time. And one could be had for half the price of a similar performance vehicle from another auto maker.
The real gem of the Dodge years is the Viper. Where the Dodge Charger and GLH provided contemporary performance, the Viper was a beast that equaled—and exceeded—the heart-pounding acceleration and pulse-quickening performance of the golden years. Using the Cobra as inspiration, and picking up the styling cues of Peter Brock, the Viper was a classic American sports car in every way.
Car and Driver defined it well when it likened the driving experience to “playing ping-pong with a Louisville Slugger baseball bat.” In May of 1991, Carroll paced the Indy 500 in a Dodge Viper and in December of 1992, he helped to introduce the Viper concept car at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Carroll was heavily involved in the development of the R/T 10 and GTS models and anyone who has driven one can surely feel the Shelby influence
1995-1998
“It’s never been easy to build a sports car with a major manufacturer, I ought to know as I’ve done it several times”. Carroll Shelby
World championships and design achievements aside, Carroll Shelby is also the first person to develop high-performance vehicles for all of Detroit’s Big Three—Ford, Chrysler and GM. When Shelby American moved to the newly-built Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1995, it became the first automobile manufacturer to set up shop in the state of Nevada.
Production immediately began on the new line of 427 S/C Cobras, the CSX4000-series. This single model line-up was later expanded to include the 289 FIA, known as the CSX7000-series, and the 289 Street, also known as the CSX8000-series. Select, special edition Cobras were also added.
In 1999 the Shelby Series 1 debuted. It was the first vehicle Carroll designed from the ground up and he brought all of his racing experience to bear on the specifications of the car’s suspension, steering and brakes. The Series 1 featured many innovative touches like a carbon fiber body and space-age, aluminum honeycomb frame making it possibly the most advanced sports car ever produced.
When it hit the streets, it was the fastest production car in the world with a top speed of 185mph. Due to changing safety and emissions regulations, production of the Series 1, or CSX5000-series as it was officially known, ended with only 249 examples produced. It remains a highly sought-after vehicle to this day.
In 2003, Carroll and company started producing the CSX1000-series, an aluminum body Cobra. That same year, Carroll took the company public and changed the name to Shelby Automobiles as it is known today.
When the 5th Generation Mustang launched, Carroll and Ford renewed their relationship. This resulted in the 2006 Special Edition Shelby GT-H which paid homage to the highly prized 1966 GT350H. Approximately 500 of these vehicles were again purchased by Hertz thus recreating the “Rent-a-Racecar” campaign with a modern spin. Today, Shelby continues to spark passion and excitement in the hearts of enthusiasts with the latest series of Ford Mustang based vehicles.