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Carroll Shelby

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Auto Racer

The Resume

    (January 11, 1923-May 10, 2012)
    Born in Leesburg, Texas
    Auto designer and racer
    Won the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1959)
    Founded Shelby American to market high performance parts and cars (1962)
    Designed the Shelby Cobra for Ford and the Dodge Viper
    Inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1991)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was married seven times.
    He wore bib overalls as his racing uniform.
    He claimed the name 'Cobra' came to him in a dream.
    He repainted the first Cobra a different color for each magazine story about it to create the illusion that many cars had already been produced.
    When FIA required manufacturers to build at least 100 cars before entering models into Formula One races, he skipped over blocks of Vehicle Identification Numbers to make it look like he had produced enough cars.
    He unsuccessfully marketed 'Carroll Shelby's Pit Stop: A Real Man's Deodorant.' (1967)

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was a test pilot and flight instructor during WWII.
    He twice was Sports Illustrated's driver of the year (1956-57).
    He was a founding member of the International Chili Society (1976) and sold a popular chili fixings kit.
    After undergoing a heart transplant, he founded the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation to pay for transplants for children whose families could not afford the operations (1991).
    Motor Trend named the Shelby Cobra CSX2000 the most significant car of the last half of the 20th century.
    Jay Leno said, 'Carroll is sort of like the car world's Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays.... American cars were big, clunky things until Carroll used his ingenuity to make them compete with European cars.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 8 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 14 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 18 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 14 Votes: 21.43% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 34 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 20 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 167 Votes: 60.48% Annoying