The Shelby story actually goes back to the days of the Cobra. Carroll Shelby was building a race car and searching for an engine; Lee Iacocca was working for Ford and was the individual to whom Carroll pitched his idea. The deal became reality, the car became a success on racetracks around the world, and the two men became lifelong friends.

Fast forward to the early 80s. Iacocca is now running the show at the Chrysler Corporation. Iacocca has just brought Chrysler back from the brink of total collapse; things are starting to look positive for the first time in years. He knows that Dodge, Chrysler's 'sporty' division, has no sporty image at this time; changing this could be good for CC's image in general and for its business in particular. So he decides to give his old friend Carroll a call. Shelby agrees to help him out.

In order of production, here are the Dodge-based cars he created:

At this point, Carroll opened his own shop. Rather than continuing to produce Shelby-inspired Dodges, he began to build actual Shelbys - cars he purchased from Dodge, modified, then sold himself through select Dodge dealers. These vehicles typically came optioned one way only - Shelby's way - thus any one should be identical to the others (exceptions will be noted). Each model was a one-year run; each car received a dash plaque engraved with Shelby's signature and bearing its Shelby production number.
People have asked me for information on a few other cars, ones which Shelby was NOT directly involved with. Still, these vehicles also carry the FWD Dodge performance torch, so I have decided to make pages on them as well.

For more Shelby Dodge information, check out Dempsey's home page.

NOTE: all performance numbers quoted herein come from articles found in Car and Driver magazine. In order to make car-to-car comparisons as accurate as possible, I used their testing exclusively as my source. All production numbers come from various literature produced directly by Chrysler Corporation or else by Shelby Automobiles. If you have any questions or comments, please email me.