Whether he was tinkering under the hood of a car or over a pot of chili, Carroll Shelby's bold creativity and passion for performance always left people wanting more.
Start Fast
Carroll Shelby was born in 1923 in Leesburg, Texas, a teeny little town just east of Dallas. In 1940, he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, supporting the Allied cause during World War II as a flight instructor and test pilot. After all that high-flying, Shelby also tried his hand at dump-trucking, roughnecking and chicken farming before finally saying, "To hell with this, I'm gonna do what I love." And that was hot-rodding.
Motor On
Jumping headlong into the motorsports game, this cool-headed, fast-talking Texan would win four races in borrowed cars before being scooped up by the Aston Martin team to race throughout the U.S. and Europe. Always the showman, Shelby's spirited candor, denim work overalls and black Stetson cowboy hat soon became his signature. He was twice named Sports Illustrated's Driver of the Year, and his worldwide victories ranged from Torrey Pines to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with innumerable accolades scattered between.
Muscle In
When Shelby retired from the racing game he quick-shifted from driving to designing and made even more history. By stuffing Ford's big ol' V8 engine into a lightweight English roadster, he began a famous lineage of Shelby muscle cars. After cooking up the Cobra, he was commissioned to tinker with another famed sports car: the Ford Mustang. Still revered and collected today, Shelby's special-edition Mustangs remain as legendary as his taste.
Change the Chili Game
Back in his home state in 1967, Shelby organized the first-ever chili cook-off in the mining ghost town of Terlingua, transforming it into sacred Texas ground. What began as a non-stop party of fire-breathing chiliheads morphed into an annual, world-famous championship. So Shelby and fellow judge C.V. Wood founded the International Chili Society (ICS).
But while everybody was fussin' and wranglin' over who claimed the best chili recipe, Shelby knew the simple truth: it really only matters to the person who's eating it. Ever the entrepreneur, he began giving away his own chili fixin's, handing the stuff out in brown paper bags he designed over a friend's kitchen table — and it grew so popular that by the sixth ICS cook-off, "Carroll Shelby's Original Texas Chili Kit" was on the market.
Make it one way one time, another time, a little different.
Make it up to suit your mood.
Blaze the Taco Trail
Shelby approached his cars and his cooking the same way: by starting with a base, tweaking it to his taste, and taking off in whichever direction suited him best. That do-it-your-way spirit inspired the creation of Carroll Shelby's Ancho & Jalapeño Taco Seasoning and Birria Taco Seasoning.
Carroll Shelby makes it authentic. You make it original.