Remembering the Shelby years - 1962-1969

By Dave Friedman ISBN 0-966 7798-94

Available from Chaters Motoring Booksellers (0181 568 9750), £69.95 (signed by the author and Carroll Shelby), £49.99 unsigned.

If John Cooper and the late Colin Chapman were pre-eminent race car builders of their generation in Europe, then Carroll Shelby must stand head and shoulders above his peers from across the pond when it comes to American sportscars. The man who made his name by shoe-homing hulking great V8 engines into any chassis he could lay his hands on, was also responsible for bringing many of the 1960s greatest racers to the fore by allowing them to drive his machinery.

In this book, which Shelby describes as a way of giving “credit to all those people who haven’t gotten the recognition they deserve for what they did at Shelby”, author Friedman interviews 81 of those people. The result is an evocative and entertaining history of the team that shook up sportscar racing in the ’60s and brought the Cobra on to the race tracks.

Friedman covers the entire range of Shelby personnel from big name drivers such as Chris Amon, Bob Bondurant, Pamelli Jones and Dan Gurney, to the project engineer Fred Goodell down to the mechanics who burned the midnight oil. A hardback that also comes with sturdy slipcase, it features attractive black and white photography from the era. For real Shelby fans a signed copy is also available.