SHELBY MUSTANG Racer for the Street

When Ford wanted to add some spice to its new Mustang pony car in the mid-1960s, it turned to the talented, colorful, and opinionated Texan Carroll Shelby, who was then building the high-performance, Ford-powered Cobra racing sports car . The result: the Shelby Mustang GT350, perhaps the definitive performance Mustang of the muscle car era.

Ford released its newest Mustang in 2005, the first truly all-new Mustang since 1979, returning the model to the spotlight. The most-talked-about versions of the new Mustang have been those with the Shelby name. Shelby himself was directly involved in defining what is the most powerful factory-produced Mustang ever. This up-to-the-minute history from award-winning authors Randy Leffingwell and David Newhardt traces the Shelby Mustang story from the early Shelby American cars built in a converted airplane hangar in Southern California to the 2010 version of the new Shelby Mustang.

Randy Leffingwell wrote his first book, American Muscle, in 1989 while still on staff at the Los Angeles Times. Since then, he has authored another 47 titles for Motorbooks and its sister publisher Voyageur Press covering subjects from sports cars to motorcycles to farm tractors. Leffingwell is considered one of the top Porsche historians working today, and he enjoys a close working relationship with Porsche AG. His Porsche titles include Porsche 911 50 Years, The Complete Book of Porsche 911, and Porsche Turbo. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.