8 Underappreciated Shelby Cars That Are Still Tons Of Fun – SlashGear

The only Shelby ever designed from scratch by the man himself is also one of his least well-remembered cars. The Series I was the realization of a lifelong ambition to design and build a car starting with a completely blank slate, but production issues and internal fighting at Shelby’s suppliers saw the project stall. It didn’t help that Carroll Shelby promised more than he could deliver, initially claiming the car would have an Oldsmobile IndyCar racing V8 under the hood. After failing to get the engine to meet legal requirements, he had to settle for the related V8 from the Aurora family sedan instead.

Even so, the finished product was still very potent, with at least 320 horsepower on offer in naturally-aspirated cars, and 450 horses in turbo versions (some sources claim that certain examples of the car made up to 600 horsepower). The design was, as promised, all-new, although spiraling development costs meant that the car’s price tag shot up to nearly double what Shelby had initially targeted. GM supplied most of the interior parts, making the car look cheaper inside than its Ferrari-rivaling price would suggest, and to make matters worse, Shelby’s small factory massively overran its planned schedule, in some cases finishing cars two years after they were ordered. The Series I might be a supercar designed by one of the most famous faces in the industry, but the many missteps during production mean it’s largely forgotten today.