No, Ford Doesn't Own Shelby American - Here's Who The Company Belongs To

Shelby American represents one of the world's premier firms for making fast cars look and go faster, typically Fords. This association dates all the way back to the 1960s, when Ford first brought Carroll Shelby into the mix to build such hits as the GT350 Mustang and Shelby Cobra, putting Shelby's budding company on the map. This association continues into the present day, with various outstanding automobiles credited to Shelby American such as the GT350R, GT500 Super Snake, and more — many of which aren't just fast, but also among the best-looking Mustangs ever built. However, despite the longstanding partnership, Shelby isn't actually owned by Ford; rather, Shelby American operates more like a tuning firm similar to companies like Roush or Saleen.

The real owners of Shelby American are, in fact, Shelby American — more specifically, it's a wholly-owned subsidiary of Carroll Shelby International, Inc., and has been since 2003. Moreover, it wasn't until that year that Shelby started working with Ford again, originally assisting with the Ford GT project, on which Carroll Shelby himself acted as a technical advisor. The company was officially known at the time as Shelby Automobiles, ultimately changing its name back to "Shelby American" on December 15, 2009. Throughout the 2000s, it acquired a series of assets, including the rights to the Shelby Series 1, and re-established the Shelby Mustang project in the form of the Shelby GT500 in 2007. Shelby American remains under the public holding company of Carroll Shelby International, Inc. today, and as such, the Ford ties are partnership-only. 

Carroll Shelby founded his company in 1962, crafting the original bespoke Cobras beginning with Ford 260 and later 289 V8 engines, thus setting the stage for a long and fruitful partnership.  His original years with Ford really took off in 1965, when Ford contracted Shelby to help build the Mustang from a sports car into a bespoke homologated racing machine — the end result being the 1965 Shelby GT350, a menacingly fast, stripped-out, serious Mustang for serious motorsports. This marked one of the defining vehicles of Shelby's legacy and placed the Mustang on a motorsports pedestal for years to come. These early years proved long and fruitful, bearing such classics as the infamous GT40, a story dramatized in books and films such as "Ford V. Ferrari."

Between the Cobra, Mustang, and GT40, Shelby incorporated various Ford parts and bolstered both his and Ford's reputations on and off the circuit, though he was by no means exclusively tied to Ford. In fact, one of his early racers was a Toyota, namely a 1967 2000GT, which he took circuit racing. Nevertheless, his Mustangs continued dominating Trans-Am motorsports, and his road cars grew louder, boasting big-blocks in the form of the 1967 GT500.

This early partnership lasted until 1970, when Shelby retired from the business of selling automobiles. He returned to Ford, 33 years later in 2003, and continued working with the Mustang and GT programs until his death in 2012. However, that expansive timeline wasn't spent idly — in fact, Shelby found work with other manufacturers, and even went on to assemble his own bespoke automobile using, of all things, a V8 from an Oldsmobile.

Perhaps the most common association with the Shelby name outside of Ford is that of Dodge. Shelby's partnership with Dodge came about through his collaboration with Lee Iacocca, who worked for Chrysler during the 1980s. In 1983, the first Dodge bearing the Shelby name hit the market: the Shelby Charger, boasting a modest turbocharged 2.2L inline-four. However, the true standout came with the release of the GLH (Go Like Hell) and GLHS (Go Like Hell Some More) Omni, an unassuming hot hatch that was arguably one of the greatest non-Ford vehicles that Shelby ever built. Shelby even introduced an SCCA series specifically for such models: the Dodge/Shelby Pro Series. This work continued well into the 1990s, resulting in such mad creations as the Shelby Durango SP360 and Shelby Dakota trucks.

Additionally, Carroll Shelby also toiled to build his own completely unique automobile, which later became known as the Shelby Series 1. This car actually used a supercharged variant of the Oldsmobile Aurora V8, among many other GM parts. In fact, the Series 1 was somewhat of a parts bin, including a Corvette's windshield, various marques' interior appointments, and more. However, it featured a bespoke chassis and bodywork, being marketed as a modern reinterpretation of the classic Shelby Cobra. The Series 1 debuted to commercial failure owing to various factors, such as an overworked team, constant updates to modernize equipment, and so on. A few years after its launch in 1999, however, Shelby found himself back under Ford's wing, helping to fuel the GT program. It's a position which Shelby American has retained ever since, with rumors of a return on the horizon following the latest Shelby Mustang's production run's conclusion in 2022.