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Preserving the Shelby Legacy (Aaron Shelby) · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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  Break Fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all
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  over the autos sphere, from wrench, turners, and racers to artists, authors,
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  designers, and everything in between.
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  Our goal is to inspire a new generation of Petrolhead that wonder.
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  How did they get that job or become that person?
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  The Road to Success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
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  Today on Break Fixx, we're honored to welcome Aaron Shelby, grandson
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  of the legendary Carroll Shelby.
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  And while his grandfather forever changed the automotive and
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  racing world with iconic machines like the Cobra and the GT 40.
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  Aaron has carved out his own path and is a steward of that legacy,
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  serving on the board of Carroll Shelby International, and leading efforts to
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  preserve and expand the Shelby name.
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  Aaron Blends business acumen with a deep passion for motorsports
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  and automotive culture.
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  In this conversation, we'll dive into what it means to carry on one of the most
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  recognizable names in racing history, how Aaron connects the past to the present and
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  the exciting ways he's keeping the Shelby spirit alive for future generations.
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  That's right, and joining me tonight is returning guest.
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  Max Kaiserman, who you might remember from our Luna Replicas episode.
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  So welcome back, max.
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  I see you.
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  And with that, let's welcome Aaron to break fix.
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  Hey guys, happy to be here today.
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  Normally we would start out an episode, tell us your superhero origin story, but
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  you are the descendant of a superhero.
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  So let's talk about growing up as the grandson of Carol Shelby.
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  What are some of your earliest memories of your grandfather and the Shelby
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  name and the impact that it had on you?
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  The impact that you saw in car culture?
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  Sure.
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  You know, I was born in 1971, so my first decade roughly,
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  Carol wasn't in the car world.
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  We split some time.
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  I was born in Dallas, we lived in LA for a bit.
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  He and my father were partners in a company called Carol Shelby Wheels,
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  a manufactured aluminum wheels in the garden area of Los Angeles.
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  And so I would go up to the office every now and then as a little
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  kid, and he would be up there sometimes, but it was just grandpa.
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  I've got a brother that's two years younger and we'd hang
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  out with him a little bit.
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  He lived in Marina del Rey in a high rise apartment that had a pool.
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  I remember, you know, a number of times my mom taking us over there to go swim in
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  the pool and hang out with him for lunch.
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  And you know, a lot of ways, very typical.
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  We spent a ton of time with him in his farm in East Texas.
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  That was where he was from originally.
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  That's where he always liked to go and recharge.
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  And so we do a lot of.
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  Family weekends out there when he was in town and he was just Carol,
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  there was no car business out there.
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  He never brought up car business.
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  He didn't talk about it at all unless you really poked on him with it.
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  Most everybody that saw him in East Texas was somebody he knew from high
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  school or family, friends or cousins, and they didn't talk about it.
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  They were just, Hey, remember this time in 1940 when we did this
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  and you know, we hung out and did this after school or whatever.
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  It was just very typical from that perspective.
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  Until my teenage years, almost like you were talking to a veteran of like
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  a foreign war or something like that.
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  It's like, we won't talk about it unless you ask me about it.
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  Right.
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  That's exactly right.
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  And one funny thing from him from that time period, you know, it, it
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  changed as technology changed, but the man lived on the telephone.
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  And he had this phone book that was like a Bible.
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  It was huge.
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  You know, assistant would type it all up and he had
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  everybody's phone number in there.
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  And when he'd get a little bored, he'd just sit there and dial people's numbers
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  up and talk and see what was going on.
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  And sometimes it was business related, sometimes just
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  catching up with friends, but.
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  Every now and then he'd start yelling at somebody on the phone.
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  And that was, you know, later in life that was, seemed to be his way
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  to, uh, lead in or manage people.
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  As the louder I yell, the more it's gonna happen.
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  And he'd always kind of do it with a smile on his face.
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  I mean, it wasn't, I don't think out of anger necessarily ever, but it
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  was just, that was his methodology on getting his point across loud.
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  Texans.
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  Yes, exactly.
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  Speaking of last year, we had the privilege of having Leanne Patterson
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  on, who was actually one of Carol's PR folks, especially during the Dodge years.
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  Yes.
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  And she made it sound like every time you went to the ranch, quote
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  unquote, there was always a pot of chili ready, and it was Carol's secret
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  sauce, and it was very down to earth.
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  Is that exactly, I mean, does it play out like that?
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  That was pretty much it.
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  You know, Carol was, um, an experimenter in the kitchen, let's say.
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  He, he did know how to cook things and some things he cooked were really good.
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  Could he do it again the next day?
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  Probably not because he didn't pay much attention to what he
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  was doing or how he did it.
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  But yeah, there was definitely some surprise pots of
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  things every now and then.
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  And then there was some really good stuff that he cooked.
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  You know, he had friends that raised cattle out there and he'd
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  go buy fresh steaks and have a big freezer full of those.
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  And it was like, oh, just go grab a few steaks outta the freezer.
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  We'll do those tomorrow night for dinner.
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  And at a bit of it, I'll actually take back to his childhood and
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  growing up in the depression era where his family did not have a lot.
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  His ability to then make his own stuff and gather what he wanted from a food
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  perspective, I think always played to him.
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  And then later in life, you know, after his heart transplant particularly,
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  he lost a lot of his sense of taste.
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  And so things that to him tasted good, were always a
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  little strong to everybody else.
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  Whether it was too salty or too hot or whatever.
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  He was just trying to elicit some kind of taste outta it.
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  It was definitely interesting and I had some, some good things and
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  some interesting things out there.
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  You know, the slogan for the, uh, Carol Shelby Chili is
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  Fix it the way you like it.
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  There's like a pound of hot powder in there you could add to it.
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  That's exactly right.
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  And that's what he wanted you to do.
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  I mean, he knew everybody was different.
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  He wanted you to be able to customize that.
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  And you talk about the chili, that was one of his just kind of whims of
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  he caught lightning in a bottle there and just, it really worked for him.
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  Still made today.
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  It is, you know, coming from this family and, and with Carol's legacy,
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  what, what is your background?
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  What did you find yourself at throughout life?
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  So I'm a numbers guy.
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  I'm not necessarily an idea guy, although I have a few of them,
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  but nothing like Carol did.
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  And then when my father started racing cars when I was eight, formula
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  Ford's initially at like Riverside and Willow Springs and places like that.
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  And your father was Michael, right?
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  Patrick.
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  Patrick.
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  Oh, so he was the youngest son.
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  He's the youngest of the three?
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  Correct.
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  And you're the older of your I'm the oldest of the grandkids.
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  I'm the oldest of my brothers, but I'm the oldest of the six grandkids as well.
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  Cool.
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  You start to get.
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  A little more of that Shelby history.
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  And then right on the heels of that, Carol joined Chrysler, the Dodge
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  Years as I call him for the 1980s.
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  All of a sudden, he's on magazine covers again, and all the stories are talking
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  about the Shelby history from the sixties and where's Carol been for the last
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  10 years, and which is a whole nother.
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  Story we'll get into, and there he is in the car world again.
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  And so I gotta go to some pretty neat races.
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  When I was a kid, I went to the Las Vegas Grand Prix in 1982 I think it was.
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  He was a Grand Marshall, so my mom and I flew over and met him there,
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  and that's when I met Mario Andretti.
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  And so there's certain things like that that popped up, but it really wasn't until
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  later, probably my teenage years that.
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  I began to understand more the scope of his history, what he and the
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  team at Shelby American created and where he was going in with his life.
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  What was your first car?
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  Let's see, probably a year old, maybe a year and a half old.
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  Acura Integra.
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  There was a base model with a five speed, and I loved it.
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  It was great.
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  It was a good first car.
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  I really wanted one of the Dodge Shelby cars.
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  Probably pestered Carol for a year and wanted like the Shelby Lancer,
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  the Daytona or whatever at the time, and he said, absolutely not.
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  You need something that you can learn on and then maybe you
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  can get one of these later on.
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  My mom went out and bought this Acura for me and gave it to me when I turned 16.
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  It was awesome.
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  I loved it and had a couple of Acura after that and enjoyed 'em all.
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  When I got outta school, I was a finance major.
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  I went into banking and my grandmother and her side of the family, so
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  Carol's first wife, they're, I could say prototypical Texans.
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  They were an oil and gas and real estate and banking and all those things.
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  When dad sold the wheel company in the late eighties, he bought into a small bank
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  in the Dallas market that my grandmother had ownership in and became chairman.
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  And so I didn't start there initially, but wound my way up there in 2003.
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  And have been in that bank for, you know, 22 years now, almost 23 years.
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  So that's where I'm comfortable, you know, do a lot of lender finance.
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  We've sold the bank a couple of times now, so we don't, family-wise,
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  we don't have much ownership there, but that's my daily job run.
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  Dallas-Fort Worth for this bank, in addition to our single family
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  mortgage group, was really opportune for me on the side 10 plus years ago,
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  almost 12 years ago now, to be able to jump into the Shelby world, it's
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  something I always had a passion about.
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  But it was Carol, you know, there wasn't a succession plan in his
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  mind on I want this family member to be involved or that family member.
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  My dad, like I said, was in racing.
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  He's always been passionate about the cars.
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  My uncles liked it as well, but neither of them were wanting to step
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  into that role, and so they asked me to come in and, and take a shot at
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  it, and I've enjoyed it immensely.
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  So I think bringing that finance background that I have.
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  Whether you're talking about the foundation side of things and what
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  we do or the business side of things, I do help Gary quite a bit when it
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  comes to budgeting and kind of talking through numbers, and so I enjoy that.
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  That's what I bring to the table and just, I also look at what
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  Carol did for so many years and he just made people feel comfortable.
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  You know, he made him feel like family and he made him feel like it's just another
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  guy you're sitting down and talking to.
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  And so I spend a lot of time with that as well.
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  In today's enthusiast world, we have the Texas Concourses Dallas area,
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  and we had a little panel and a couple of guys have known Carol for.
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  35, 40 years, and they both said the same thing.
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  He's like, he was just somebody you could sit down next to and have a three hour
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  conversation about fishing in the Gulf of Mexico and you never talk about cars.
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  But he knew about it.
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  You know, he just could talk about anything.
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  And he made it about you.
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  He made it about what your interests were, not what he was interested in.
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  He would throw his knowledge in, of course, with different
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  questions, but that's really kind of where I saw he was successful
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  and what's helped that brand grow.
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  And so that's, you know, where my background is and where I
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  try and carry us forward today.
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  How have you seen the evolution of his legacy and how you've
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  interacted with the legacy as you've become more involved with it?
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  One of the best things that he wound up doing in life was joining back with Ford
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  Motor Company in 2003, four timeframe.
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  Obviously the next new Shelby didn't come out till oh six, but that first
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  couple years and just putting him back in that fold and with that team at Ford
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  at that point in time, Edsel being a prime driver behind all that happening.
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  Really reenergized him.
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  You think about that he was getting, you know, late sixties, early
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  seventies, really, probably early seventies at that point in time.
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  The end of the nineties was a struggle for him financially and business wise.
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  He was, I wouldn't say lost.
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  There was plenty going on in his life, but there wasn't a
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  lot of constant in his life and.
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  That joining back together with Ford and what that created for the last 10 years
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  of his life was really critical to not just his personal wellbeing, but the
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  brand today being what it represents.
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  Had he not done that, I think we would be looking at a much different
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  Shelby brand today than we are.
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  I don't wanna discount the Chrysler years though, because.
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  As we know, Carol went to Chrysler because of Lee Iacocca, who was with him at Ford.
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  And there's all that partnership and friendship there.
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  But the Viper and the Viper coup, which are basically the next
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  generation Cobra and then Daytona coup are in their own right classics.
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  I mean, they're amazing vehicles.
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  I I don't wanna shortchange them in any way.
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  So is there anything happening between Shelby and Chrysler
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  in the foreseeable future?
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  Not at this point in time.
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  You, you never say never on anything.
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  Those were important years.
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  I look at him as important 'cause it was my teenage years.
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  So that's kind of when I saw Carroll get in the car business and he and
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  his team did a lot with a little, he first got over to Chrysler.
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  I think the comment was, you can go to our parts bin, but we don't have a whole lot.
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  We have no money to give you to do anything.
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  Just see what you can put together here.
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  And I think for a 10 plus year partnership, they did a really good job.
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  Putting out some fun cars.
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  Carol was always really proud of the work was done with Chrysler
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  and the vehicles that came out.
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  Given, again, kind of the budgetary constraints, the engine technology
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  at the time, and doing those little turbo four cylinders.
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  He had a lot of fun with that.
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  Obviously culminating into Viper, which was how do you hit it outta the park?
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  More than that, as a. Final feature before you leave.
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  So really neat.
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  We have a 92 Dodge Viper in our family collection.
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  I think it's a really important piece of Shelby history that he was
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  involved in that project, and I've been fortunate to be able to meet a
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  lot of the team members that worked with him on that through the years.
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  And it's a scary car.
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  Kinda like the four 20 seven's a scary car, but it's a important
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  piece of Shelby history and in that important piece of Dodge and
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  Chrysler and Shelby history as well.
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  So since we're still waxing poetic about the Shelby legacy and a lot of the
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  really cool cars that people identify with, like the GT 40 and the three.
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  50 and all those.
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  There's a couple unsung heroes in this list, and I'm not talking about the Omni
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  GLHS or the Daytona or any of those cars.
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  What I'm referring to specifically is sort of that middle period there.
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  And you alluded to it earlier, Aaron, where Carol was experimenting, he
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  was still trying to be in the car world and there were some offshoots.
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  You had the series one, the series two, and then the V 10 Cobra concept in 2004,
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  which is not too far off of the copperhead concept that Chrysler had put together.
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  So I wanna show a little love.
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  For those cars.
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  For the people out there that really like those and hope that they had gone
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  into mass production, how are they reflected in the celebration of Shelby?
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  The series one particularly, is an important vehicle.
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  I'll be real upfront.
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  It's my least favorite Shelby because I know the history of it and kind of
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  the about bankrupted him, and I just knew a lot of the behind the scenes.
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  But from a engineering perspective and a company perspective,
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  it's really important.
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  It's actually the only ground up Shelby ever made as far as.
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  Chassis created from nothing and just truly ground up.
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  So there is that important part of Shelby history in that vehicle.
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  We have one in our collection.
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  You know, there was only 249 that got produced ultimately, uh, they were
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  shooting for 500 and they just didn't have the money, nor the desire, I think,
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  in the public to buy 'em at that point.
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  But I tell you, if I take that thing to a cars in coffee today, it turns heads.
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  'cause nobody ever sees one.
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  And so I think from that perspective, they know it's a Shelby.
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  It, it's not like some of our modern cars that have Shelby all over it.
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  It has series one badging and you see Shelby on there one
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  or two places and that's it.
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  So you gotta know what it is and we get a lot of, particularly with the
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  kids that don't have any idea what it is, they get fascinated with it.
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  You know, another interesting one, if you go back to the, the sixties
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  timeframe is the Sunbeam tiger.
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  And a lot of people don't know what Carol had to do with that one.
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  And it's unfor, I don't fit in those cars, so I don't have one.
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  But, uh, does anybody fit in those?
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  It's a neat little piece of history, you know, getting that 2 89 motor
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  in there and, and really turning that thing into a fun little car.
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  So.
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  You look at that stuff, and it was Ford's project, but the Shelby GR one, which was
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  kind of an updated Daytona coup prototype car, if you want, came out around oh four.
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  So that car still looks fantastic today.
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  It's amazing how many people ask, well, why don't you just license that?
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  Start doing that on your own from Ford.
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  I'll be honest, super performance looked at it a while back.
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  It's just kind of too difficult, unfortunately in today's world
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  to do something like that, but that design is really iconic.
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  You mentioned the V 10 Cobra, Chris Theodore that was on that team that
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  did that, he actually bought it a number of years ago, hashed out
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  the motor to make it work again.
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  You know, it was an Unrun prototype.
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  When they got rid of it, they plugged up the motor and all that.
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  Well, he cleaned the whole thing out and got it running again, and
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  he's since sold it at auction.
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  But I just had somebody ping me wanting to know.
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  We wanted to buy it.
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  It's coming back up for sale again.
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  So it's a neat piece of history as well.
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  And I think there's a lot of Shelby prototypes that are littered
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  through there that will continue to gain value through the years.
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  You look at what Craig Jackson has and the Little Red and the Green
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  Hornet mustangs that were prototyped vehicles that tested different parts
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  and just the story around that stuff.
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  It's what continues the legacy to be as strong as it is today.
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  Can we give a little bit of credit to the instinct?
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  Success.
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  That was the GT 500 KR that came out a couple years after his return to Ford.
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  I mean, that was a monster of a Mustang that hit the roads.
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  It really was.
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  And I think between oh seven and 12, that whole run of both Mustangs that
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  Ford put together and Shelby did with Ford's help really just re-energized the
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  Mustang brand, the Ford brand, and Shelby.
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  And what it meant to be a performance car company.
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  Obviously the GT and oh five and oh six was a top-notch vehicle.
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  I don't want to discount that at all, but very limited and not
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  everybody could obtain one of those.
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  When you talk about the every man sports car in the Shelby Mustang, that really
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  was the launchpad for where we are today.
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  Shelby has become.
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  Was even in the sixties in its own time periods, the synonymous
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  with performance and racing and racing accessibility specifically.
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  You go buy a Mustang and drive it to work on a Friday and drive to the track on a
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  Saturday, it became a lot more accessible.
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  And how do you see that spirit carrying forward today?
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  Is racing still accessible?
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  Is the Shelby name still accessible?
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  Yeah, I think we've evolved a little bit.
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  I would love to get us.
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  Personally back into racing.
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  We're not today.
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  Obviously our cars are very performance driven and we encourage everybody to
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  go take 'em to the track and have fun with them, but there's not necessarily
• 16:00
  a team component and certainly not a Shelby team component at the track today.
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  That's something I think, and I'm speculating a bit 'cause I wasn't in
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  the room, but when Ford and Shelby were working on things back in oh
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  seven to 10 to 12, Ford had some racing programs and ultimately when
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  the three 50 came out, they did run that as a GT three car for a bit.
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  I think that was important, but they really have their own racing umbrella,
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  so it's up to us if we wanna do that.
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  And I will say a step we're taking in that direction next year is
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  working with Turnkey Automotive.
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  And what we have is our GT three 50 R model coming out for the
• 16:31
  TransAm Spec series next year.
• 16:32
  It's not gonna be us running it, we're gonna do it as a
• 16:34
  customer car to start with.
• 16:36
  But that's kind of getting our toe back into the official racing waters, but
• 16:39
  it's still available to the public.
• 16:41
  It's something that through SCCA or FIA, people could enter their
• 16:45
  own cars on a weekend or something.
• 16:46
  Exactly, and that's the whole point of this one.
• 16:48
  So what you've got is your production stuff that any of our stuff you could
• 16:51
  take to the track today and have some fun with on a production basis.
• 16:54
  But this is gonna be more track geared under TransAm rules and it'll be
• 16:59
  available to anybody that wants to buy one and go race in that series.
• 17:02
  That's really interesting you bring that up because as of this year, Ford has.
• 17:05
  Campaign, the whole Dark Horse series as part of IMSA and the G, the lower
• 17:10
  GT three support races and things.
• 17:11
  And so are you aiming to compete against the Dark Horse with the
• 17:15
  dark horse as a replacement too?
• 17:17
  How is that gonna play out politically?
• 17:18
  So we talked to Ford about that a little bit.
• 17:20
  We specifically picked the TransAm series because Ford's
• 17:24
  not corporately involved there.
• 17:26
  So it's not a direct competition there.
• 17:28
  There are some of the drivers that race Mustang based cars.
• 17:30
  I won't deny that, but there's no Ford backing.
• 17:33
  Ford doesn't have a sponsorship agreement with TransAm, et cetera.
• 17:36
  So that was part of our choice.
• 17:38
  In addition to Turnkey, who's helping us build those cars out of Michigan right now
• 17:42
  has a long history with the TransAm series and is well respected for creating some
• 17:45
  of their race cars, whether Camaro based or otherwise, over the last 10 years.
• 17:49
  And so they've helped us kind of navigate those political waters with TransAm and.
• 17:53
  That we thought was a good entry point for us so that we're not
• 17:56
  in direct conflict with Ford.
• 17:58
  So I'll add to this, 'cause normally I ask this next question to our pro drivers
• 18:02
  about how they feel about something called BOP or balance of performance.
• 18:06
  Mm-hmm.
• 18:07
  So let's just say a Shelby car comes to the forefront and is gonna run against.
• 18:11
  The rest of the makes in, let's say, GT three and IMSA or in WEC
• 18:15
  or at LAMA or something like that.
• 18:16
  How do you feel, let's say, if you were the team principal about the
• 18:20
  balance of performance, do you think it would be in Shelby's favor or
• 18:23
  against, I've watched this a lot in the last, well, I'll say last 10 years.
• 18:27
  I mean, when I started going in 16, when Ford went back with the GT and, and
• 18:30
  whether MSO or, or the a CO or, or wc.
• 18:33
  I don't know that there's a secret sauce to balance the performance.
• 18:36
  I think it's a trial by error.
• 18:38
  And as soon as somebody other than Ferrari, I'll say, gets out in front too
• 18:42
  far, they like to just reel 'em back in.
• 18:44
  Whether it's dialing back horsepower or putting more weight on you or doing
• 18:47
  something and it, it doesn't seem to have a lot of rhyme or reason to it.
• 18:50
  And you talk to some of the team owners, doesn't matter to the make, and they get
• 18:53
  a little frustrated with how it works 'cause they feel like they're all being
• 18:56
  anchored back somehow from performance.
• 18:58
  So from a Shelby perspective, I like to think we'd be a little innovative
• 19:01
  and get out there with something that would blow everybody away.
• 19:03
  The first couple races.
• 19:04
  Then we'd have to get dialed back.
• 19:06
  That's looking at our history and looking at, I think, where
• 19:08
  we would evolve into things.
• 19:09
  I'm glad you you phrased it that way because I think at the heart of
• 19:12
  that is the ingenuity that American ingenuity that was brought to the
• 19:16
  forefront with the Shelby brand.
• 19:18
  Something that I think a lot of us still continue to hang our hats on
• 19:21
  is it's that roll up your sleeves to tenacity of, you know, never given
• 19:25
  up and wanting to win, and all the crazy stories that come out of that.
• 19:28
  Over the years, the Shelby cars obviously have embodied that.
• 19:31
  How do you ensure that that DNA.
• 19:34
  That idea that ethos remains intact with current and future projects at Shelby.
• 19:39
  So for me, I'll say I've got the easy role in this right now.
• 19:42
  The hard part of that falls on the team at Shelby American in Las Vegas,
• 19:45
  Gary Patterson, our CEO and President, and Vince La Violette, who's our chief
• 19:49
  engineer and development officer there.
• 19:51
  They both spent a lot of time working directly with Carol.
• 19:54
  These aren't new hats to this.
• 19:56
  You guys may have probably met both of them through the years.
• 19:58
  They know Carol, they know what he wanted.
• 20:01
  And they carry that DNA into the company today for any new associates, employees
• 20:05
  that come in and trying to train up what we're doing, whether it's working with
• 20:09
  our supplier partners and describing what we're trying to accomplish with
• 20:12
  the vehicle or directly with the folks on the shop floor and just describing
• 20:16
  what the Shelby ethos looks like.
• 20:18
  They have that burden more than I do, I think.
• 20:20
  'cause I'm not there on a daily basis.
• 20:22
  You know, I act as a brand ambassador and I get to Vegas
• 20:24
  probably three or four times a year.
• 20:26
  But I meet with Gary probably every two weeks via phone call or
• 20:29
  something, so I know what's going on.
• 20:31
  But they're the ones that carry the mantle on innovation and efficiency
• 20:36
  and how do we push the envelope?
• 20:37
  On something that maybe Ford couldn't do because of, you know, they're a
• 20:41
  big political company and there are just certain things they can't do,
• 20:43
  and we're gonna sell a hundred of something where they need to sell 5,000
• 20:46
  of something to make it make sense.
• 20:47
  I don't view it as pressure for me, I think it's a live thing and it's
• 20:50
  a live piece of Shelby DNA that we just try and instill through.
• 20:54
  The various Shelby channels that we touch people with today.
• 20:57
  And I can say from the vintage perspective that I'm, I'm sort of part of the vintage
• 21:01
  Shelby legacy of the sixties, what we do that's incredibly alive and well.
• 21:05
  That is one of the most collectible cars, vintage GT three 50 or GT 500 Mustang.
• 21:11
  They are still trading in the.
• 21:12
  Quarter million dollar range for a, a nice example.
• 21:15
  And people are very proud to have one.
• 21:16
  I have a clone, I have a 66, 3 50.
• 21:19
  Yeah.
• 21:19
  But even the Hertz legacy with Shelby Oh for sure.
• 21:22
  Has been renewed in just the last few years.
• 21:24
  The new GTS and the GT 500 H, you know, are now hitting the public because
• 21:29
  they've come off of the rental circuit.
• 21:31
  It, it means something and that's what is, I think if anything surprises me, it's.
• 21:35
  The enthusiasm around the brand.
• 21:37
  I was just at the Goodwood Revival and while there was nothing Shelby specific
• 21:40
  this time, I just went to go have some fun and visit with some friends.
• 21:43
  You know, there was still a dozen cobras in two different classes that were racing.
• 21:47
  There was two GT three 50 Rs that were racing in a separate race.
• 21:50
  And when you start to talk Shelby and you, if I wear my Shelby pitch shirt
• 21:54
  like you guys have on right now, people come up to you and ask you questions.
• 21:58
  There's something about that brand and that.
• 21:59
  Time period and the vintage cars and what they represent.
• 22:02
  It's just really special and it's not something that can be recreated.
• 22:06
  You've got obviously a huge Porsche community in Corvette community and
• 22:09
  Ferrari community, but they're different.
• 22:11
  One thing I hear repeatedly is how the Shelby community is like family.
• 22:15
  And it's a small community based on comparing to some of those others.
• 22:19
  But it's a strong community and it is really all pulling in the same
• 22:23
  direction all the time, which I find interesting and, and a bit humbling.
• 22:26
  I think, to me, that's something I didn't expect when I started this 10 years ago.
• 22:30
  Well, the real hot rodders, and I think that's the
• 22:32
  difference is, you know, a PORs.
• 22:34
  You can buy a great Porsche outta the box.
• 22:36
  You can buy some of these other cars right out of the box.
• 22:38
  Uh, a Shelby Mustang, the original Daytona coup was a hot rotted
• 22:42
  and, and aluminum paneled modified British racing car from the fifties.
• 22:47
  I mean, like, and they, and it was winning.
• 22:48
  I mean, it was winning against purpose built cars.
• 22:50
  Yep.
• 22:51
  In the mid sixties, Carol would say it's an old car with buggy springs
• 22:55
  and, and they were getting it to win.
• 22:56
  To me, that's the brotherhood.
• 22:58
  That's somebody that says, we're gonna put our minds together.
• 23:00
  And anybody, the kids sweeping the floor might even have an idea that gets
• 23:04
  us an extra two seconds or something.
• 23:06
  Exactly right.
• 23:06
  Peter Brock and Chuck Cantwell and you know, you name it,
• 23:10
  they're still singing that song.
• 23:11
  Hey man, we were, we were a team.
• 23:13
  This was a real team.
• 23:14
  That's exactly right.
• 23:16
  I was actually with both those guys at the SAC 50 out in Sonoma, you know,
• 23:19
  and Peter's been a great friend to us.
• 23:21
  He's in Las Vegas, so Vince and Gary involve him a lot.
• 23:24
  And what we're doing on the next car, so to speak.
• 23:26
  And they usually get him involved in looking at our design and the renderings.
• 23:30
  They love to have his input and I believe he just turned 89 years old.
• 23:33
  He is super active.
• 23:34
  His mind is still super sharp when it comes to talking aerodynamics and looks
• 23:39
  and what you want to see in today's world.
• 23:41
  And he was 20 when he did this stuff.
• 23:43
  It was crazy.
• 23:44
  He was a kid.
• 23:45
  Yeah.
• 23:45
  And Chuck is the same.
• 23:47
  I mean, what he added in that couple years that he was at Shelby, particularly
• 23:50
  the GT three 50 program, I guarantee you just talking to him today, he
• 23:54
  never envisioned that there would be this much celebration about that car.
• 23:57
  60 years on.
• 23:58
  I mean, obviously he went on to a very successful career with
• 24:00
  Penske and some other things later on, but we're so fortunate
• 24:03
  to be able to have some of those.
• 24:04
  Folks that tie us to the past and tell their stories again, today,
• 24:08
  it's uh, not gonna be many more years when we won't have anybody left.
• 24:10
  Unfortunately, also not for nothing.
• 24:12
  They are the nicest people in the world.
• 24:14
  Peter will sit there and talk to you for an hour.
• 24:16
  Chuck Cantwell.
• 24:17
  He's so quiet.
• 24:18
  Sometimes you gotta lean in.
• 24:19
  But he has the greatest stories, you know, he does.
• 24:22
  And it's just one of the things that I think.
• 24:24
  I certainly missed, I met some of these folks when I was younger around Carol,
• 24:27
  you know, I didn't do a ton of events, but would show up every now and then.
• 24:30
  I gotta meet Phil Hill and Dan Gurney and these guys, and, and I knew who
• 24:33
  they were, whether I was too shy or just didn't know the questions I asked.
• 24:36
  I just kind of sat there and didn't ask enough.
• 24:37
  I mean, I look back on it now, I'm like, well, I should
• 24:39
  ask 'em about this and that.
• 24:40
  I, I just didn't, it wasn't top of mind.
• 24:43
  You know, these folks won't be around forever, and I think that's one of
• 24:45
  the neat things about all the vintage events today, whether it's Goodwood
• 24:49
  or Sac, or Pebble Beach, whatever it is, they bring these guys together
• 24:53
  to tell their stories, to get their stories out to a wider audience.
• 24:56
  So Aaron, you mentioned the Texas Concor this year at Pebble Beach.
• 25:00
  Shelby was the featured mark at the Concord to Elegance.
• 25:03
  Were you able to go out and participate and get involved in that?
• 25:07
  The team says Shelby kind of took over the peninsula on the weekend.
• 25:10
  I mean, we had an awesome weekend, not just.
• 25:12
  We had a team, Shelby group of enthusiasts, about 40 people out there.
• 25:15
  But you know, at the track, obviously there's always cobras
• 25:17
  and mustangs, but at the quail on Friday there was a GT three 50 class.
• 25:21
  We took our 65 R model out there for that.
• 25:23
  There was, I think, 12 cars in that class.
• 25:25
  It was great to see all those sitting there.
• 25:27
  In addition to Craig brought little red out for that, and in addition
• 25:30
  to two other prototype 60 sevens that were out there by their owners.
• 25:33
  So really some neat recognition.
• 25:36
  Come into Sunday and you've got six cobras on the lawn at Pebble Beach.
• 25:39
  It was awesome that, you know, that kind of 65, 66 bumps up into the end
• 25:42
  of what they celebrate out there.
• 25:44
  So we were really fortunate to be able to have the cobras out there.
• 25:48
  Thursday, Gary Patterson and I were on a panel at Pebble Beach
• 25:51
  talking about Shelby history and, and what it means to be out there.
• 25:54
  I was fortunate then to be able to give out the awards to the class
• 25:57
  winners in the Cobra class as well.
• 25:59
  A lot of Shelby recognition.
• 26:01
  Really appreciate the team at Pebble Beach for helping put that on this
• 26:04
  year, and it was a special time for sure to celebrate the 60 years.
• 26:07
  Are there any historic races or current races that are still going,
• 26:11
  that are moments in Shelby racing that particularly resonate with you?
• 26:15
  For me, I mean, it's.
• 26:16
  The granddaddy of them all, so to speak, is the Lamont 24 hours.
• 26:20
  You know, Carol still is the only person to have won that as a driver,
• 26:22
  a manufacturer, and a team owner.
• 26:24
  I don't think that'll ever happen again.
• 26:25
  I just in, in today's environment, how much it costs to go do that.
• 26:29
  I just don't think it, it will.
• 26:30
  So it's a special place I try and go.
• 26:33
  Most years I was actually at Lamont in Lamont Classic this
• 26:35
  year, which was a lot of fun.
• 26:37
  The neat thing and we talk about the enthusiasts and the market that follows
• 26:41
  Shelby today, the French and the folks around Lama really appreciate the Shelby
• 26:45
  history there, winning it with Aston Martin in 59, and then the Daytona
• 26:48
  Coop winning its class in 64, and then obviously ultimately with the GTE forties
• 26:53
  under the Shelby umbrella in 66 and 67.
• 26:56
  So there's a lot of history and they appreciate that.
• 26:58
  Texan outlook, if you will, and just what he came over and did more or less on a,
• 27:03
  I wouldn't call it a shoestring budget with the gts, but it was a struggle to
• 27:06
  get there with the Daytona coops, and nobody expected anything outta that team.
• 27:10
  And this little ragtag bunch of Southern California guys
• 27:12
  came over and beat Ferrari.
• 27:13
  It was, it was enormous at the time.
• 27:15
  And that still plays well over there.
• 27:16
  Well, I'd like to jump ahead real quick and talk about that for a second.
• 27:19
  The legacy of the hot Rodder, the chicken farmer that was beating Ferrari.
• 27:24
  Yeah.
• 27:24
  What do you see how that applies today?
• 27:26
  How do you, how do you get someone engaged in, Hey, you can do this
• 27:29
  too, we're not special kind of thing.
• 27:32
  The best way to describe that part of the Carol Shelby Foundation today, one of
• 27:35
  our core pillars is auto tech education, and that is providing scholarship
• 27:40
  dollars for kids either while in high.
• 27:42
  School or usually a local community college to get their full auto tech
• 27:45
  degree and certificates on whatever it is that they need to work on.
• 27:49
  And that's a lot of what I talk about with these classes when I go talk to the kids.
• 27:52
  We've got five different schools around the country that we support with
• 27:55
  scholarship dollars in addition to.
• 27:57
  Several new car dealer associations that sponsor different competitions
• 28:00
  and things that we provide some dollars to, and I talk about the
• 28:04
  opportunities that this can afford them.
• 28:06
  You're not having to pay for four years of your university.
• 28:09
  You're getting usually a pretty inexpensive, if not free education,
• 28:13
  and there is a ready stream of jobs for this group to come out,
• 28:16
  whether it's at a dealership or a mod shop or something like that.
• 28:18
  It can be a stepping stone.
• 28:20
  It's not, I was telling somebody at lunch today.
• 28:22
  You don't qualify, get your certificate and go work on
• 28:25
  brake for the next 50 years.
• 28:26
  I mean, if you want to, you can, but you go work on brake for one or two
• 28:29
  years, then you move on to something else in the dealership and you move
• 28:32
  up and then all of a sudden you're an assistant manager of the shop floor
• 28:35
  or you're a manager of the shop floor and you're making $250,000 a year.
• 28:39
  We try and promote that side of it.
• 28:41
  There's a different component to it where we have some internships
• 28:44
  that have come through Vegas.
• 28:45
  We don't currently have any relationships.
• 28:47
  But in the past we've had some relationships with some NASCAR teams.
• 28:49
  We'd had internships out there.
• 28:51
  I've helped a couple of people get some jobs in the IMSA
• 28:53
  programs through the years.
• 28:55
  There is that path.
• 28:56
  A lot of these kids just need a door to get open for them to get that opportunity.
• 29:00
  Uh, to me it's critical, I think, on how our society infrastructure
• 29:04
  is going to succeed going forward.
• 29:05
  We've gotta have those technical skills.
• 29:07
  You touched on earlier about Carol Shelby Foundation and the
• 29:11
  work you guys do with education.
• 29:14
  Could you talk more about that?
• 29:15
  So Carol actually started the foundation after he had his heart
• 29:18
  transplants actually started up and officially was incorporated in 1996.
• 29:22
  We're coming up on its 30 year anniversary next year, but it was a Shelby Heart Fund.
• 29:26
  Originally, he wanted to help families with children getting heart transplants.
• 29:29
  That's a pretty narrow scope that he realized pretty
• 29:32
  quickly and pretty expensive.
• 29:33
  So he broadened it.
• 29:34
  Through the years and now our focus is auto tech education
• 29:37
  as we discussed earlier.
• 29:39
  And then we also help families with children going through
• 29:41
  transplant care, not just hearts, but any kind of transplant.
• 29:44
  So we work with five different transplant hospitals, pediatric
• 29:47
  transplant hospitals around the country.
• 29:48
  My best friend who I was just the best man at his wedding is a, uh, pediatric
• 29:52
  pediatric anesthesiologist Oh, wow.
• 29:55
  At Johns Hopkins.
• 29:56
  Yeah.
• 29:56
  Guys are linked in to Hopkins at all.
• 29:58
  I can get you connected with them.
• 29:59
  Yeah, that one would be good.
• 30:00
  We use, uh, university of Pit.
• 30:01
  Bird Medical Center up there.
• 30:02
  We have a good relationship with, we've got one in Southern
• 30:05
  California, Loma Linda Children's here in Dallas, one in Kansas City.
• 30:09
  A lot of these introductions start through our team Shelby Group meetings, and
• 30:12
  sometimes it's somebody that they know and we do some local fundraising for them, and
• 30:15
  then we tie that relationship in, so it's.
• 30:17
  It's impressive.
• 30:18
  I'd love to help with that in some way.
• 30:19
  Just Hopkins is huge on the East coast here.
• 30:21
  Of course.
• 30:22
  Major, major, major medical system.
• 30:24
  We also work with Children's Organ Transplant Association
• 30:27
  out of Indianapolis.
• 30:28
  If you are a family in a rural area and your kid needs a
• 30:32
  kidney, a liver, whatever, they literally have a playbook for you.
• 30:35
  This is what you need to think about.
• 30:37
  This is how you need to raise some funds to help yourself.
• 30:39
  You know, it's not everybody that has a. Pediatric transplant
• 30:42
  hospital in their backyard.
• 30:43
  So it's gonna involve a lot of travel and care for other family members
• 30:46
  or pets or travel and time off work.
• 30:49
  And Coda's a great organization.
• 30:51
  We do not have any kind of infrastructure to help with that, but we give money to
• 30:54
  Coda because they've got a staff that really helps families around the country.
• 30:58
  I think last year they helped 300 families through that process.
• 31:01
  So you know, at the end of the day, the Carol Shelby Foundation is where Carol
• 31:05
  wanted his legacy to be remembered most.
• 31:07
  And so having those core pillars of helping families with healthcare needs.
• 31:11
  And the auto tech education is critical for us to continue
• 31:14
  that Shelby legacy and brand.
• 31:16
  See, I thought Max was gonna go in a totally different direction because
• 31:19
  I know his heart aligns with the Ford versus Ferrari movie 'cause some of
• 31:23
  the, the work he's done with that.
• 31:24
  So I'm wondering, going back to the California hot rodder and touching all
• 31:27
  those things you highlighted, let's just dive into that for a second.
• 31:30
  How true.
• 31:32
  Was the movie to some of the stories, you know, or what did they get
• 31:35
  wrong and what did they get right?
• 31:36
  Some of the things that were correct.
• 31:37
  Obviously the overarching story is correct.
• 31:39
  You are cramming five years into two hours, so there's some things
• 31:42
  they gloss over, have to kind of Hollywood eyes to, so to speak.
• 31:45
  But the overall arching story is correct.
• 31:47
  It was this group that was not expected to do much.
• 31:50
  Became successful, got Ford's wallet basically, and after their
• 31:54
  success to go make Ford successful.
• 31:57
  And they did.
• 31:57
  There was a lot of politics involved.
• 31:59
  We've got some commentary in our archives between Shelby executives and Ford and
• 32:04
  Ford executives and Pullman Moody and you know, the Ford executives were playing
• 32:07
  both those teams off of each other.
• 32:09
  That took place for sure, depending on who inside Ford had, what desire.
• 32:13
  I think Matt Damon did a good job of getting Carol's character across.
• 32:16
  I wasn't necessarily a fan when I first heard he was gonna play Carol.
• 32:20
  I liked Matt a lot.
• 32:21
  I just didn't see it.
• 32:22
  But he really did a good job bringing his character to life and I talked
• 32:26
  to him about it at the red carpet.
• 32:27
  I gotta meet him.
• 32:28
  And I said, you know, you play a lot of real life characters.
• 32:30
  If you could look across his movie spectrum.
• 32:32
  How did you get into this role?
• 32:34
  And he said, you know, Aaron, your grandfather was one of the
• 32:36
  easiest because he's got hundreds of hours of interviews on YouTube.
• 32:39
  And I just went and started watching interviews and watching
• 32:41
  interviews and, and it wasn't all from like 2010, it was like 1962.
• 32:46
  And then, you know, 1994 and 1987, there was all kinds of different ages and
• 32:50
  he really picked up a lot of Carol's mannerisms and characteristics that way.
• 32:54
  And I thought he did a really good job of getting that across in the movie.
• 32:57
  Who would your grandfather have wanted to play him?
• 32:59
  Well.
• 33:00
  I'll, I'll give you who I would've picked.
• 33:02
  I would've picked Matthew McConaughey tall, skinny, Texan, just like Carol
• 33:06
  would've, sounded just like Carol.
• 33:07
  I don't think that would've been a stretch at all.
• 33:09
  Was he as calm though?
• 33:10
  You know, McConaughey has this vibe of everything's all right all the time.
• 33:14
  I, I think Carol could play that pretty easy.
• 33:16
  If you talk to the team, particularly back in the sixties, I mean, he was the leader
• 33:20
  and he was the pied piper, so to speak.
• 33:22
  He didn't have to be yelling at everybody to.
• 33:24
  Get 'em to do things.
• 33:25
  They wanted to do it 'cause they wanted to succeed and I think he
• 33:27
  could have done that pretty well.
• 33:28
  So it, it would've been interesting.
• 33:30
  Matt did a good job and I think in general played it in a really good light.
• 33:33
  I will expand just a little bit back to both of your questions.
• 33:35
  So that movie has done more to gather a younger generation of
• 33:40
  Shelby fans than I think anything we could do outta the company today.
• 33:43
  It just really created that genesis story and got people to recognize.
• 33:47
  Even more modern enthusiasts that have become in the Shelby
• 33:50
  world in the last 15 years.
• 33:52
  When he joined back with Ford, a lot of 'em didn't know the origin story, didn't
• 33:55
  really understand that Carroll was a race car driver, and the success that the
• 33:58
  Cobra had and what all happened back then.
• 34:01
  That movie really opened a lot of eyes to the Shelby Ford partnership
• 34:04
  and where that success came from.
• 34:06
  You know, going back to the Ford versus Ferrari movie, outside of the Shelby
• 34:09
  recognition, the best thing it did was bring 10 miles achievements to light.
• 34:12
  'cause so many people did not even know who Ken Miles was.
• 34:15
  And he was so critical to the success.
• 34:17
  And he was a fantastic driver and an engineer.
• 34:19
  I mean, he was a, he was a born engineer.
• 34:21
  Phil Remington.
• 34:22
  Charlie apu.
• 34:23
  I mean these guys that really were critical to this.
• 34:26
  Phil Remington especially, and he designed mm-hmm.
• 34:28
  The whole control arm replacement system.
• 34:30
  Yeah.
• 34:30
  For the UP engine G GT 40.
• 34:32
  These guys made that happen and it's so great that it has a rebirth.
• 34:36
  You know that vintage history has a rebirth and now you
• 34:39
  know, has a modern take on it.
• 34:41
  Yep, that's exactly right.
• 34:42
  Carol saw the rebirth of the electric car.
• 34:44
  You know, it had been a thing in the 10th century.
• 34:46
  Yes, yes.
• 34:47
  What would he say today about the direction of electric vehicles in
• 34:52
  daily use and in racing as well?
• 34:54
  If you look at Carol's history, he was a look forward guy
• 34:57
  and he was a technology guy.
• 34:59
  He loved technology.
• 35:01
  And while a lot of stuff that he tried didn't work, we actually have him on,
• 35:05
  in one of his last interviews in 2011 talking about electrification and that
• 35:08
  he was really excited about what he was reading about electrification for
• 35:11
  cars, but knowing that he wasn't gonna see the optimum performance of that,
• 35:15
  whether you're talking track or just daily use, but knowing it was coming
• 35:19
  from the engineers he was talking to.
• 35:21
  And so I think he would love to see where it sits today.
• 35:23
  Would he base the whole company around it today?
• 35:26
  Probably not.
• 35:26
  Just like we're not today.
• 35:27
  I think at some point.
• 35:28
  If there's a spot for a Shelby Electric vehicle, we've done a couple little
• 35:31
  trial runs on some machs and things, but I don't think the technology nor
• 35:35
  the market is where we need it to be.
• 35:37
  To be a Shelby vehicle today.
• 35:39
  Doesn't mean it won't always be that way.
• 35:40
  At some point we might get there, but I do think Carol would really like it.
• 35:43
  What people don't understand a lot of times is Carol was
• 35:46
  a, he was an entrepreneur.
• 35:48
  And he was an idea guy, and so he tried hundreds if not thousands of
• 35:51
  things through the years that just never worked and he didn't care.
• 35:54
  He just wanted to try 'em out.
• 35:56
  And I think electrification, he would be looking at the battery technology and the
• 35:59
  software and he'd be looking at everything that the tech guys are looking at today
• 36:03
  and say, how do you make this better?
• 36:04
  I mean, it's one thing to get in a Tesla and go, you know, zero to 60 in
• 36:07
  two seconds, but how do you get that thing to last for 20 laps in a race?
• 36:10
  You can't, doesn't mean it won't always be there.
• 36:12
  It'll get there at some point in time.
• 36:13
  It'd be a killer drag race though.
• 36:14
  Oh yeah, for sure.
• 36:15
  Instant torque.
• 36:16
  You know?
• 36:16
  I can only imagine.
• 36:17
  Yeah, he would love that.
• 36:18
  Yeah.
• 36:18
  Carol would've loved instant torque.
• 36:20
  I mean, it really was What, where the rubber hits the road literally.
• 36:23
  Yep.
• 36:23
  And the endurance comes later.
• 36:25
  Right.
• 36:25
  That's, that's the, but in his own words, you know, Carol said he was a
• 36:28
  serial entrepreneur and had adult a DD.
• 36:31
  He just, he went from one thing to another.
• 36:33
  Thing when he got bored with it.
• 36:34
  But it all had a, a similar vein of that sort of innovation and engineering.
• 36:38
  Exactly.
• 36:39
  And I'm glad you guys went here with the electrification and the
• 36:41
  rebirth of the partnership with Ford.
• 36:43
  You know, and that's getting stronger every day.
• 36:45
  Ford has been talking, there's no longer rumors they have made it official.
• 36:49
  Right.
• 36:49
  There's some Formula one stuff going on and we'll leave that to the side side.
• 36:53
  But they're returning to LAMA for the projected 2027 season in the LMDH.
• 36:59
  Yeah.
• 36:59
  The hypercar class.
• 37:00
  Mm-hmm.
• 37:00
  Yeah, exactly.
• 37:01
  The GT P class.
• 37:02
  So are we gonna see a quote unquote, let's call it another Ford GT
• 37:06
  in the upper echelons of racing?
• 37:08
  And is Shelby gonna be involved there, or can you say Aaron?
• 37:11
  Well, I, I can't really say with any real knowledge on that.
• 37:14
  I, I'm excited that Ford's doing that.
• 37:16
  I tell you that I think from a Shelby perspective and just a
• 37:18
  racing enthusiast perspective, it's gonna be really neat to see.
• 37:21
  I have had a lot of fun the last two years seeing the Mustangs
• 37:24
  race and the GT class over there.
• 37:26
  You know the Corvettes sound okay, but there's nothing like that Mustang
• 37:29
  coming down the MO saying Strait.
• 37:30
  It is just an awesome sound.
• 37:32
  It does not sound like a Porsche, Ferrari or Aston Martin by any means.
• 37:35
  So I think this is a logical step for Ford to take and I'm excited to
• 37:39
  see what the program looks like and and how they end up performing in 27.
• 37:42
  You mentioned the family collection a couple of times for those that
• 37:46
  want to see Shelby's up close.
• 37:49
  There's a couple collections.
• 37:51
  One in Boulder in Las Vegas, but is there a museum?
• 37:54
  So there's really.
• 37:55
  Three, I'd almost say four museums at this point in time.
• 37:58
  Obviously at the Simeon, you've got the 2287, the Daytona coop that's there.
• 38:02
  I think they've got a Cobra as well, if I remember.
• 38:04
  But as far as official museums, the Shelby American Collection in Boulder
• 38:08
  is probably the most extensive when it comes to racing history, and whether
• 38:11
  it's the cars or the memorabilia there.
• 38:13
  The Miller Family Collection is housed there in addition to a number of other
• 38:17
  owners that keep their cars there, so that's really a impressive one.
• 38:20
  It's been open probably almost 30 years now.
• 38:22
  You've got the Cobra experience in Northern California, run by
• 38:25
  Drew Serb and his daughter Emily.
• 38:27
  Really neat history there.
• 38:28
  They've done a good job of getting a lot of paraphernalia, let's say, out of
• 38:32
  the old Venice shop and things that are on display in addition to all the great
• 38:35
  cars and a little film they put together.
• 38:37
  Just a ton of record history there.
• 38:39
  And then in Orange County you've got the Segerstrom Center.
• 38:42
  Ted and Ray Segerstrom opened this up about five years ago, and they've
• 38:45
  got a huge warehouse that they put their Shelby collection in.
• 38:48
  They essentially had a collection of cars.
• 38:50
  They didn't know what to do with it, so they wound up hiring museum design
• 38:52
  group and created a museum out of it.
• 38:54
  And they do events there, and it's opened to the public.
• 38:56
  It's really a neat place.
• 38:58
  So on the top of that, on the.
• 38:59
  Fourth side, you've got Shelby American in Las Vegas.
• 39:01
  We have a small museum there.
• 39:03
  What we curate through there changes a lot of stuff's on loan.
• 39:06
  Some of it's replica, some of it's original stuff.
• 39:08
  We try and refresh things pretty frequently, but we give tours
• 39:12
  and tell the Shelby story there.
• 39:13
  Four really neat spots around the country you could go to to learn Shelby history
• 39:17
  and see some of these cars up close.
• 39:19
  When you think about the future of Shelby, what excites you the most
• 39:22
  and how do you personally hope to shape that future moving forward?
• 39:26
  So two things that I really think that we can add to our success level in.
• 39:31
  We have a lot of opportunity internationally.
• 39:33
  You know, it's not just the movie, but.
• 39:35
  I will tell you in Europe, Australia, South Africa, there was already a
• 39:38
  really hardcore Shelby enthusiast group in, in all those areas to
• 39:42
  be able to get that out there.
• 39:44
  I will tell you, it's not easy when you're trying to talk about
• 39:47
  homolog, getting these cars to go overseas and things like that.
• 39:50
  So that's been a bit of our struggle, but.
• 39:52
  We're getting there.
• 39:52
  We've got a good opportunity.
• 39:53
  We have a good distributor in Europe that's working with
• 39:55
  some Ford dealers over there.
• 39:56
  We were really doing well, kind of up to 2019 into COVID and we
• 40:01
  got kind of kicked back with all that thing slowed down on us.
• 40:03
  Now the tariff stuff's gonna probably kick us back a little bit as well, but
• 40:06
  to me that's where we have a lot of opportunity and, and we see that in
• 40:10
  addition to licensing side, I think we have a lot more opportunity there.
• 40:14
  This year.
• 40:14
  There's been some neat things that came out.
• 40:16
  Lego did their first Shelby 4 27 Cobra Lego kit came out in July 4th,
• 40:20
  which I thought was apropos for that.
• 40:22
  I think they've been having great success with it, from what I understand.
• 40:25
  Just recently, Oliva introduced a new Shelby watch that's gonna be a worldwide
• 40:29
  sale and they're really fired up about it.
• 40:31
  They had some at Pebble Beach and went to several events and were really
• 40:34
  enthused with the response that they got out of everybody that saw it.
• 40:38
  In addition, fossil earlier this year did, did a watch.
• 40:41
  Really limited run.
• 40:41
  It was only.
• 40:42
  500 units.
• 40:43
  So that was a pretty small run, but I think they're gonna be
• 40:45
  in line to do something else.
• 40:46
  So, you know, I don't see us being Harley Davidson, so to speak, and having the
• 40:49
  name on everything, but there's other opportunities to partner with some pretty
• 40:52
  exciting companies out there on the licensing side, and that's gonna be where
• 40:55
  we lead to success and continue to build just the brand awareness in the future.
• 40:59
  So leading off of.
• 41:01
  What Max was just asking you about shaping the Shelby legacy for the future.
• 41:05
  What's next for Shelby?
• 41:06
  Any new vehicles, anything exciting?
• 41:08
  Any spoilers you can share with us?
• 41:09
  Yeah, we've got a few things, a few exciting announcements this year
• 41:12
  and what we realized a number of years ago is kind of from what we do
• 41:16
  with Shelby American in Las Vegas.
• 41:17
  It's doing more niche production runs.
• 41:19
  It keeps that desire out there and keeps the need out there.
• 41:22
  And so we introduced a Bear Jackson in January, the brand new GT three
• 41:26
  50 that we're producing at Shelby.
• 41:28
  A limited run of cars this year.
• 41:31
  We'll do another limited run next year, but that's our entry level Shelby Mustang
• 41:35
  right now, and we're excited about that.
• 41:37
  We already had the super snake that we had introduced last year.
• 41:40
  On top of that, at Pebble Beach, we introduced the supers snake R. So we have
• 41:43
  a more track oriented top end Shelby.
• 41:46
  We put a ton of engineering work into that car.
• 41:49
  We're only doing a hundred of 'em this year, and they're already
• 41:52
  all called for excited about what we've got on the Mustang side.
• 41:55
  And then what.
• 41:55
  A lot of people don't recognize too, while we're known for that work
• 41:58
  trucks is 70% of our business today.
• 42:00
  You know, we've got five different Shelby truck platforms out there
• 42:03
  right now, and those evolve a bit as Ford updates, models and things.
• 42:06
  But anything from our super Baja F two 50, down to a kind of modern day Ford
• 42:12
  Lightning, if you want to call it that.
• 42:13
  It's our Shelby Supers snake, but single cab, short bed, lowered truck.
• 42:16
  With a supercharger on it.
• 42:17
  Probably I'll do a hundred of those this year.
• 42:19
  So there's a lot of neat stuff that we're doing and always kind of tinkering
• 42:22
  and evolving whether you want to be off-road or on road with the trucks.
• 42:25
  And then all the track oriented stuff that we do with the
• 42:27
  Mustangs is really exciting.
• 42:29
  So what I heard you say is that the Viper truck is coming back too, right?
• 42:34
  Uh, you might have read between the lines somewhere.
• 42:36
  We'll see.
• 42:38
  Well, on that note, Aaron, we've reached that point of the episode where I like
• 42:41
  to invite our guests to share any shout outs, promotions, thank yous, or anything
• 42:45
  else we haven't covered thus far.
• 42:46
  Well, you know, I've gotta thank you guys for having me on for one, and
• 42:49
  just the Shelby community in general.
• 42:50
  It's been so great to meet so many great people around the country and
• 42:53
  around the world that we deal with.
• 42:55
  None of this happens without the team at Shelby American, Gary Patterson and Vince
• 42:58
  Levi Violette, Tracy Smith, et cetera.
• 43:00
  You know, it takes a team to put all this together and make it
• 43:03
  look easy, although everybody knows it's not behind the scenes.
• 43:05
  There's a lot of effort just like you guys put on your show here.
• 43:08
  So just thank you to all of 'em and, um, continue to see
• 43:11
  people throughout the year.
• 43:12
  We got a few events left this year, and if anybody is out there and
• 43:15
  runs into us, come up and say hello.
• 43:17
  From his personal memories of growing up being a part of the legendary
• 43:20
  Shelby family to his current role guiding Shelby International into the
• 43:24
  future, Aaron reminds us that history isn't just something we preserve,
• 43:27
  it's something we carry forward.
• 43:29
  The Shelby story is one of passion, innovation, and relentless pursuit
• 43:32
  of performance, and Aaron continues to keep that spirit alive for both
• 43:36
  longtime enthusiasts and new generations.
• 43:38
  Discovering the brand.
• 43:39
  If you'd like to learn more, be sure to visit shelby.com and follow Shelby
• 43:43
  American across social media for the latest news events and performance cars.
• 43:47
  And with that, Aaron, I can't thank you enough for coming on break fix and
• 43:50
  sharing part of the Shelby legacy with us and the exciting news of all the things
• 43:54
  that are coming, we are looking forward to one of the best known, best American
• 43:58
  brands to continue, especially in the Motorsport world for years to come.
• 44:02
  So thank you for what you're doing and keep up the great work.
• 44:04
  Will do.
• 44:04
  I appreciate it guys.
• 44:05
  Thanks for the time today.
• 44:06
  Thank you.
• 44:11
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• 44:16
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• 44:18
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• 44:20
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