Shelby Series 1 History

The Shelby Series 1 was the only car Carroll Shelby designed and built entirely from the ground up rather than modifying an existing chassis. A lightweight roadster with an aluminum/carbon-fiber structure, it broke with Shelby tradition by using a General Motors engine — Oldsmobile's 4.0-liter Aurora DOHC V8, tuned to roughly 320 hp.

Production delays, redesigns, rising costs, and corporate turmoil slashed the planned run: all 249 production cars were built as 1999 models to that year's federal safety standards, with 70 factory supercharged. Rare and now collectible, the Series 1 stands apart as the most ambitious — and most troubled — original Shelby of the modern era.