A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird:
Carroll Shelby, 1923-2012
Summertime's comin' to Vancouver, and as cherry blossom drifts swirl across deserted streets early on a Sunday morning, the garage doors open and the classics come out. Heavy hemi Mopar muscle. Chopped and channelled big-block Chevs. Gleaming British chromework. Hi-po 'Stangs and fat-tired 'Vettes.
And then, the guttural thunder of side-pipes. The King is coming, and his name is Cobra.
In 1952, Carroll Shelby took part in his first organized race. The then-19-year-old Texan lined up at the staging lights, hunkered down, and when the light went green, dropped the hammer. He didn't come off that accelerator for the next 40 years.
In 1956 and '57 he was dubbed Driver Of The Year by Sport Illustrated. In '59 he won the 24 hours of LeMans in an Aston-Martin.
In the early '60s, Carroll stuffed an American V-8 into an English roadster and the AC Cobra was born. By the middle of the decade, the iconic roadster was giving Ferrari a hard time.
Then, the Ford-Shelby partnership that would produce the highest-performance variants of the Mustang. The Shelby GT350 was serious
