CarBrandLogos archive · Shelby · 1999

ShelbyShelby Series 1

The only car Shelby American ever engineered from a blank sheet.

Photo: Kostas22 at English Wikipedia · Public domain

The story

A defining chapter in Shelby history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Shelby Series 1, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Every other car to carry Shelby's name started as somebody else's. The Series 1, announced in the late 1990s and sold as a 1999 model, was designed and engineered from scratch in Las Vegas, which Carroll Shelby had wanted to do for thirty years.

Paris Motor Show 2018, Paris · Matti Blume · CC BY-SA 4.0

Design and engineering

The specification was serious: an aluminium extrusion and honeycomb chassis, carbon fibre bodywork, a 4.0-litre Aurora V8 bought from Oldsmobile, and a six-speed ZF transaxle mounted at the rear for weight distribution. Kerb weight was low and the proportions deliberately echoed the Cobra without copying it.

Paris Motor Show 2018, Paris · Matti Blume · CC BY-SA 4.0

In production

The problems were commercial rather than mechanical. Certifying an entirely new car to federal safety and emissions rules is ruinously expensive for a small manufacturer, the costs ran far past plan, the price climbed accordingly, and Oldsmobile was wound down while the car was still being built. Only 249 were completed before production ended in 2005, and later cars were sold in various states of completion to work around regulations. It is the rarest Shelby of the modern era and the one that proves why he usually started with somebody else's chassis.

Shelby Series 1 interior · ITakePhotosOfCars · CC0

At a glance