1989 Carroll Shelby Can Am Race Car
Shelby designed the car using the 3.3L V6 engine as a base (note: in 1989 the general public had not yet owned the 3.3 which came out for the 1990 model year). He wanted a car which when used in a race, would show who the best driver was (not who had the largest pockets!). According to Brain Bennett (one of the few people on earth lucky enough to actually OWN one of these cool cars) Shelby originally planed to make two versions of these cars, a 255 hp and 500 hp model. Brain Bennett writes that “The plan as I understand it was to build 200 cars, each with it’s own numbered Shelby ‘dash plaque’. This would allow decent sized SCA Club racing fields, and still enable the Shelby PRO Series to run simultaneously….with the only alteration to the car being the swapping of a gnarly 500HP mill into the chassis and some aero tweaks.”
The class that these cars were to race in were specifically designed so that these cars would only race against each other, and no engine modifications were allowed outside of gear ratios on the trans. These engines had special Shelby seals on them, and could only be repaired by Shelby! The idea is that since all the cars in this class are identical, the driver’s skill would be evident by the way each driver wins/loses. Please read more about this amazing race car
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Great early video of Prototype 01 on track at Willow Springs and static images of my Prototype 02 that same day.
Keep those great videos alive!
Best Wishes.
The 02 Prototype will be auctioned at Amelia Island, March 12, 2016 by Hollywoodwheels.com