There are a lot of things to do in Las Vegas. Touring the Shelby Headquarters which is right by the NASCAR racetrack was tops on my list.

There are a lot of things to do in Las Vegas. Touring the Shelby Headquarters which is right by the NASCAR racetrack was tops on my list.

I toured the Shelby Museum which has the first production Cobra prototypes, the GT 350, 500, and the famous “ aluminum” Shelby Cobra.

Cobra’s are very high strung, sensitive cars due to the weight/ HP ratio. They weigh around 2500 lbs and the HP people put in them ranges from 550 to 800 hp depending on how fast you want to go and how much you want to spend. The original engines were cast iron but they are now aluminum – very light. If you drive one of these you better know what you are doing - for real. The aluminum bodies are sexy and light as well.

This was the first Cobra ever built…

There was a hydrogen powered Cobra…

Carroll Shelby was asked by Ford in 1964 to enhance the performance of the new Ford Mustang. Agreeing, and being an almost unbeatable racing champion, he knew exactly how to do that and so the GT 350 was born. With the Shelby knowledge and muscle behind it it began cleaning up – dominating the American racing circuits, winning championships in 1965, 1966 and 1967.

The GT 350 and GT 500 production continued until 1969 when Carroll decided he had other things to do. After that Ford evolved the Shelby program into the Mach 1 and Boss 302 Mustangs.

In 2004 Shelby and Ford reunited and began making more hot muscle cars, the new Cobra and the Daytona coupe styled GR 1 based on the GT chassis.

I got to see where Cobra’s are manufactured and go into the facility to get some close ups. I felt privileged because there was a group of people behind me of about 40 people on a tour who only got to look through a window into the manufacturing area. MARK LOGAN, MY TOUR GUIDE IS AWESOME!

A bad ass car needs bad ass brakes…

I also signed my name in the legendary warehouse, and met the VP Operations for Shelby Auto, Gary Patterson. GREAT GUY!! With an awesome job, of course being the guy in charge of everything and also the guy who gets to do his fair share of test driving. Here I am with Gary on my left and Mark Logan of Nevada Classics on my right. Mark is the number one classic car curator for people in the U.S.

There is a great “Shelby Corner Café” as well…

Here I am signing my website and name on the World headquarters wall.

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Very friendly staff, environment and people, I look forward to my next visit.