![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/85\/2012\/05\/GT40-at-checkered-flag-1969.jpg\" "\\"GT40-at-checkered-flag-1969\\"")
<\/a>Every time you go racing, you put your reputation on the line. <\/em>\u2014Carroll Shelby<\/p>\n I\u2019m still grieving the loss of Carroll Shelby. What I\u2019ve decided to do with this little music post, is celebrate \u2018ol Shel\u2019s life a little bit with music. Some of the music you may not be very familiar with, while others will be songs that you consider old friends. You know, Maurice Sendak died and the whole world seemingly stopped with all manner of thoughtful reflections on Where the Wild Things Are<\/em>. Carroll Shelby had a bigger impact on your life than you may know or realize, but only the gearheads sung his praises. So this post is sort of an homage to him and What the Wild Things Drive<\/em>. And endurance racing experience is why your cars\u2019 engine can last, with proper care and maintenance, for over 200,000 + miles.<\/p>\n I hope to honor Carroll\u2019s life with a story, some tunes, and some awesome sounds, the likes of which your mind may not appreciate, but your heart and soul will. First up, is an appreciation of a car by Jeremy Clarkson, host of the BBC motoring show Top Gear<\/em>. It starts out with a rock n\u2019 roll homage to all of the cars that belong in the 200 mile per hour club, and then Clarkson realizes a dream when he is given the opportunity to drive the automobile equivalent of the SR-71 Blackbird<\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019m talking about the Ford GT40, the cars that won LeMans for four consecutive years from 1966 until 1969. Carroll Shelby rescued the GT40 program from oblivion, see, as the idea that looked good on paper had proven lame on the track. Shelby, and his crack crew of racers and mechanics in Venice California, junked most of the internals that came along with the chassis of the cars when they took custody of them from Ford Advanced Vehicles in 1964. Shelby & Co. ditched the 260 cubic inch engines and put in Shelby prepped 289\u2019s. Later, they would put honking 7.0 liter, 427 cubic inch, torque and horsepower monsters in there, and win LeMans with that motor in 1966, and 1967. The domination of these cars was so lopsided, it would lead the FIA to change the rules, mandating that no motors larger than 5.0 liters would be allowed to compete. At that point, Shelby turned the program over to John Wyers Automotive in England because, as he said at the time, \u201cboth the GT40 and John Wyer are obsolete.\u201d Everyone figured he was right, but it was one of the few times he was wrong.<\/p>\n In the first video below, Clarkson gets to drive one of the John Wyer GT40\u2019s. It\u2019s the kind of GT40 that I have a close kinship with, as it\u2019s powered by a small-block Ford Windsor V-8, the ancestor of the motor \u00a0which powers my own Mustang. It displaces 302 cubic inches, is basically a stroked 289, breathing through two valves per cylinder, actuated by pushrods following the lobes of a single cam in the middle of the block, via roller rocker arms pushing down spring loaded valve stems. Forged crankshaft and pistons fill cylinders with air and fuel breathing thorough aluminum heads designed by Dan Gurney and Henry Weslake, with vertical intake ports cast integrally into the cylinder heads<\/a>. No separate intake manifold was required. Just bolt eight Weber carburetors right onto the heads, and let the games begin. Simplicity and hardiness like this is the text book definition of what Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls \u201cAntifragile.\u201d Powerful, durable, and embarrassing to the whizbang techno-marvels from Ferrari, Porsche, etc.<\/p>\n Without Carroll Shelby\u2019s team sorting out the GT40 in the first place though, the four year domination of Ford at LeMans would not have happened. So let\u2019s turn to the sounds of success, shall we? Clarkson gives us a taste of automotive perfection. Crank up the volume for the best.sound.track.ever.<\/p>\n