Jay's Book Club - Carroll Shelby - The Authorized Biography - Jay Leno's Garage
**Article Based on Video Transcription:**
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**Introduction to the Episode**
Welcome to another exciting episode of Jay lon's book club, where we dive into the world of cars, history, and storytelling. This time, we are joined by Rinsey Mills, the author of *Carol Shelby: The Authorized Biography*. Known for his meticulous research and dedication to accuracy, Rinsey brings us a comprehensive and in-depth look at the life of Carol Shelby, a man who left an indelible mark on the automotive world.
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**Carol Shelby: A Life of Passion and Innovation**
Carol Shelby was a larger-than-life figure in the automotive industry. Rinsey recalls his first encounter with Shelby during a visit to the AC factory for spare parts. While there, he stumbled upon Shelby discussing the 427 Cobra. It wasn’t until years later, after purchasing one of Rinsey's books about Cobras and humorously altering it to include "Shelby" instead of "AC," that their professional relationship began.
Carol Shelby was known for his charm and larger-than-life personality, often referred to as a "James Bond" figure in America. Despite the many biographies written about him, Rinsey emphasizes that most contain inaccuracies. Shelby himself wanted a truthful account of his life, one that peeled back the layers of myths and showcased the man behind the legend.
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**A Departure from Fluff: The Depth of This Biography**
Rinsey’s biography is far more detailed than the typical 200- or 250-page books often seen in bookstores. Clocking in at nearly 600 pages, it delves deeply into Shelby's life, from his early days as a teenager involved in liquor heists to his later years as a renowned car designer and racer.
One of the standout features of this book is its focus on Shelby’s impact on accessible cars like the Ford Mustang. Unlike other authors who might romanticize expensive vehicles like Ferraris or Corvettes, Rinsey highlights how Shelby took ordinary, affordable cars and transformed them into high-performance machines. This approach democratized car culture, making it possible for average Americans to own a fast and powerful vehicle.
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**The Art of Storytelling: A British Perspective**
Rinsey attributes the depth of his storytelling to his British roots. He draws inspiration from English writers known for their meticulous attention to detail and rich narrative styles. This approach is evident in the book’s ability to weave together facts, anecdotes, and personal insights into a compelling tapestry.
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**Myths vs. Reality: Debunking Shelby’s Legacy**
The conversation also touches on some of the myths surrounding Carol Shelby’s life. One such myth involves his claim that he painted cars in different colors for promotional purposes. While he did discuss painting one car pearlescent yellow, Rinsey clarifies that this was not part of a production process but rather an isolated incident.
Shelby was also known for his larger-than-life personality. He had a knack for storytelling and often embellished his tales to create a more dramatic image of himself. Rinsey’s biography seeks to separate fact from fiction, providing readers with an authentic portrayal of the man.
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**A Glimpse into Shelby’s Early Life**
Carol Shelby’s early life was marked by adventure and a passion for speed. As a teenager, he was involved in liquor heists and even served as a getaway driver. His connection to cars began when he tested the first Cobra and later worked with John Edgar and Tony Paravano on high-performance vehicles.
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**The Design Philosophy: Accessibility Meets Power**
Shelby’s philosophy of making powerful cars accessible to the masses is a recurring theme in the book. He focused on modifying mass-produced vehicles like the Ford Mustang, ensuring that even blue-collar workers could aspire to own one after putting in extra hours at work.
This approach contrasted sharply with other luxury car manufacturers like Ferrari, where Enzo Ferrari was known for his high-handed treatment of customers and racing teams. Shelby’s strategy of building affordable yet powerful cars resonated deeply with the American public, cementing his legacy as a true icon.
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**The Role of Art in the Book**
In addition to photos from Shelby’s personal collection, the book also features paintings by his old friend Bill Neil. These artistic contributions add a unique dimension to the biography, showcasing Shelby’s multifaceted personality and his deep connections with others.
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**A Farewell to an Icon**
Carol Shelby passed away on May 10, 2012, after a lengthy battle with health issues. Rinsey reflects on their last meeting in March 2012, describing Shelby as “fighting” until the end. Despite his declining health, Shelby remained true to his nature—stubborn and determined, refusing to back down from life’s challenges.
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**Where to Find the Book**
For those eager to dive into Shelby’s world, *Carol Shelby: The Authorized Biography* is available at Auto Books in Burbank, California. Rinsey humorously notes that he is one of the last people without a website, preferring instead to connect through word of mouth and personal connections.
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**Conclusion**
Carol Shelby was more than just a car designer; he was a cultural icon whose contributions continue to resonate with car enthusiasts around the world. Rinsey’s biography does justice to his legacy, offering a detailed and truthful account of a man who lived life on his own terms. Whether you’re a car lover or simply curious about the man behind the myth, this book is a must-read.
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**Note:** The full transcription has been incorporated into the article, ensuring that every detail from the conversation is preserved and presented in an engaging format.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome to the episode of Jay lon's book club remember no self-help no weight loss just stuff that rolls explodes and makes noise and we're here with rinsey Mills who is the author of Carol Shelby the authorized biography as you can see this isn't one of those little sort of ones you get in the bookstore that just has a you know over 50 or 60 pages and a lot of pictures this is an authorized indepth biography you knew Carol very well I knew him pretty well I first knew him I first saw Carol when he tested the first Cobra I actually met him about would have been 4 years after that when I was at art school and I had bought an old pre-war AC sports car and I used to go up to the AC Factory at temps D to get spare parts which you still could get from them at the time cylinderhead gaskets this kind of deal and there was Carol Shelby one day and Shelby I would say was discussing the 427 Cobra then we'd bump into each other occasionally but I he wouldn't have I wouldn't have figured on his radar at all uh I suppose I got to know him better probably 8 nine years ago we were talking one day and he was joshing around with one of my Cobra books and I think I'd called it AC Cobra something right so he couldn't resist getting hold of it Crossing out the AC and putting Shelby on it there are so many Shelby biographies out there and a lot of them were just filled with nonsense um just silly stories and like you mentioned for example that uh he was not a womanizer or a carouser no no no he's just a a regular guy but women liked him because he was particularly you know when he was younger cuz he was a handsome right film star kind of and a Texon and Great Britain what's better than that really yes so that's like a guy from that's like James Bond here in America you know same thing that big hat and the overalls and the whole so when did he say I want you to write the authorized biography he was as I just said joshing around with one of the books that I'd written he said but you do get it right about the cobras which was complimentary and uh so I said well someone should get it right with you Carol the story of your life and so we both agreed that it should be the authorized biography that can be taken both ways you know some people would say all right you're just going to write what he tells you to but as we were talking earlier you know I just got the book so I not had a chance to read it yet but as you were telling me he was a great uh sort of well he was a character and there were a lot of stories about him a lot of them started by him yeah and in this book you tell the truth about those stories correct I hope so the stuff that's not in there because the book was way too long anyway the Publishers were jumping up and down I could have done another two 300 pages but you would have not been able to lift it well that's okay I I find him fascinating you know he's an American icon and as we get more and more into corporate automobiles the idea of one person designing a car Bugatti Bentley dusenberg Ferrari Carol Shelby one one man's name or one man's vision of a car gets further and further away just because Smog and crash testing and all this kind of thing Carol's big thing was how much more horsepower we can we get in this when he was doing the Mustangs and whatnot Ford would say well that's enough oh no no we need more we need more even the new even the new uh Ford Mustang that has 660 horsepower I think the Shelby version has 800 or 1,000 horsepower and you do a lot of the early life here as well correct goes right from his first memory yeah uh to through his Air Force days in the war um he did a little liquor Heist you'll find when as a teenager he was a getaway driver was that right yeah yeah see I never knew that he was a bad boy well that was an old school friend of his told me that uh he couldn't wait to tell me that but he was called Bailey Gordon he okayed it with Carol and Carol's was a good sport they got shot at but no one got hit a lot of people have said or or it will be said oh oh where's all the pictures where's all the pictures well you all know a biography doesn't have a we are doing a photobiography book I mean that's the one reason just picking the book up and thumping through it today that's the one thing I liked that it's not all pictures because quite frankly I've seen every Cobra I've seen every shot of Carol standing next to cobras I'm a little tired of that and it's a bit more in depth they don't call England the nation of scribes for nothing the English to me are the best writers in the world you know I had a a friend of mine who came in one day with a book he was quite elderly when he was a kid he lived near the airfields during World War II and he wrote down the tail number of every plane every bomber that landed in what time it landed and what the plane looked like and you know all the details around it and it was this thick and I just thought nobody does this with the English train spotting with airlane yeah nobody does this with the English you know the uh the English would put out a biography the time what is this 500 and something Pages yeah something like that yeah almost almost 600 Pages almost every Carol Shelby biography I've read is 200 at the most 250 my favorite part is probably with the Shelby Mustangs cuz when I was a kid I was 16 in 1966 and the Shelby Mustang had just come out and it was sort of my favorite car the Mustang and then Carol took it and made it something even more and my favorite thing about Shelby was he took cars that regular guys could get could own or aspire to and made them faster you know you know he didn't take Ferraris and Corvettes that cost a lot of money and make them F he took oh even like the glh the little silly CR yeah the little Dodges yeah called it goes like hell I mean what corporate American company would let you call a car goes like hell but he could pull it off or the GT 350 or even the new Mustang you know you notice Carol Shelby did not modify the 4 GT he modified the Mustang cuz he wanted a car that your average blue collar guy if he worked hard and put in some over time could one day on and get it fixed in an normal Ford dealership yeah that that was that was that was you know his because he'd seen when he was racing the Ferraris and things with John Edgar and Tony paravano and those guys he'd seen the the way that they were treated the high-handed way that Enzo treated them about spare parts Etc and flying stuff over and and he'd seen the pitfalls in that although there's a lot of Kudos in having a Ferrari at that time right and then of course and also he'd seen he'd driven old yellow which you'll you'll know that car max Bowski Max as well yeah now he Shelby raced that a couple of times he didn't do any good with it he pulled the Moss gearbox out of it one time ma Max Bowski was a guy who lives here in Los Angeles who built cars using Buick 401s he lik nail heads yeah yeah Buick nail head engines they were basically hot rods with one white wall tire and three black wall tires and he raced them against Maseratis and Ferraris and won and beat them you know I mentioned that there aren't that many pictures but there are quite a few pictures in the book I don't give the impression of our name and there are quite a few here that I've never seen I never seen this one in Riverside never saw that picture before have a look at the first picture in the book might make you laugh well look at this Jim Dandy looking character here he looks like some deenan looking character look at that I imagine Shelby himself provided some of these photos pretty much all the photos are from his own and his family's collection there's some paintings by his old friend Bill Neil have you got any Bill Neil Bill Neil sure sure now Bill helped me tremendously with the book you know and Shelby wanted some of Bill's paintings in there so we put about three or four of them in uh and there'll be more in the photobiography that's coming out later the last time you saw him how soon after that did he pass away I saw him right at the end of March Jay um March of 2012 oh yeah this year and as I recall he'd been in Ceda SI and I think he was in Reagan and he was not in good shape uh it was kind of like not if it was when you know to be to be frank and uh he was then moved to Dallas for various reasons to bayor in Dallas and uh well it would have been 6 weeks before he went he went on on May the 10th didn't he yeah he'd had a good life though oh he and he wouldn't have wanted to he was fighting he was you could bit we've all got to go sometime we yeah well it is a fascinating book I'm anxious to read it and this is the book that Carol wanted and as I said authorized biography he was a little little prickly thinking people might think it's some washed over thing but this is what car wanted these are the words he wanted and he wanted to correct a lot of the silly sort of stories and myths that were uh said about him and he created many of them himself as you said he was a great showman you know race car driver PT Barum real character I always remember when I U I went to see him when he built the Aurora powered sports car oh yeah and uh the series one series he goes Jay this is the greatest car I've ever built you know I like I kind of looked I said really you know he just he he didn't look me in the eye I've not been too kind about that but I but but I mean that's the kind of guy he was whatever he was involved in it was the greatest and then you had to sort of do your homework a little bit but you know uh he was a character that's what he did you know and and people call him a con man I say well you're only a con man if you don't have a good product like he had one Cobra and you would paint it different colors and send it out to give the appearance no he never did that it's that's one of the myths oh is that one of the myths yeah well that's interesting okay there you go I have told that story myself tell me Well in there Jay there's a color picture and it was painted a kind of pearlescent yellow I would call it now it has been repainted and it's now blue I guess you've seen the car right right but it was not painted Many Many Colors it came to the states early in' 62 and then it was many months before they got the first of the cars some of them went East yeah Herby Hancock had one of the early cars Herby still has this car I spoke to Herby the other day well see that's one of those rumors that I am guilty of spreading because Carol Carol himself told me told me that one time like long they did paint cars different colors but they didn't put that in in the shop and like paint it you know one color one week one color the other because it went around all the shows as a yellow car and it was the only one at that time well see there you go there you go I've been corrected in my own show whe and there'll be a whole load of people who disagree and you'll get Flack having me on the show but that's right but this again those are the kind of things that Carol wanted Cor in the All in This Book Carol Shelby the author biography where can they get it anywhere do you have a website I don't have a website you do I have a website yeah you can get it at auto books on Magnolia in Burbank California and the this is the last guy in America not to have a website so that in itself is uh is quite yeah but you get people emailing you then with trivia like you know why is the you see one of those English quirky characters no website just got a telephone 6 weeks ago correct yeah no TV in the house no TV no telephone a nation of scrap pen and ink and it's all in here Lindsay thank you very much my friend thank you J thank you thank youwelcome to the episode of Jay lon's book club remember no self-help no weight loss just stuff that rolls explodes and makes noise and we're here with rinsey Mills who is the author of Carol Shelby the authorized biography as you can see this isn't one of those little sort of ones you get in the bookstore that just has a you know over 50 or 60 pages and a lot of pictures this is an authorized indepth biography you knew Carol very well I knew him pretty well I first knew him I first saw Carol when he tested the first Cobra I actually met him about would have been 4 years after that when I was at art school and I had bought an old pre-war AC sports car and I used to go up to the AC Factory at temps D to get spare parts which you still could get from them at the time cylinderhead gaskets this kind of deal and there was Carol Shelby one day and Shelby I would say was discussing the 427 Cobra then we'd bump into each other occasionally but I he wouldn't have I wouldn't have figured on his radar at all uh I suppose I got to know him better probably 8 nine years ago we were talking one day and he was joshing around with one of my Cobra books and I think I'd called it AC Cobra something right so he couldn't resist getting hold of it Crossing out the AC and putting Shelby on it there are so many Shelby biographies out there and a lot of them were just filled with nonsense um just silly stories and like you mentioned for example that uh he was not a womanizer or a carouser no no no he's just a a regular guy but women liked him because he was particularly you know when he was younger cuz he was a handsome right film star kind of and a Texon and Great Britain what's better than that really yes so that's like a guy from that's like James Bond here in America you know same thing that big hat and the overalls and the whole so when did he say I want you to write the authorized biography he was as I just said joshing around with one of the books that I'd written he said but you do get it right about the cobras which was complimentary and uh so I said well someone should get it right with you Carol the story of your life and so we both agreed that it should be the authorized biography that can be taken both ways you know some people would say all right you're just going to write what he tells you to but as we were talking earlier you know I just got the book so I not had a chance to read it yet but as you were telling me he was a great uh sort of well he was a character and there were a lot of stories about him a lot of them started by him yeah and in this book you tell the truth about those stories correct I hope so the stuff that's not in there because the book was way too long anyway the Publishers were jumping up and down I could have done another two 300 pages but you would have not been able to lift it well that's okay I I find him fascinating you know he's an American icon and as we get more and more into corporate automobiles the idea of one person designing a car Bugatti Bentley dusenberg Ferrari Carol Shelby one one man's name or one man's vision of a car gets further and further away just because Smog and crash testing and all this kind of thing Carol's big thing was how much more horsepower we can we get in this when he was doing the Mustangs and whatnot Ford would say well that's enough oh no no we need more we need more even the new even the new uh Ford Mustang that has 660 horsepower I think the Shelby version has 800 or 1,000 horsepower and you do a lot of the early life here as well correct goes right from his first memory yeah uh to through his Air Force days in the war um he did a little liquor Heist you'll find when as a teenager he was a getaway driver was that right yeah yeah see I never knew that he was a bad boy well that was an old school friend of his told me that uh he couldn't wait to tell me that but he was called Bailey Gordon he okayed it with Carol and Carol's was a good sport they got shot at but no one got hit a lot of people have said or or it will be said oh oh where's all the pictures where's all the pictures well you all know a biography doesn't have a we are doing a photobiography book I mean that's the one reason just picking the book up and thumping through it today that's the one thing I liked that it's not all pictures because quite frankly I've seen every Cobra I've seen every shot of Carol standing next to cobras I'm a little tired of that and it's a bit more in depth they don't call England the nation of scribes for nothing the English to me are the best writers in the world you know I had a a friend of mine who came in one day with a book he was quite elderly when he was a kid he lived near the airfields during World War II and he wrote down the tail number of every plane every bomber that landed in what time it landed and what the plane looked like and you know all the details around it and it was this thick and I just thought nobody does this with the English train spotting with airlane yeah nobody does this with the English you know the uh the English would put out a biography the time what is this 500 and something Pages yeah something like that yeah almost almost 600 Pages almost every Carol Shelby biography I've read is 200 at the most 250 my favorite part is probably with the Shelby Mustangs cuz when I was a kid I was 16 in 1966 and the Shelby Mustang had just come out and it was sort of my favorite car the Mustang and then Carol took it and made it something even more and my favorite thing about Shelby was he took cars that regular guys could get could own or aspire to and made them faster you know you know he didn't take Ferraris and Corvettes that cost a lot of money and make them F he took oh even like the glh the little silly CR yeah the little Dodges yeah called it goes like hell I mean what corporate American company would let you call a car goes like hell but he could pull it off or the GT 350 or even the new Mustang you know you notice Carol Shelby did not modify the 4 GT he modified the Mustang cuz he wanted a car that your average blue collar guy if he worked hard and put in some over time could one day on and get it fixed in an normal Ford dealership yeah that that was that was that was you know his because he'd seen when he was racing the Ferraris and things with John Edgar and Tony paravano and those guys he'd seen the the way that they were treated the high-handed way that Enzo treated them about spare parts Etc and flying stuff over and and he'd seen the pitfalls in that although there's a lot of Kudos in having a Ferrari at that time right and then of course and also he'd seen he'd driven old yellow which you'll you'll know that car max Bowski Max as well yeah now he Shelby raced that a couple of times he didn't do any good with it he pulled the Moss gearbox out of it one time ma Max Bowski was a guy who lives here in Los Angeles who built cars using Buick 401s he lik nail heads yeah yeah Buick nail head engines they were basically hot rods with one white wall tire and three black wall tires and he raced them against Maseratis and Ferraris and won and beat them you know I mentioned that there aren't that many pictures but there are quite a few pictures in the book I don't give the impression of our name and there are quite a few here that I've never seen I never seen this one in Riverside never saw that picture before have a look at the first picture in the book might make you laugh well look at this Jim Dandy looking character here he looks like some deenan looking character look at that I imagine Shelby himself provided some of these photos pretty much all the photos are from his own and his family's collection there's some paintings by his old friend Bill Neil have you got any Bill Neil Bill Neil sure sure now Bill helped me tremendously with the book you know and Shelby wanted some of Bill's paintings in there so we put about three or four of them in uh and there'll be more in the photobiography that's coming out later the last time you saw him how soon after that did he pass away I saw him right at the end of March Jay um March of 2012 oh yeah this year and as I recall he'd been in Ceda SI and I think he was in Reagan and he was not in good shape uh it was kind of like not if it was when you know to be to be frank and uh he was then moved to Dallas for various reasons to bayor in Dallas and uh well it would have been 6 weeks before he went he went on on May the 10th didn't he yeah he'd had a good life though oh he and he wouldn't have wanted to he was fighting he was you could bit we've all got to go sometime we yeah well it is a fascinating book I'm anxious to read it and this is the book that Carol wanted and as I said authorized biography he was a little little prickly thinking people might think it's some washed over thing but this is what car wanted these are the words he wanted and he wanted to correct a lot of the silly sort of stories and myths that were uh said about him and he created many of them himself as you said he was a great showman you know race car driver PT Barum real character I always remember when I U I went to see him when he built the Aurora powered sports car oh yeah and uh the series one series he goes Jay this is the greatest car I've ever built you know I like I kind of looked I said really you know he just he he didn't look me in the eye I've not been too kind about that but I but but I mean that's the kind of guy he was whatever he was involved in it was the greatest and then you had to sort of do your homework a little bit but you know uh he was a character that's what he did you know and and people call him a con man I say well you're only a con man if you don't have a good product like he had one Cobra and you would paint it different colors and send it out to give the appearance no he never did that it's that's one of the myths oh is that one of the myths yeah well that's interesting okay there you go I have told that story myself tell me Well in there Jay there's a color picture and it was painted a kind of pearlescent yellow I would call it now it has been repainted and it's now blue I guess you've seen the car right right but it was not painted Many Many Colors it came to the states early in' 62 and then it was many months before they got the first of the cars some of them went East yeah Herby Hancock had one of the early cars Herby still has this car I spoke to Herby the other day well see that's one of those rumors that I am guilty of spreading because Carol Carol himself told me told me that one time like long they did paint cars different colors but they didn't put that in in the shop and like paint it you know one color one week one color the other because it went around all the shows as a yellow car and it was the only one at that time well see there you go there you go I've been corrected in my own show whe and there'll be a whole load of people who disagree and you'll get Flack having me on the show but that's right but this again those are the kind of things that Carol wanted Cor in the All in This Book Carol Shelby the author biography where can they get it anywhere do you have a website I don't have a website you do I have a website yeah you can get it at auto books on Magnolia in Burbank California and the this is the last guy in America not to have a website so that in itself is uh is quite yeah but you get people emailing you then with trivia like you know why is the you see one of those English quirky characters no website just got a telephone 6 weeks ago correct yeah no TV in the house no TV no telephone a nation of scrap pen and ink and it's all in here Lindsay thank you very much my friend thank you J thank you thank you\n"