In this April 4, 2007 file photo, Carroll Shelby, the founder of Shelby Automobiles Inc., speaks at the introduction of Ford’s new cars at the New York International Auto Show in New York. Shelby, the legendary race driver and Shelby Cobra sports car designer, has died at age 89. Shelby’s company Carroll Shelby International says Shelby died Thursday, May 10, 2012, at a Dallas hospital. He had received a heart transplant in 1990 and a kidney transplant in 1996. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)NOMAAN MERCHANT and JEFF WILSON
DALLAS (AP) – Carroll Shelby, the legendary auto racer and car designer who built the fabled Shelby Cobra sports car and injected testosterone into Ford’s Mustang and Chrysler’s Viper, has died. He was 89.
Shelby’s company, Carroll Shelby International, said Friday that Shelby died a day earlier at a Dallas hospital. He had received a heart transplant in 1990 and a kidney transplant in 1996.
He was one of the nation’s longest-living heart transplant recipients, having received a heart on June 7, 1990, from a 34-year-old man who died of an aneurism. Shelby also received a kidney transplant in 1996 from his son, Michael.
The 1992 inductee into the Automobile Hall of Fame had homes in Los Angeles and his native east Texas.