Snake Bit: Inside Carroll Shelby's Controversial Series 1 Sports Car

Book excerpt: What Carroll Shelby wanted was a 2,400-pound sports car sheathed in carbon fiber that was the fastest road car in the world. What he got was quite a different matter! The Series 1 was one of the most highly anticipated sports cars in living memory. It was a magazine cover story seven times and countless more articles were written about it. The car was eventually produced early in 2000-but it reached its owners well behind schedule, at a higher price, and in smaller numbers than first projected. The story of the Shelby Series 1 "is about everything that could possibly go wrong and then did." It's a drama of gigantic and aspiring egos, petty prerogatives, awesome talent, bureaucratic bungling, and brilliant engineering. Of the many cars Shelby created over his career, none was as controversial as the Series 1. Snake Bit - an apt description of what happened to anyone and everyone involved in the project - is required and captivating reading for the thousands of Carroll Shelby fans throughout the world.