"Why sure I do. I thought the Cobra and the Shelby Mustangs would go away 35 years ago. And these are the people who have kept it alive. These are the people I love."
This sentiment would have been great for a Hollywood ending. For all the hours Carroll Shelby has spent signing autographs, for all the thousands-tens of thousands-of times he's been stopped and asked to pose with somebody for a picture or shake hands or just say "hi," it's great for all of us to know that Shelby loves our attention.
"My only regret is that these replica car guys have copied the Cobra, and most of them have put out a bunch of crap to tarnish some of the things the guys at Shelby American built. Some of them died to build those cars. But when I asked the replica car people to put $1,000 into the foundation for each one they built, in unison they told me to go screw myself."
Shelby likes to get in a "lick every chance I get" to the replica Cobra builders who refused to put up $1,000 per car. He says they "are not smart enough to build their own cars" and they are not the ones who "kept the Shelby name alive." OK, so that's two good licks.
"The people who come to the functions that I sign autographs for, who bought the original cars, are the people I love to talk to. I'm thankful I'm still here at 81 years old to be a part of them, to be with them. And there's nothing that makes me happier than to sit around and talk to these young kids, 8 and 10 years old, and there's hundreds and hundreds of them named Shelby out there."
This time Carroll was referring to people who named their kids after him. Some have even become grandmothers.
"The grandmothers are Shelby. Their daughters are Shelby and their granddaughters are Shelby. There's nothing that makes me feel luckier and more thankful than to be around those people."
That was an even better Hollywood ending.