A Visit To 'Shelby American' In Las Vegas, Nevada.

"M.T. Blake" (autohabit)
12/18/2019 at 10:49 • Filed to: shelby, shelby american, carroll shelby, ford, mustang, cobra, gt40, ford v. ferrari, ford vs. ferrari, ford vs ferrari, las vegas, nevada, vegas, travel

I am not sure how I ended up here. I searched for ‘famous former chicken farmers’ and this was the top of the chart. There were plenty of snakes and wild stallions inside. It is missing a fried chicken stand, as a tongue-in-cheek nod to one of the most epic American dreams ever fulfilled.

Imagine the horror if one of these wyld stallions jumped over the pony wall.

If there were an automotive Mount Rushmore, you’d probably see Mr. Shelby on it. He came from nothing, and created one of he most iconic brands and cars we Americans will ever be lucky enough to be lumped together with in our hot-mess of a mixing pot.

I’m really starting t o like panoram’ing’ing the sights I’m seeing. Rather pleasing to the eye, no?

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is south of the Vegas strip, near the airport. A short Lyft/Uber from there at a cost of $12 one-way will get you here. If Mr. Ferrari’s motto was to sell street cars to fund his racing venture, then you’ll see an unmistakable parallel to the ‘we sell merchandise to feed our mechanics’ around here.

Ropes to prevent drunken tourists from spilling Bud Lite and rubbing their rodeo belt buckles on the fenders.

Stepping in the building you come face to face with a massive display of Shelby ‘merch. It is mind blowing. I never knew there was this... much. Mostly everything I saw too is good quality. Shirts for $25, hats a bit cheaper, and larger magnets for a five - or so I decided to spend my hard earned green on. I also tried out the non-full VR video game they had on site. It was $15 for 5 minutes?!!! I could only manage a 1:01 around Brands Hatch... pretty bad.

‘MURICA!!! They’ll Shelby convert any applicable Ford back to about 2007 at this point.

The ‘tour’ of the production floor was well underway when we arrived. I’m not too sad that I missed it once I found that you’re stuck behind a pony wall (pun intended) and can’t go frolic around. I don’t know a lot about these cars after all, but I know enough to know a tour probably wouldn’t have spun around my quagmire of a mind.

Xmas present car with bow on it goals...

In the end, this was a one hour experience, and well worth the trip to see the fruits of an American icon. I’m sure much more happens here (car shows as one of you informed me) that the Vegas locals are fortunate to experience. I now have a dream to one day come back to pick up my own Shelby. I want to be that guy on the tour that whipped out Polaroid pictures of his former GT350; a participant to the history of some bad ass cars made by a failed poultry farmer.

Goes on about three times this size. Small to 5XL shirts?!!!

DISCUSSION (12)

i86hotdogs > M.T. Blake
12/18/2019 at 13:13

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

You think they’ll Shelby-ize my Transit Connect?!

M.T. Blake > i86hotdogs
12/18/2019 at 13:17

God I hope so. Wouldn’t that be fun. Pull up next to someone and blow their doors off with a utility van.

i86hotdogs > M.T. Blake
12/18/2019 at 13:24

I don’t ask for much, just an LSD, a manual, turbo noises, and at least 250 HP.

M.T. Blake > i86hotdogs
12/18/2019 at 13:37

That sounds reasonable. Even easily possible. I didn’t see any vans in their shop. Maybe they’d do a prototype for cheap?!

i86hotdogs > M.T. Blake
12/18/2019 at 13:40

It’s possible. There’s two ST swapped TC’s in the UK somewhere.

Define cheap. If cheap means around $1k? Yeah I’m in.

M.T. Blake > i86hotdogs
12/18/2019 at 13:41

$1,000 might get the paperwork completed.

i86hotdogs > M.T. Blake
12/18/2019 at 13:42

They’ll make me a Shelby Transit Connect badge and kindly tell me to buzz off.

M.T. Blake > i86hotdogs
12/18/2019 at 14:04

Might be worth it!

Discerning > M.T. Blake
12/20/2019 at 12:48

I went there too. I was only there for 15 minutes. I looked at the cars in the lobby and learned how much the tour was and did a hard pass.

I asked the receptionist also if they still had his GT40's on display - which was literally the only reason I stopped in.

T urns out his family sold them all of a while ago. Womp womp. They were the only cars I was remotely interested in.

haveacarortwoorthree2 > M.T. Blake
12/20/2019 at 13:25

Shelby himself seemed pretty willing to put his name on about anything for $. After his passing, his family seems even more determined to milk the name for all they can while the milking is still good.

M.T. Blake > Discerning
12/20/2019 at 13:43

Bummer. Doesn’t surprise me they sold nearly everything. He wasn’t always as popular, famous, or rich as he was right before he died.

Tour was free when we were there.

M.T. Blake > haveacarortwoorthree2
12/20/2019 at 13:44

I imagine it can be hard to turn down boat loads of money.