This is not my story but one that was told to me by my good friend Rodney. First off, Rodney is a 72-year-old Brit who has built some of the most amazing cars I’ve ever seen, from a career building Formula One cars—back when you had to be insane to drive one of those machines—to classic Ferraris and Cobras; he’s done it all and has an amazing collection of cars right down the street. So, he is full of stories and experiences.
He has a perfect GT 350 R replica that he built and, while a visiting friend was at his shop, they took that car to Chili’s. Now, this is a proper race car, race motor and all, so it really shouldn’t be driven on the road, but it’s Rodney, so he does.
While having lunch, an older lady asked, “Are you boys the ones with the Shelby out there?” Rodney told her yes, and she proceeded to tell him that she knew Carroll Shelby. As a long-time car guy, he probably dismissed it a bit, like, “Oh, okay, sure you do.” But she proceeded with a very cool story. She had a Bristol, which, for those who don’t know, is actually the car that the Cobra was built from—an AC Bristol. At the time, Carroll Shelby was a cash-strapped businessman, so he actually wanted to “borrow” her car to test fit a 289 in it. She told me, “Hell no, I wasn’t about to let him tear up my car,” but they became friends.
She was a flight attendant if I remember correctly, and she traveled to many of the races and such during that time, which would have been the late ’50s. She became friends with some of the racers—Phil Hill, Jim Clark, and Taffy von Tripps and, as the story goes, she and Tripps were perhaps a bit more than friends. She began to join them on the race circuit, flying with them, even enjoying lunch with Enzo Ferrari himself on a number of occasions. To the point that her little Bristol would travel to the races on the Ferrari team trailer. I can’t imagine the other stories this lady had from this era of time, but apparently, after the crash in ’61, she came back to the US and left that world behind. That accident was probably quite a horrific experience, so I can imagine her leaving that, especially with her relationship with von Tripps.
She had apparently sent a ton of photos and documents back to the States while she was away, and her mother, who was extremely disapproving of her life choice, actually burned them all. I can’t imagine how much history was lost there.
Rodney kept in touch with the lady, and he says she didn’t share many more stories about that time of her life, and she would never ride in the Shelby. She seemed to have been quite bothered by the memories of that time, but just goes to show you never know who you’re going to meet and what amazing stories you will hear, even in small towns like Rutherfordton, North Carolina.