American Innovation At Its Best: The Ford vs. Ferrari Story with Shelby CEO Gary Patterson

What this episode is about

The discussion delves into the legacy of Shelby American, led by CEO Gary Patterson, highlighting its origin with the iconic Cobra and the pivotal role played by Carroll Shelby in the historic Ford vs. Ferrari rivalry. Patterson emphasizes performance and passion in automotive culture, reflecting on the company's rich history and continued innovation in high-performance vehicles.

Key takeaways

• A Shelby screams performance from 50 feet—iconic design with a legacy of legendary speed.
• Innovation is the heartbeat of Shelby; testing trumps computer data every time in automotive evolution.
• Gary Patterson: a leader who tests his creations—a rare breed in a world of desk-bound executives.
• Carol Shelby's spirit endures in every model, embodying grit and resolve in an ever-evolving market.
• Ford and Shelby: a classic partnership where creativity thrives amidst the complexities of brand ownership.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Tommy Mello (Host) · 9 min speaking
• Gary Patterson (Guest) · 14 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Carol Shelby, Shelby American, Gary Patterson, Super Snake
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Carol Shelby
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Carol Shelby, Motech, Shelby Code Red, Go Like Hell
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Carol Shelby, Super Snake
5. 20:00 – 23:22: Carol Shelby, Super Snake

Notable quotes from "American Innovation At Its Best: The Ford vs. Ferrari Story with Shelby CEO Gary Patterson"

• Global programs, continuing the legacy that began with the iconic Cobra in the 1960s. We say we're Shelby American, and performance is our business.

  about Shelby American · at 0:35

• All the car enthusiasts out there. But first, I wanted to give you all a crash course on the history of Shelby American and its founder, Carol Shelby. After an impressive…

  about Carol Shelby · at 1:22

• Ford was also involved in the GT500 under license from Shelby. They don't own the brand. We do, but occasionally, we work together and we come up with a product that they that, you.

  about GT500 · at 2:49

• Brought that to market and right now it's still an off-road. We're finishing up some of those. it was called Shelby Code Red and it's a basically the same kind of thing, but it…

  about Shelby Code Red · at 10:48

• Do you have any favorite books of all time?

  about Go Like Hell · at 13:33

• So, this is the next one. Right. So, this one we started as a Super Snake concept u that we've had now since you know ' 67 there was one of them and it was a bad boy and it was a test.

  about Super Snake · at 15:57

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Gary Patterson — Person · Main guest · 2 mentions · first at 0:30
  He is the interview subject and current leader of Shelby American, explaining Shelby’s relationship with Ford, product philosophy, testing culture, and how he carries Carol Shelby’s legacy forward.
  Passionate, legendary, driven. Our guest today is the president and CEO of Shelby American and one of the most influential figures in American car culture.
• Carol Shelby — Person · Referenced founder / legacy figure · 26 mentions · first at 0:05
  He is presented as the founder of Shelby American and the source of the brand’s performance-and-innovation ethos that Gary Patterson says still guides product decisions today.

Books & papers

• Go Like Hell — Book · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at 13:35
  A book mentioned by Gary Patterson as a favorite, related to car culture and history.

Companies & orgs

• Shelby American — Company · Business focus · 4 mentions · first at 0:21
  The main company discussed in the episode, representing Carol Shelby's legacy in the automotive industry.
• Ford — Company · Collaborator · 1 mention · first at 2:42
  Ford has a historical and ongoing relationship with Shelby American, collaborating on various projects.
  Shelby into mod his F4 GT40 for the infamous Ford versus Ferrari lemon showdown in 1966. Ford and Shelby's car defeated Ferrari and went on to win Lemon four years in a row.…

Products & tech

• Super Snake — Product · Case study · 5 mentions · first at 0:09
  A high-performance vehicle produced by Shelby American, highlighted as a current flagship product.
• GT500 — Product · Product line · 2 mentions
  A high-performance Mustang model that Shelby American has worked on under license from Ford.
• Shelby Code Red — Product · Special edition · 1 mention · first at 10:54
  A limited-edition high-performance vehicle developed by Shelby American.
• Motech — Product · Component · 1 mention · first at 11:10
  An engine and powertrain management system used in Shelby's high-performance vehicles.
  It had two nicesized turbos. But in addition to over,300 horsepower, you had a Motech that went with it. And the Motech is an engine and powertrain management system that reads…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 So, let's go ahead. You want to show this off real quick? Sure. From 50 ft away, you can look at it and say, "That's a Shelby." And you don't even have to tell them anymore. Super Snake means it's a It's a Shelby. It's a Ford. It's a Mustang base car. And it's going to be a badass.

0:16 Yeah. Right. 100%. Passionate, legendary, driven. Our guest today is the president and CEO of Shelby American and one of the most influential figures in American car culture.

0:27 Shel's about performance. Yes, performance is our business. Gary Patterson oversees all of Shelby's manufacturing sales operations and global programs, continuing the legacy that began with the iconic Cobra in the 1960s. We say we're Shelby American, and performance is our business.

0:44 A lifelong racer and racing enthusiast, Gary has been involved in the creation, refinement, and testing of every Shelby vehicle since the company moved to Las Vegas. He's not only a leader behind the desk, but also a factory test driver and team driver, putting these cars to the ultimate test on the track and the open road.

1:01 Find your passion. The money may not be there originally, but I'll tell you what, sometimes it works out.

1:07 Get ready. This conversation will change the way you think about cars, culture, and carrying on a legacy in business. Hey guys, today's a special episode for all the car enthusiasts out there. But first, I wanted to give you all a crash course on the history of Shelby American and its founder, Carol Shelby. After an impressive career as a race car driver in the 50s, Shelby started his own car company, launching the Shelby Cobra in 1962. The Cobra quickly became an icon in American sports cars, grabbing the attention of Henry Ford, who called Shelby into mod his F4 GT40 for the infamous Ford versus Ferrari lemon showdown in 1966. Ford and Shelby's car defeated Ferrari and went on to win Lemon four years in a row. Today, the Shelby American company is Carol Shelby's living, breathing legacy, a testament to the grit, innovation, and brilliance of the American automotive industry. All right, I'll end the

2:06 history lecture here. Let's get back to the interview. All right, guys. Welcome back to the Mellow Millionaire. Today is awesome. We are here in Pebble Beach. I'm sitting here with Gary Patterson with a beautiful Shelby in the background here. Mustang as president of uh Shelby American. Gary Patterson oversees all manufacturing sales operations distribution, and marketing. Obviously, Ford's another company. Can you explain that relationship between Ford and Shelby? Yeah. So that relationship of course has, you know, evolved through the years and that's it's it's a great question because it's confusing, right?

2:42 Ford has built some things with the Shelby brand like GT350. Ford was also involved in the GT500 under license from Shelby. They don't own the brand. We do, but occasionally, you know, we work together and we come up with a product that they that, you know, we put our brand on. We're proud of that. Okay. So, there's nothing wrong with that. We did it in the 60s with the 68, 69, and 70s. We've done it uh, you know, on and off since, uh, you know, 96 since I start with the company.

3:16 I love that. How much of uh, Carol Shely's DNA is in that thing? Quite a bit. So, uh, I worked with Carol the last 16 years of his life. And so, I got to know Carol really well. uh myself and our lead designer and uh you know engineer and uh also a a co- test driver with me uh Vince Leviolet uh he did a lot of the design work on this. Vince worked with Carol also about the last 13 years of his life. So we all got to meet and and spend time with Carol. We knew that he was all about innovation.

3:48 So what what's one lesson from Carol Shelby's leadership style that still guides you today?

3:54 I I think the primary one is the innovation side of it. Um, and then have fun with it and then go test it because Carol was all about, you know, testing and development. You guys saw the movie, right? Ford Ferrari. I mean, who didn't see that? If you're a car person, you saw the movie. So, one of the scenes and, you know, it was Hollywood entertainment. Yeah. But the overall theme of the movie is also very true. So, yeah, it was that time period and it was Ford and it was Shelby and how they teamed together, you know, to take down the iconic Enzo Ferrari. Uh, and there's a lot of background to it and a lot you could pick it and say, "Oh, this didn't happen or that didn't happen." But, you know, really the, you know, the one scene where the GT40 pulls up, I think they're at Willow Springs and they're they're testing it and they pull out this box and it looks like this huge computer box. You guys have seen that,

4:44 right? And they pick this thing up and they throw it out and they start strapping yarn on the car to see what the airflow is going to do, right?

4:53 Right. They go out and they do that and they say, "Okay, based on that, we're going to change this, this, and this." We still do that today. We tried some carbon fiber wheels on a car just like this, right? We looked at all the data in the computer that from the manufacturer. They passed every one of the tests. We said, "Yeah, but we haven't tested it yet." Well, why would you do that? We've tested on the track. We've tested ourselves. And look at the computer data. Okay. Well, let's put it on a car. We went out to Spring Mountain. We took it out there. Eight laps later, the wheel had busted into

5:30 Oh my gosh. The one on the other side was cracking and losing air already. That's not in the data. But you find that out when you run it at the track. So, they found that out in the 60s. We're still finding out today because computers are great. You can do a lot of things. Try it out. I mean, this is the best of all times.

5:48 Yeah. But you still there's nothing that replaces going out and actually trying it.

5:53 What do you want people to say about Shelby in 50 years if you could look back?

5:57 I want them to say that they started out with an outstanding history. Um and they built the the reputation right from the gate, but today they're building some of the best products. Shelby meant performance in the 60s. It still means performance today.

6:13 And you guys you guys are putting these together in Vegas. Yeah, we're putting them together in Vegas. And we got car people running a car company. That's what this is about. You know, we're not people with a bunch of fancy degrees on the wall. We're people that really are passionate about this and are car people and and enthusiasts ourselves.

6:29 What brought you to Shelby? You know, high performance cars. Um, you know, my dad was high performance enthusiast, still is. Uh, but just high performance cars in general. U big Mustang fan. My first car was a 69 Cobra Mach 1, which I still have. Um, which

6:46 yeah, you were 16, right? Oh, I was I was 16 with money I made mowing lawns and I bought that car and, you know, I kept it all these years. So, it's been, you know, five or 10 years, let's just say, you know, maybe times a few decades. So, uh, yeah. So, that I was always interested in that and I was always interested in motorsports and, you know, I had a a variety of different cars over the years and loved running them at the track and so forth and when an opportunity came up to work for Shelby, I took it. We don't look at people in our, you know, in our company as just employees,

7:19 right? We make a lot better decisions as a team than any one person, including myself, can do from an office. Try it out, see what works. Some things do, some things don't. Carol Shelby tried turbine-powered indie cars in the late60s, you know, didn't pass tech. Turbines were outlawed. Um, we also had a hydrogen-powered Cobra in 2003. didn't make sense um at that particular time. That doesn't mean hydrogen's not going to work in some time because technology continues to evolve. But Carol Shelby was all all about trying new things. We're going to continue that.

7:55 I think that's important to be able to try things and if you fail, who cares? You fall forward and and you make but when you succeed, it means that much more.

8:03 Yeah. But if you don't do that, then you know other people in the industry are going to pass you by. You know, everybody sees the movie, they look at the history. It's got a huge wrist history, but we're just as fast looking out the windshield, not just the rearview mirror.

8:17 I love that. That's why the windshield's big. The rearview mirror's small. Do you uh How many of these will sell in the United States versus abroad?

8:25 Most likely, these will all sell right here in the US. Yeah, they're going to be flying. Um, you know, when it comes to pricing, there's a lot of people who talking about pricing. What what what's a lesson you could give me on kind of you get what you pay for?

8:39 Well, I think you already know the answer to that, right? Because that you probably do that in your business. So, we could easily build a car that looks like this for a lot less money, but we won't.

8:49 Right. Right. Well, you got to keep your brand. Yeah. We're not just stickers and scoops and we don't want to take the Shelby brand and and discount it. Right. So when we look at things uh we look at that as as an enthusiast as you know as a track person as a person that drives the car on the street and look for durability and those kind of things. We don't look at the accounting balance sheet right out of the gate. We look at okay what's this thing really going to take to make it work to make it perform to check all the boxes. Let's figure out what it costs. Now we need to look at okay how do we make a business case out of that. what are the biggest goals of the company and can you share some of the biggest insights that drive the strategy?

9:29 Yeah, the big insight I think is Carol Shelby um and what we learned from him about innovation and trying new things. So, we've got him on on film uh if there is such a thing anymore. But anyway, uh in 2011 he talked about electric cars, right? And now everybody's like, "Oh, that stuff doesn't work." But you know what? He talked about that. Uh he talked about innovation. And you know, if I pull my phone out of my pocket and I show you, I said, "Look, I want this technology with me at all times." 15 years ago, you'd say I was crazy. You'd have to pull a wagon. Today, it fits in my pocket. So, we're going to continue to look at, you know, future powertrain, suspension, all the other different vehicle components. And we want to also talk to the younger people and say, "What's important to you, right? Is it colors? Is it uh connectivity? all these things that that may be attractive to the younger people. We want to get them

10:21 involved and so forth as we look at Shelby moving into the future. Sounds like you're having a lot of fun. So, you've obviously upgraded the heck out of this thing. Let's just say you wanted to put another 100 grand. Money is no option. Is there anything that you would do to mod this any more than it is today?

10:39 Of course. Well, you know, we actually have we have a vehicle that uh we designed uh about three years ago. Um we brought that to market and right now it's still an off-road. We're finishing up some of those. Uh it was called Shelby Code Red and it's a basically the same kind of thing, but it started with the existing GT500 in 2020 to 2022. and it had two nicesized turbos. But in addition to over,300 horsepower, you had a Motech that went with it. And the Motech is an engine um you know, and powertrain management system that reads fuel. It reads types of fuel. It it adjusts power based on, you know, whatever is being put into it and shift points and things like that. So, that particular car was another 100 grand and it made 1,300 horses and you could put the power down to the point where um some of our first customers went out and they went 850s in the quarter mile with a car that really wasn't even designed

11:43 to run on the drag strip, but it ran 850s at 162 m an hour. Wow. That's faster than any of the Ferraris that just went by. You guys really try to build loyalty uh like you said and that's really important because people are buying several vehicles. What uh

11:59 what do you think you guys focus on that other companies can't replicate? So Shelby's still like a sports car. We're not trying to be a big company. We're not trying to appeal to the masses. We're trying to really focus our business on, you know, performance.

12:13 What is the most underrated vehicle you've ever driven? Oh boy. you know, from Shelby. It's probably the Shelby series 1. Um, we did those in 99. It was a groundup car. Um, there's actually books written about it. Um, Sarah and I own one and we drove it uh this actually we drove it today on Big Su, didn't we? Um, and that car was a groundup Shelby that had greater dynamics, bringing air through the nose, goes through the radiator, back out under the hood. You guys are all seeing a lot of that stuff in a lot of today's modern sports cars, the stuff built in the last 10 years. We had that 26 years ago. We had some of those designs with the Daytona Coupe and the GT40 back in the '60s. And that's also what helped us beat Ferrari back in that time period.

13:09 That's so awesome. How old were you when you got your first speeding ticket and how fast were you going?

13:15 You know, that's that's a good question. Um, I can guarantee I was 16. Um, I bought that 428 Cobra Jet Mach 1 and you know, my foot was a little heavy and it probably was not an impressive speeding ticket. Something like 57 and a 35.

13:33 Do you have any favorite books of all time? Go like hell or something like that. That's a that's a great book by AJ Bane and it's actually, you know, pretty good. But, you know, the Cobra stories out there. I also like a lot of the books that are not just for Carol Shelby, but they're from some of the other people in the industry that that really made an impact. You know, um, you know, Roger Pensky or some of these guys that really made it happen. And even Henry Ford, you look at some of those guys and what they did from the very beginning. They didn't have it. They had to make it. They had to invent it. They couldn't just go down to the store and get it. And uh you know, Henry Ford, you know, if you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.

14:16 You're right. So, what's the biggest mistake that companies make when they're trying to build something timeless like Shelby?

14:23 I think uh I think they start looking at the balance sheet. They look at quarterly results. They look at spreadsheets that talk about, you know, what do we got to do to make these numbers? They look at that stuff first rather than build uh the best product and we're very product driven at our company and then you've got to build the business case that keeps the company healthy and profitable. But you don't do that first. You do that after you got the the product where you think you need to.

14:50 I love that. What kind of options do I have if I pick up one of these? So there are a few. Not a lot. It's pretty much that's what it is except for you can choose like these graphics here. Um, and I'm glad you mentioned that. So, this one is it's got pretty loud graphics on it. It's got uh they're very aggressive. These are vinyl and they go up over the back and and down and so forth. Uh, very aggressive looking. We also have them that are a different style graphic that's much more traditional without the big lettering and stuff on the back. Whichever one you choose in different colors, you can also choose to have them painted on and not just vinyl. But that would be an option that you might want to choose.

15:33 And on the interior, the interior, you've got a couple different color choices or stitching.

15:37 You want to tell me a little bit about the car in the background? Yeah. Well, that's a bad boy. You know, Carol Shelby was always about uh you know, innovation and you know, what's next and so forth and uh we used to get him in the museum and um he would look around and see all the cars and we would say, "Carol, what is your favorite?" It's always the next one.

15:56 The next one. So, this is the next one. Right. So, this one we started as a as a Super Snake concept u that we've had now since uh you know ' 67 there was one of them and it was a bad boy and it was a a test and development vehicle and that car ended up being kind of a one of one and it sold for millions of dollars um a few years back but in ' 07 we rebirth the Super Snake and it was you know based on the GT500 that we had licensed to Ford at the time and it was It started out as 500 horse, but then, you know, we put uh wheels and tires and suspension and all those, you know, great things. A bigger supercharger, we made it 725 horses. Okay. So, you know, fast forward, um, the current Super Snake is 830 horses. Um, but this one, we wanted to just take it up to the very next level. And the first time we tested it, you know, we come out of the pits and I can still remember taking that first ride on the 2.2 two loop and

16:59 turning in and going, "Oh, this is different." And I did a lot of the test and development driving for Carol back in the day,

17:06 you know. So, this is one of a hundred. Yeah, one of a 100 we're going to do for 26. So, um very special car. If you look at it, um and you look at the the visual part, it it just screams, you know, come get me, right? Or, you know, bad boy. Yeah. But what in addition to that though, it's also very functional. So if you look at the fenders, which are all carbon fiber and they're they're ones that we designed at Shelby in Las Vegas in the front fascia and the hood, all of those are very functional. So they're not only lighter in weight, but they also flow air a certain way. So you have less under hood temperature, you know, less lift at high speeds. So this thing is also not just a bad boy uh in appearance, but it's also in function.

17:53 It is a uh it's definitely a bad boy. Um what does it feel like today kind of unveiling it?

18:00 No, it feels awesome. I mean, it's always fun to, you know, share with people, you know, the latest greatest thing and then kind of sit back and see what goes on. But we're after the guys that are serious enthusiasts, um you know, serious car affectionat. And most of our customers, you know, we've got a lot of people that are real focused on Shelby. But we also have many friends and and and so forth in the business and they've got everything from, you know, McLaren's to Ferraris to Porsches and everything and they've got this and we take one of these out or one of the other Shelbies, they go, "Man, I get more attention in this thing." You know, or I go to the track and I'm running against my friends in their Ferraris and I'm passing them and they're going, "Wow, this thing's cool."

18:41 Gary, if somebody wants something like this, what's the best way to reach out? Okay, so you can go to shelby.com. That's the easiest. thing.

18:48 Uh well, we've we're going to check out the vehicle pretty close now. Okay. Um I think you guys are really going to like this one. If that's not your flavor, we got plenty of other ones and there's always the next one.

19:01 So, let's go ahead. You want to show this off? Sure. Sure. Where do we want to start? I mean, I love this thing. You know,

19:08 850 horsepower. Yeah, that's that's always a good start, right? Who's who's not to like that, right? But it's also 50 state emissions legal and runs on pump gas. If you start at the front, you look at this thing from a front three/4er view, but when you look at this car and people know the industry from 50 feet away, you can look at it and say that's a Shelby because it's got a look to it. And if you say nothing else for somebody in industry, they know that's a Shelby. And you don't even have to tell them anymore. Super Snake means it's a it's a Shelby, it's a Ford, it's a Mustang based car and it's going to be a badass.

19:42 Yeah. Right. 100%. So, you look under the hood and it's not just sticking a supercharger on. We've got a great partnership with Whipple. I've known those guys for decades. They've been good. They've been reliable. Uh, and they make the most power. And they make the most power repeatedly because they've got a large intercooler. So, that power is not just making one big hit on the dyno. It's doing it time after time after time. We have adjustable coilovers on this so that you can kind of tune it for what you want to be.

20:09 0 to 60. Got a good idea where it's going to go. I can tell you the '07 Super Snake that I had uh you know since day one that went 1087 134. This car is faster. So you look at that. So you've got this you've got a an aluminum hood. You've got the the venting that keeps uh the heat exiting there. It keeps it from creating lift at high speeds. You got fenders that vent. Those are made out of carbon fiber. You got this splitter that keeps the air from going up underneath. Keeps the front end down. And then you got to balance that with the rear wing,

20:42 right? So, if you're going to be very aggressive at the track, you're going to want that wing. You know, if you got a lower speed track, you bring that up so you got more downforce and you balance that with what you got going on in the nose. If you're going to go more high speed, you might even get to a track where high speed is all you're doing, it's all straight, you might take the wing off. Um, you know, you get inside, it's a personal preference. Do you want the loud stripes on the outside and all this? Do you like the vinyl? you. It's okay if you got some extra money. We paint the graphics on. Look at the interior. There's a nice uh Alcantara leather and you got, you know, the floor mats and the door sill plates and shifter. And

21:19 you want to start her up real quick? Sure. Let's go here. All right. Sounds good. Let's see if this thing will run, right? Oh yeah.

21:49 Love it. So, if we go around back, you've got the ductal spoiler. Yep. Right. You got all the little Easter eggs like the badge, the Shelby badge, the all carbon uh rear diffuser. It really ducks air well. Goes through a a diff cooler for the back. Look at the big sewer pipes for a quad exhaust. Oh,

22:08 beautiful car. Part of the reason it sounds like that. And then you get a little echo coming off the cement walls and floor here. So So it's uh it's pretty radical. But

22:17 it's badass. And if you uh Yeah, it's a it's badass. I think it'd look good on you. And we know you fit.

22:25 Yeah, I do fit. Thanks again. Listen, this is a good problem at all. Really good job. really appreciate it.

22:32 Thanks so much for listening to this episode. Like always, we're going to close it out with the Tommy truth, which is a little slice of wisdom from me to you that can help guide you in whatever you're striving towards right now. Get your branding right and you'll make more money than you ever thought possible. Listen, I think about this all the time. If I didn't get the branding right, it would cost me 10 times more to acquire a client. I need myself to look memorable. We use this color palette everywhere. There goes one of my trucks right there.

22:59 They're everywhere. I got 80 trucks in town. People say they see my trucks everywhere and they hear me on the TV or radio. I want them to remember A1 garage door service. This is how branding's done. We were $30 million in revenue, okay? And now we're 12 times that. And that's it, guys. We'll talk to you next week.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "American Innovation At Its Best: The Ford vs. Ferrari Story with Shelby CEO Gary Patterson"?

Tommy Mello (Host), Gary Patterson (Guest).

What is "American Innovation At Its Best: The Ford vs. Ferrari Story with Shelby CEO Gary Patterson" about?

The discussion delves into the legacy of Shelby American, led by CEO Gary Patterson, highlighting its origin with the iconic Cobra and the pivotal role played by Carroll Shelby in the historic Ford vs. Ferrari rivalry. Patterson emphasizes performance and passion in automotive culture, reflecting on the company's rich history and continued innovation in high-performance vehicles.

What is mentioned in this Tommy Mello episode?

9 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Shelby American, Gary Patterson, Carol Shelby, Super Snake, Ford, GT500. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "American Innovation At Its Best: The Ford vs. Ferrari Story with Shelby CEO Gary Patterson"?

The episode runs 23 min; the transcript is about 4,600 words in 60 timestamped sections.

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