Corvettes in a Sea of Fords: Celebrating Carroll Shelby at the Petersen Auto Museum

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Corvette Stingray & Shelby Daytona designer Pete Brock joined a VIP panel to reminisce about Carroll Shelby’s life.

The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles holds a themed cruise-in the last Sunday of every month. This month, the Peterson hosted Bruce Meyer’s All-American Cruise-In to celebrate the life of Carol Shelby and honor the recent blockbuster film, Ford v Ferrari. While Shelby Mustangs, Cobras, Ford GTs, and other classics stuffed the garage and display areas, Corvette Forum found a few Corvettes sparkling in the blue oval sea. More on this in a moment.

Legendary C2 Corvette Stingray designer Pete Brock joined the festivities, participating in a VIP panel discussion about working with Shelby. After leaving GM, Brock joined Shelby to open a racing school. He was Shelby American employee number one and went on to design the stunning Shelby Daytona Coupe. During the panel, Brock reminisced about meeting Shelby and having to sideline the Daytona Coupe in favor of the Ford-sponsored GT40 program. In fact, Brock said the Daytona was faster than the GT40 (Mark I) when equipped with the same brakes.

As for the Ford v Ferrari film adaptation, Brock mentioned a few things the filmmakers got wrong. First, Brock said Shelby’s Chief Engineer, Phil Remington, played a much more vital role in the ’66 Le Mans victory than the movie depicted. (Ken Miles’ son, Peter, echoed this statement, saying that he wanted everyone to know Shelby’s whole team made the victory possible, not just Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby.)

Brock also answered a question about Leo Beebe. In the film, Beebe, played by Josh Lucas, is one of the film’s main antagonists and in constant conflict with Ken Miles. Per the film, Beebe didn’t want Miles to race at Le Mans and it was Beebe’s idea to have the three Fords finish in a “dead heat,” a decision that ultimately robbed Miles of his victory. Brock stood up for Beebe, saying “Leo Beebe was not a bad guy at all. He was the guy who got blamed for taking the victory away from Ken Miles at Le Mans, but I don’t think that’s really the way it happened.”

However, Miles’ Le Mans crew chief, Charlie Agapiou, and one of Shelby’s close friends, Lenny Shabes, disagreed with Brock. Shabes spoke of Shelby “never forgiving Beebe” for the photo-finish idea. And Agapiou said, “Leo Beebe was always getting in the middle of things when I don’t think he should have been. [Beebe] didn’t really like [Miles] that much because [Miles] was getting too much publicity and Ford wasn’t getting enough publicity.” Regarding the decision to end the race with a dead heat, Agapiou said, “I really believed it was [Beebe ] in the middle of all that.” Also, both “Ford and the French people knew there was no possible way there could be a dead-heat. So they kind of conned Ken.”

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Ford v Ferrari Corvette

Ford v Ferrari production staff turned this particular C2 into the Roger Penske Chevrolet mid-60s Corvette race car. As you can see, it started as a blue coupe.

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Superformance Corvette Grand Sport Replicas

Can’t afford to buy some of the most collectible cars ever made? We feel your pain. Superformance creates licensed replicas of amazing cars and can customize them with classic or modern drive train components. They aren’t cheap either, but they’re more attainable than the originals. And the pictured blue Grand Sport is currently for sale at Hillbank Motor Corporation in Irvine, CA.

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Premiere Edition Convertable

Lastly, we have a 2014 C7 Premiere Edition Convertible Stingray. Number 33 of 550 built, this car features Limerock Green paint, a Brownstone suede interior, the Z51 package, and 3LT trim. And it looks minty fresh. Congrats to the owner.

Regardless of whether or not your heart bleeds for bowties or running ponies, the cruise-in cars were universally stunning. And the VIP panel was a terrific glimpse into the life of an auto industry legend. To learn more about the Petersen Automotive Museum and its exhibits, please visit www.Petersen.org.

Photos by Michael S. Palmer for Corvette Forum

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