Even though he passed away in 2012 aged 89, Carroll Hall Shelby will always be celebrated as one of the most daring American race car drivers, and more conspicuously for designing insane American muscle cars for the street in partnership with Ford. And why shouldn't he be? His projects always resulted in sleek, powerful, and ruthlessly competitive machines, such as the fabled Shelby Cobra and Ford GT40.

RELATED: 10 Fast Facts About Carroll Shelby

Notably, Carroll Shelby's drive and determination also enabled him to achieve much more than people know about him. Many may only know about his biggest company that's considered America's best independent sports-car builder, i.e., Carroll Shelby International, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. During his years, Carroll Shelby created many other brands and projects that are still successful to this day. He also did lots of amazing things for other people, even though his journey was a tough one.

Here are 10 obscure facts most gearheads don't know about Carroll Shelby; they cover his personal story, and unknown achievements through which his legacy will live on.

10 Spent Most Of His Childhood Bedridden From Illness

Carrol Shelby As A Boy

Born on Jan. 11, 1923, in Leesburg, Texas, Carroll Shelby never enjoyed much of his childhood. He was plagued by heart problems from the early age of 7. Doctors diagnosed him with severe heart murmurs that made him spend most of his early days bedridden and later with a leaking coronary artery condition called Angina pectoris which affected his racing career.

Carrol Shelby

He would be forced to quit racing in 1960, but by that time Carroll Shelby had lived a supercharged life racing and building legendary cars during the years he was in good health.

9 Participated In World War II

Carroll Shelby First Lieutenant 1942
via: Shelby

Having grown up as a boy who loved airplanes, alongside cars and motorcycles, Carroll would later join the US Army Air Forces in 1941 after completing high school. Aged 19 and eligible, Shelby started training at the Lackland airforce base, known back then as the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center.

Carroll Shelby on the track
via: Texas Monthly.com

After graduating as a pilot staff sergeant, he worked as a test pilot and flight instructor for bomber pilots during World War II at a Texas-based airbase. He never left the USA but played a big role in the war by helping fresh bombardiers and navigators master their craft.

8 His Early Business Ventures

Carrol Shelby Was A Chicken Farmer
Via: WorthPoint.Com

Before turning into a hot-rodder, Shelby initially worked in Texas oil fields and also drove dump trucks in the late '40s. He would then get into chicken farming in the early '50s making a $5000 profit from selling his first batch of chickens. His second attempt failed terribly, with 20,000 of his birds dying of Limberneck disease. During his lifetime, Carroll Shelby also invested in motels, radio stations, and cattle ranches in the US.

RELATED: Carroll Shelby Gets “Snake Charmer” Call Sign From U.S. Air Force

via Summer Rain

The '70s fuel crisis in the US and the Federal Emission Regulations that followed made Carroll leave for Africa. Being a man with an entrepreneurial mind, he started running a safari business and dealing in diamonds, living in different countries like Mozambique, Namibia, and South Africa.

7 A Very Tough Man

This Is How Close Phil Remington Was To Carroll Shelby
via CarandDriver

Carroll started racing at a time cars were unchecked and unregulated mayhem; drivers wore no seatbelts or helmets. He is said to have attended 29 funerals of fellow drivers. But he was a tough man who never gave up. After crashing once, he got facial plastic surgery, and three vertebrae in his neck fused, but still went back racing after recovering. As if that's not crazy enough, after shattering his elbow in 1954, Carroll Shelby was back on track with his hand taped to the steering wheel only a few months later.

Carroll Shelby, a Cobra, and an AC Ace
via Pinterest

Stricken with severe chest pains in the 1960 United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) because of his heart condition, instead of quitting, he put nitroglycerin pills under his tongue to be able to finish. Shelby got a heart transplant in 1990, a kidney transplant in 1996, and lived on 16 more years.

6 Had Deep Love For Chili

Shelby never held back his love for food, and chili was by far his favorite; he started selling his own kit of chili seasonings to the world in 1972. Apparently, Carroll Shelby was the first person to ever organize a Championship Chili Cook-Off in 1967 outside his ranch in Terlingua and was also the principal founder of the International Chili Society.

Chilis Restaurant
Via: TripAdvisor

Shelby inspired his son-in-law Larry Levine, who started a similarly themed restaurant called Chili's, for which Carroll was more than happy to provide the seed money. Today, Chili's is known as a casual restaurant that embodies the spirit of good food and friends. Carroll Shelby was so passionate about the project that he designed the interior of the restaurant and its first menu.

5 Was A Philanthropist

Carrol Shelby And A Child During A Shelby Foundation Event
Via: Shelby Foundation

In 1991, Carroll Shelby started the Shelby Heart Fund, which financed organ transplants for children. It became the Shelby Children's Foundation in 1997 with a broader mission of even helping fund education. Being the principal founder of the International Chili Society, he helped raise over $1 billion for charity during his lifetime.

RELATED: Here’s How The Shelby Mustang Mach-E Honors Carroll Shelby

Carrol Shelby And Children Helped By The Shelby Foundation
Via:: The Shelby Foundation

He also allowed continuation versions of the CSX4000 Series 427 Cobra S/C Roadster to be made from 1995 with each priced at $500,000. From each, $350,000 got donated to his foundation. All of this shows that he was rich in wealth and heart; many whose lives were touched will remember him this way.

Carroll Shelby Won The 24 Hours Of Le Mans As A Co-Driver
via AutoWeek

Once Carroll Shelby ran late for a race while on his farm tending to his chicken. He rushed off in striped work overalls, with the unusual dressing code intriguing his fans even more than his on-track performance. Unlike the other racers who wore customized Dunlop or Suixtil racing suits, Carroll was always in his work overalls, which had become his trademark outfit.

Having made them extremely popular, Carroll Shelby would later wear them on the world stage as a co-driver in the 1959 Le Mans Endurance classic. His team won, and when asked why he preferred them, Carroll said it's because the bib overalls were highly comfortable for him during long races.

3 Didn't Like Enzo Ferrari

Carroll Shelby
Shelby

Shelby was one of the best American racing drivers of his era, Enzo Ferrari noted his talent and asked him to drive for Ferrari. After enquiring how much he would be paid, it became clear that Carroll was to drive "for the glory of the sport and for the privilege of being at the wheel of a Ferrari.” as reported by Washington Post. This severed Shelby’s relationship with Enzo, as he disliked the treatment.

enzo ferrari
via Wikimedia Commons

Late in 1956, Enzo Ferrari held a meeting with seven drivers, prospects for the upcoming season races. Only one of the seven drivers survived that season. Among the fatalities was Luigi Musso, a personal friend to Carroll. Shelby blamed Enzo for these deaths at every turn, with a purpose to humiliate Enzo.

2 Carroll Shelby Was A Hopeless Romantic

Carrol and Cleo Shelby

If jotted down, Shelby's love story would make an exhilarating novel. His charm, magnetism, and belief in love had him dating a former Miss Universe and marrying 6 times. And that's with him not counting his 2nd wedding because it happened in Mexico (2006 Vanity Fair).

RELATED: Carroll Shelby And The Muscle Car Legacy He Left Behind

Carrol Shelby In A Ferrari
Via: The Auto Channel

According to the Washington Post, during training flights in the Air Force, Carrol Shelby would fly over his fiance's farm just to drop love letters. How then can he not be considered a hopeless romantic?

1 Worked With Dodge For 10 Years

1986 Shelby Omni GLH-S
Via: Mecum Auctions

Most gearheads know Shelby for his partnership with Ford that brought us sleek, high-performance versions of the Mustang, but he actually worked with Dodge from 1983 to 1993. Brought in by Chrysler's chairman Lee Iacocca, a man Carroll had worked with during his Cobra days, it was simply a 'cannot turn a friend down' move.

Carroll Shelby and the Viper
via: Histoire de Carroll Shelby

Shelby was tasked with building fantastically entertaining cars to save the company from collapse after some rough years. Cars that got the full Shelby treatment included the 1983 Shelby Charger and the superfast 1985 Omni hot-hatch. After his attention, but would be later known by many as the GLHS "Goes Like Hell S'more" versions. He also contributed as much as he could in the making of the V-10 powered Dodge Viper — a car he considered the spiritual successor of his storied Cobra.