Part-time racer and chicken farmer Carroll Shelby ordered a chassis from AC Cars in England in 1961, and asked them to install a Ford V8 engine in it. The AC Ace was fitted with the same rear diff as that used in the Jaguar E-type, and so when the car arrived in the Shelby workshop, it proved easy to modify thanks to the simple AC layout.
Glen Smale's books include Porsche 917: The Complete Photographic History; Jaguar E-type: Portrait of a Design Icon (for which he received the Laurin and Klement "Design Writer of the Year" award in 2007); and Porsche 956/962: A Photographic History. Glen is also editor of Porsche Road & Race, an online journal. He lives in Carmarthenshire, Wales.