Tell me about the most interesting person you've ever met...

[BYprodriver]

Carroll Shelby, I'll never forget my 2nd day working at Shelby American. I walked downstairs into the shop where they used to make Shelby wheels in the late '60's. There he stood, a month before his 75th birthday, 3rd heart working like it should. He stuck out his hand & said "Hi I'm Carroll Shelby." I was speechless for a couple seconds as I shook the biggest hand I had ever shaken. I had long thought of "Shelby" being a race car or company, yet the actual man that started it all stood before me, proudly proclaiming that he was the true Shelby!
A common chicken farmer from rural east Texas becomes one of the best race car drivers in the world in the late '50's. Heart problems convince him to retire from driving race cars in 1959, so he decides to start building his own race cars & becomes the best in the world again!

Jake Raby, maybe you've heard of this guy too. I first "heard" of him here on this forum in 2008 when he posted information he was discovering about our IMSB & his new IMSB. In Oct. 2009 Jake posted in this forum he would teach a 3 day class on how to rebuild & upgrade our M96 engines with specialized tools he helped design. I am normally a very conservative person, but I had been wanting to do this to my engine for a long time. Since there were no better options available, based on my sense of Jake's character gleaned from his generous posts in this forum, I made the pilgrimage to Raby Hill in the "sticks" of GA. What I found was a self made man with a lifelong fascination & aptitude for things mechanical, making things the right way with little regard for the cost. Basically exactly as under advertised.

I fear that men like these will be extinct soon and that is why I find them so interesting.