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

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

Gary Patterson is the President and CEO of Shelby American, the legendary performance car company founded by racing icon Carroll Shelby. A lifelong automotive enthusiast and accomplished performance driver, Patterson has been instrumental in carrying forward Shelby’s spirit of innovation and competitive excellence. Under his leadership, Shelby American continues to produce high-performance vehicles that honor the brand’s storied heritage while pushing the boundaries of modern engineering. The company rose to international fame in the 1960s when Carroll Shelby led Ford’s historic campaign to dethrone Ferrari at Le Mans, a rivalry immortalized in the Ford vs. Ferrari story. Patterson serves as a guardian of that legacy, ensuring the same bold, rebellious spirit that beat Ferrari still fuels every Shelby today. Known for his hands-on leadership style, he regularly test-drives new Shelby models himself, embodying the passion and precision that define the brand. Through his stewardship, Shelby American remains a symbol of American ingenuity, speed, and victory on the world stage.Meet me at Home Service Freedom 2025 ⟶ https://homeservicefreedom.com/Check Out My Social Media:Tiktok  ⟶ https://www.tiktok.com/@officialtommymelloInstagram ⟶ https://www.instagram.com/officialtommymello/Facebook ⟶https://www.facebook.com/thomasmello/My other podcast:Home Service Expert ⟶ https://open.spotify.com/show/4WHQ3ldGThHsP1cfzNF33GLive Q&A submission form:https://homeserviceexpert.com/questions00:00 Introduction to Shelby American and Gary Patterson01:10 The Legacy of Carroll Shelby01:59 The Relationship Between Ford and Shelby03:36 Innovation and Testing in Performance Cars06:01 The Future Vision for Shelby American10:14 Building High-Performance Vehicles11:51 The Underrated Shelby Series 114:03 Timelessness in Automotive Design18:42 The New Shelby Super Snake UnveilingTMM Director / Series Creator - Elaina SlaytonExecutive Producer - Jim Leslie Producer - Bianca Zhou Editor - Paul McAleavey Camera - Cullen Fleming

So let's go ahead. You want to show this off? Sure. From 50 feet 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 Shelby, it's a Ford, it's a Mustang-based car, and it's going to be a badass. Yeah. Right?

A hundred percent. 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. Shelby'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. 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. Find your passion. The money may not be there originally, but I'll tell you what, sometimes it works out. Get ready. This conversation will change the way you think about cars, culture, and carrying on a legacy in business. Hey guys, today is 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 Lamont Showdown in 1966. Ford and Shelby's car defeated Ferrari and went on to win Lamont 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 American automotive industry. All right, I'll end the 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 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, is, you know, evolved through the years.

And that's, it's a great question because it's confusing, right? Ford has built some things with the Shelby brand like GT350. Ford was also involved in the GT 500 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, you know, We put our brand on and 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, you know, on and off since, you know, 96 since I start with the company. I love that. How much of Carol Shelby's DNAs in that thing? Quite a bit. So I worked with Carol the last 16 years of his life. And so I got to know Carol really well. myself and our lead designer and, you know, engineer and also a co-test driver with me,

Vince Loviette. 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 spend time with Carol. We knew that he was all about innovation. So what's one lesson from Carol Shelby's leadership style that still guides you today? I think the primary one is the innovation side of it. 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 v. 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. and there's a lot of background to it and you could pick it and say, oh, this didn't happen or that didn't happen. But, you know, really, the one scene where the GT40 pulls up,

I think they're Willow Springs and they're testing it and they pull out this box and it looks like this huge computer box. You guys have seen that, 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.

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 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. put it on a car. We went out to Spring Mountain. We took it out there. Eight laps later, the wheel had busted into. Oh, my guess. The one on the other side was cracking and losing air already. That's not in the data. Wow. But you find that out when you run it at the track.

Yeah. So they found that out in the 60s. We're still finding out today because computers are great. You could do a lot of things. Try it out. I mean, this is the best of all times. Yeah. But you still, there's nothing that replaces going out and actually trying it. What do you want people to say about Shelby in 50 years if you can look back? I want them to say that they started out with an outstanding history. And they built 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. And 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. Yeah, 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 enthusiasts ourselves. What brought you to Shelby? You know, high performance cars. You know, my dad was high performance enthusiasts still is, but just high performance cars in general. A big Mustang fan. My first car was a 69 Cobra Jet Mach 1, which I still have.

Yeah, you were 16, right? I was. I was 16 with money I made mowing lawns, and I bought that car and, you know, I kept at all these years. So it's been, you know, five or ten years, you know, maybe times a few decades. So, yeah, so that, I was always interested in that and I was always interested in motorsports and, you know, I had 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. 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 Indycars in the late 60s, you know, didn't pass tech. Turbans were outlawed. We also had a hydrogen-powered cobra in 2003. Didn't make sense.

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 about. trying new things. We're going to continue that. I think that's important to be able to try things. And if you fail, who cares you fall forward and then you make. But when you succeed, it means that much more. 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 risk history. But we're just as fast looking out the windshield, not just the rearview mirror. I love that.

That's why the windshield's big, the rearview mirror small. Do you, how many, these will sell in the United States versus abroad. Most likely, these will all sell right here in the U.S. Yeah, they're going to be flying. You know, when it comes to pricing, there's a lot of people who are talking about pricing. What's a lesson you can give me on kind of you get what you pay for? Well, I think you already know the answer to that, right? Because 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. Right. Right. Well, you've got to keep your brand. Yeah, we're not just sticking. and scoops, and we don't want to take the Shelby brand and discount it, right? So when we look at things, we look at that as an enthusiast, as a track person, as a person who 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? Can you share some of the biggest insights that drive the strategy? Yeah, the big insight, I think, is Carol Shelby and what we learn from him about innovation and trying new things. So we've got him on film, if there is such a thing anymore. But anyway, 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. You talked about innovation. 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 power train 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 connectivity? All these things that may be. attractive to the younger people. We want to get them 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 anymore than it is today? Of course. Well, you know, we actually have we have a vehicle that we designed about three years ago. we 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 basically the same kind of thing, but it started with the existing GT-500 in 2020 to 2022,

and it had two nice-sized turbos. But in addition to over 1,300 horsepower, you had a Motech that went with it. And the Motech is an engine, you know, in Power Train Management System, There reads fuel. It reads types of fuel. It adjust power based on, you know, whatever's being put into it. And shift points and things like that. So that particular car was another $100,000. And it made 1,300 horses. And you could put the power down to the point where some of our first customers went out and they went 850s in the quarter mile with a car that really wasn't even designed to run on the drag strip.

but it ran 850s at 162 miles an hour. Wow. That's faster than any of the Ferraris that just went by. You guys really try to build loyalty, like you said, and that's really important because people are buying several vehicles. 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. What is the most underrated vehicle you've ever driven? Oh boy. You know, from Shelby, it's probably the Shelby Series 1. We did those in 99. It was a ground up car. There's actually books written about it.

Sarah and I own one, and we drove it. Actually, we drove it today on Big Sur, didn't we? And that car was a ground-up 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 and 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. That's so awesome. How old were you when you got your first speed? ticket and how fast were you going? You know, that's that's a good question. I can guarantee I was 16. 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. 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 Bain and it's actually you know pretty good. But you know, the cobra's

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 really made an impact. You know, Roger Penske or some of these guys that really made it happen. 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, you know, Henry Ford, you know, if you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. You're right. So what's the biggest mistake that companies make when they're trying to build something timeless like Shelby? I think, 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 the best product. And we're very proud. 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've got the product where you think you need to. 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. And I'm glad you mentioned that. So this one is, it's got pretty loud graphics on it. It's got, they're very aggressive. These are vinyl, and they go up over the back

and down and so forth. 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. And on the interior? The interior, you've got a couple different color choices or stitching. 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, you know, innovation and, you know, what's next and so forth.

And we used to get him in the museum. And he would look around and see all the cars and we would say, Carol, what is your favorite? It's always the next one. The next one. So this is the next one, right? So this one, we started as a super snake concept 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 and development vehicle. And that car ended up being kind of a one-of-one, and it sold for millions of dollars a few years back.

But in 2007, we rebirth the super snake, and it was, you know, based on the GT-500 that we had licensed to Ford at the time. And it was, it started out as 500 horse, but then, you know, we put wheels and tires and suspension and all those, you know, great things, a bigger supercharger. at 725 horses. Okay, so, you know, fast forward. The current Super Snake is 830 horses. 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 loop and turn it in and going,

oh, this is different. And I did a lot of the testing development driving for Carroll back in the day. You know, so this is one of a hundred. Yeah, one of a hundred we're going to do for 26. So very special car, if you look at it and you look at the visual part, it just screams, you know, come get me, right? Or, you know, bad boy. Yeah. But 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 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 in appearance, but it's also in function. It is a, it's definitely a bad boy. What does it feel like today, kind of unveiling it? 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, you know, serious car affectionados. And most of our customers, you know,

we've got a lot of people that are real focused on Shelby. Well, we also have many friends and and so forth in the business. And they've got everything from, you know, McLarence to Ferraris to Porsches and everything. And they've got this. And we take one of these out or one of the other Shelby's. They go, man, I get more attention to 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 sounds cool. 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. Well, we're going to check out the vehicle pretty close now. Okay. I think you guys are really got to like this one. If that's not your flavor,

we've got plenty of other ones and there's always the next one. 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. 850 horsepower. Yeah, that's always a good start, right? 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-quarter view. But when you look at this car, people know the industry from 50 feet away.

You can look at it and say, that's a Shelby because it's got to look to it. And if you say nothing else for somebody in the industry, they know that's a Shelby. And you don't even have to tell them. anymore. Super Snake means it's a Shelby, it's a Ford, it's a Mustang-based car, and it's going to be a badass. Yeah, right? A hundred percent. 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. 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

dino. It's doing it time after time after time. We have a just. adjustable coilovers on this so that you can kind of tune it for what you want to be. Zero to 60. You got a good idea where it's going to go. I can tell you the 07 Super Snake that I had, you know, since day one, that went 1087, 134. This car's faster. So you look at that. So you've got this.

You've got an aluminum hood. You've got the venting that keeps the heat exiting there. It keeps it from creating lifted 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. Right.

So if you're going to be very aggressive at the track, you're going to want that wing. You know, if you've got a lower speed track, you bring that up. So you got more down force, 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 if high speed is all you're doing and it's all straight, you might take the wing off. 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?

It's okay if you got some extra money. We paint the graphics on. Look at the interior. There's a nice El-Cantaro leather. And you got the floor mats and the dorsal plates and shifter. You want to start her up real quick? Sure. Let's go.

Let's hear. All right. Sounds good. Let's see if this thing will run, right? Love it. So if we go around back, you've got the ductal spoils. Yep. Right?

You got all the little Easter eggs like the badge, the Shelby badge, the all-carbon rear diffuser, it really ducks air well, goes through a diff cooler for the back. Look at the big sewer pipes for a quad exhaust. Oh, beautiful. Part of the reason it sounds like that. Then you get a little echo coming off the cement walls and floor here, so it's pretty radical. It is badass. And if you, yeah, it's badass.

I think it'd look good on you. And we know you fit. Yeah, I do fit. Thanks again. Listen, this has been amazing. No problem at all. Really good job. Really appreciate it.

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 this 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. 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 wanted 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.