Carroll Shelby, legendary car builder and racing champion, dies at age 89

Carroll Shelby, an international automotive icon who rose from a bed-ridden childhood in Texas to build one of the most iconic sports cars ever and become a world-champion racer died Thursday at the age of 89 after a lengthy illness. His cars will live forever.

A winner at Le Mans in 1959, a driver in everything from Formula 1 to the Bonneville Salt Flats, Shelby's lasting impact will be the cars he built, namely the Shelby Cobra that beat Ferrari in Europe and his variations of the Ford Mustang that he was involved with from the 1960s through his death.

Throughout his career, Shelby battled and overcame his physical limitations, from racing crashes to a congenital heart defect that required several surgeries and eventually a heart transplant in 1990.

Born Jan. 11, 1923, in Leesburg, Texas, Shelby was the son of a rural mail carrier. After being confined to bed for much of his first several years, his heart grew strong enough for Shelby to take an interest in cars. During World War II, Shelby served as a flying instructor, and wrote letters to his fiancée by putting them in flying boots he'd drop on her farm.

Married with children after the war, Shelby began a racing career that quickly rose to international acclaim. After rushing to the track for his early races wearing the same bib overalls he wore at his chicken farm, the look became his trademark. Sports Illustrated named him driver of the year in 1956, and Shelby won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1959 -- driving some races with a nitroglycerin tablet under his tongue.