Carroll Shelby was one of the world's first professional race car drivers. At age 37 a bad heart forced his retirement from racing. He started building cars in the back of a tire dealership in Santa Fe Springs, California. In June 1962 he moved to Venice, California. He wanted to build an American sportscar. Others had experimented with putting an American engine into a European car body. Shelby thought he could do it better. He approached General Motors with the idea but they already had the Corvette. They were also not interested in a limited production sports car. Ford, however, was very interested. Shelby also learned that AC Limited in England was having trouble getting motors for their cars. He told them Ford was interested in supplying engines if they would ship him a car to test. They sent a body and Ford sent him a V-8. He and a friend worked all night installing the engine. In the morning they had the first Shelby AC Cobra.