Shelby: The Man and His Mustangs

The Man: Take One for the Team

Shelby developed the Mustang GT-H with Hau Tai Tang, Ford’s Special Vehicle Team (SVT) director, chief engineer of the new Mustang and the director of the Ford Shelby Cobra GT 500 project. Vietnamese-born Hau Tai Tang grew up poor, and dreamed that one day he would be able to own a Mustang. “Hau Tai Tang has good ideas -- and is the man who put the Tang in Mustang,” quipped Shelby, who also grew up poor, in east Texas. “My father was a rural mail carrier. At three years old, I used to stand on the running boards and tell him to go faster! I used mules to pick cotton at 6, waited tables and flipped hamburgers in my teens, so I’m really compassionate for the worker,” said Shelby.

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