[Excaliber]

While there is some substance to the Healey with a Chevy engine story I think it is misleading to state it exactly like that.

Shelby looked at a lot of potential cars for his master plan of building a "light weight" American V8 race car. Oldsmobile was also considered as an engine option, which indeed he DID use in the Series One. It was Healey himself that wasn't interested, but in the end I'm not so sure Shelby would have gone that way anyway.

While he was considering a LOT of options I'm sure he went through a LOT of "what if's".

Wasn't it an MGT-C or D that Shelby raced very early in his career with an American V-8? Perhaps a Ford FLAT HEAD V-8? That would have been a logical choice in the early 50's as the Ford flat head was the "hot rod motor" at that time.

,,,and of course the infamous Buick powered "Old Yeller". Shelby wasn't the first with a light weight V8 powered car, but he certainly was the most successful with that formula.