As it renovates its world headquarters campus, Ford is removing the name of legendary racer and wheeler-dealer Carroll Shelby from two area streets, replacing the historic name with ones more reflective of the automaker’s current product line.
Carroll Shelby Way West will become Raptor Way, while Carroll Shelby Way East will become Navigator Avenue. The names will switch in May, when Ford plans to start converting its Product Development Center into labs, meeting space, Ford Racing offices, and an employee fitness center. The project, which will also see Village Road become Mustang Alley and South Pond Road renamed Bronco Bend, is scheduled for completion in 2029.
Ford revealed the street-name changes in an April 9 update on the renovation of its 350-acre campus in Dearborn, Michigan, which will also see the automaker replace its iconic Glass House office building with a new structure.
“Ford made the decision to rename several private roads to reflect iconic Ford products, as part of our broad strategy to infuse our employees’ work into our campus design,” A Ford spokesperson said in a statement to Automotive News in response to a question from the industry trade journal about the change. “We are always evaluating additional opportunities to connect to our Ford history.”
Carroll Shelby Way dates back to 2012, when Ford received permission from the City of Dearborn to rename the two road segments following Shelby’s death in May of that year (Ford is once again reportedly working with the city to get the streets renamed). At the time, a Ford statement said the street name would give engineers “a daily reminder of Carroll’s way.”
The new names are a better reflection of Ford’s current priorities. The automaker is still churning out performance cars, but full-size trucks and SUVs are the cornerstone of its business. The F-150 remains the bestselling light-duty vehicle in the United States, and pricier derivatives of its basic platform, like the Raptor and Lincoln Navigator, add higher profit margins on top of that volume.
And while Shelby’s partnership with Ford in the 1960s is legendary, he was always a free agent and kept Ford at arm’s length from the 1970s to the 1990s after a falling out with the Blue Oval. A less memorable partnership with Chrysler followed. Shelby was only welcomed back into the fold in the early 2000s, when his name began appearing on Mustangs again, as well as a couple of concepts.
Ford is no longer using the Shelby name on the Mustang, leaving that to Shelby American. But Ford’s revamped headquarters won’t have a Dark Horse Drive or GTD Road, either, and that admittedly seems appropriate for an automaker that’s far removed from the 1960s days of Total Performance. Ford’s in its Total Truck era now.
Got a tip? Send us a note at tips@thedrive.com.