We stumbled across The Green Car Journal's "Green Car of the Year" awards ceremony by happenstance and were pretty damn well surprised to see Carroll Shelby sitting there on the panel of judges. After all, he was the man responsible for replacing four-bangers in British sports cars with gas-beer-bonging eights. Nevertheless, Ol 'Shel's back on Ford's gravy train, which, in a way makes us a tad suspect. Why the Merc over the Escape Hybrid? Could it be so the flagging brand can at least receive some kind of award?

Other judges included Carl Pope of the Sierra Club, National Resources Defense Council honchette Frances Beinecke, Ocean Futures Society Jean Cousteaum Union of Concerned Scientists main man Kevin Knobloch, AeroVironment head-bigwig Paul MacCready and the man who once dropped Burt Reynolds in a New York City street fight, Mario Andretti.

Related:
Shelby, West Coast Customs to Build Limited-Edition Mustang [Internal]

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