I think this discussion is a bit moot. It really is a Ford vehicle and Ford at the time was truly a world power in the automotive industry. All of the "privateers" had close associations and ties with Ford, whether it be Ford of England as a desine studio, Alan Mann, Shelby America, Holman-Moody, as racing teams, and development engineers, or the various suppliers. They were all attached to Ford through the pocketbook. The fact is that Ford is an American company. They bought the expertise were they found it, so the origins can not be attributed to a single country. A lot of people had a big hand in this.
I think that 'ol Shel' wants to suck up all the glory and claim credit for the whole thing, typical of his style. He probably had less to do with the overall success than several other people and organizations. To hear the "political" stories from the racers and the other teams regarding Shelby, sometimes it seems that success was achieved in spite of his activity.
When you look at the 1966 Le Mans race I find it interesting that 55 cars started the race. At the end only 15 were still running. 3 GT40s, 5 Porsches, 4 Alpines, 2 Ferraris and a Marcos Mini GT. Kind of an interesting mix.
I think it is safe to say that Ford of England created the initial design, Shelby fiddled with it in the Mark I stage(without success), Homan-Moody through Ford, developed the Mark II Chassis with the 427 engine and created a car that in the right hands was successful. Shelby lent the public relations and a whole lot of other talented engineers and drivers who became legends in their own rights applied the final bits and pieces to make it work. For one country or person to claim credit for the whole thing is absurd.
Incidental, the tail lights on the Mk IIs are Chevy's. In fact to make it worse, they are Corvair lights. Small, round and cheap.
