RC, tunnel mounted stick shift sports cars have had more appeal in the US because of decades of domestic cars with very slow shifting automatics and even worse column mounted manuals. So floor mounted sticks were always seen as something better. It got into the foreign sports car culture and has stuck there, though now it is fading slowly. You would be hard pressed to even find one manual transmission drivers ed car in the US now.

Nicks right, your gen Shelby is definitely a nutjob purchase for old guys in the US, the new Shelby might become a different story unless the new Camaro ZL1 just obliterates it.