Carroll Shelby is the visionary who brought us one of the best sports cars ever made. This is my small tribute to the legacy he created.
In September 1961, Carroll Shelby airmailed British car maker AC Cars a letter asking them if they would build him a car modified to accept a V8 engine. Ford wanted a car that could compete with the Corvette and they happened to have a brand new thin wall small block engine which could be used in this endeavor.
Pictured: British AC Ace
AC agreed and in early 1962 the first engineless AC was air-freighted to Shelby's Los Angeles facility, where it was fitted with an engine (Ford's 260 in³ HiPo (4.2 L) engine) and transmission. Shelby claims the name "Cobra" came to him in a dream.
Production
The first 75 Cobra mark I cars were fitted with the 260 engine (4.2 L). The remaining 51 Mark I models were fitted with a 289 in³ (4.7 L) V8. Toward the end of 1962, Alan Turner who was the chief engineer at AC Cars was able to fit it with Rack and pinion steering. The new car went into production in early 1963 and it became known as the Mark II. About 528 Mark II Cobras were produced by the summer of 1965 (the last US bound Mark II was produced in November of 1964). By 1963 the leaf spring Cobra was losing its supremacy in racing. Shelby tried fitting a 390 in³ engine, but the car was virtually undrivable. A new chassis was needed! This new car would take the designation Mark III.
It was designed in cooperation with Ford in Detroit. A whole new chassis was built which featured 4" main chassis tubes (instead of 3") and coil spring suspension all around. The new car was powered by the famed "side oiler" Ford 427 engine (7.0 L) developing 425 bhp and attaining a top speed of 163 mph (262 km/h. Production of the Cobra Mark III began on January 1st 1965. Cars were sent to the US as unpainted rolling chassis, where they would be finished in Shelby's workshop.
Racing
AC Cobras had an extensive racing career. Shelby wanted it to be a "Corvette-Beater" and at nearly 500lbs. less than the Chevrolet Corvette, the lightweight car did just that. An AC Cobra Coupe was calculated to have done 185mph on the M1 motorway in 1964, driven by Jack Sears and Peter Bolton during shakedown tests prior to that year's Le Mans 24h race
The MK III was not raced by the Shelby team. However, it was raced successfully by many privateers and went on to win races into the 70's. Interestingly, 31 unsold competition cars were detuned and made road worthy and called S/C for semi-competition. Today, these are the rarest and the most valuable models and can sell for in excess of a million and a half Dollars.
Production Ends
Although extremely successful in racing, The AC Cobra was a financial failure, which led Carroll Shelby to discontinue importing cars from England in 1967. AC fell into bankruptcy in the late 1970s'. The company's tooling and eventually the right to use the name, were acquired by Autocraft, owned by Brian A. Angliss. Autocraft was manufacturing an AC 289 continuation car called the Mark IV. Carroll Shelby filed suit against AC Cars and Brian A. Angliss. The ensuing settlement resulted in AC/Angliss acknowledging that Carroll Shelby was (and is) the manufacturer of record of all the 1960s AC Cobra automobiles in the United States. Carroll Shelby's company Shelby Automobiles, Inc. continues to manufacture the Shelby Cobra 289, FIA 289 and 427 S/C vehicles at its facility in Las Vegas, Nevada. These cars retain the style and appearance of their original 1960s ancestors, but are fitted with all the modern amenities.
Cloning
The Cobra is probably the most cloned car in history; an astounding number of replica Cobras have been produced, to the extent that the originals are in a minority.
Shelby Motors built 22 427 competition roadsters. In 1965, 1 was selected and converted into a special model called the 427 Cobra Semi-Competition Super-Snake. The most notable Super-Snake modification is the addition of Twin Paxton Superchargers. This gave the car an alleged 800 brake horsepower (bhp) and 462 ft. lbs. of torque at an astounding low 2800 RPM. This original model, CSX 3015, was owned by Carroll Shelby himself. It was auctioned off on January 22, 2007 at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event in Scottsdale, Arizona for $ 5.5 Million USD (a record for Cobras, and a record for a Barrett-Jackson sold price)
For a more detailed history, visit Wikipedia's site below.