[What'saCobra?]

CW
Auto translation wrote 'complitition', i understand. i had never heard of a variance between Shel's 3058 and 3059, either. i did read both the 1997 SAAC opinion and the newest. Perhaps i need to visit the court documents surrounding the charges against Shelby to get the whole story.

Ex-caliper
i cannot add anything valuable to the SAAC article regarding the Shelby issues of the completion series. Frankly, IMHO, i think that the use of 'completion' for those cars is in error somewhat, since the serial numbers were clearly admitted to be fictitious (not from AC). This latter point is further justified by CS's refusal to continue to use the CSX 30XX serial numbers after the CA criminal investigations and the complaints by and agreement(s) with AC Cars, Ltd et al. If CS thought the numbers were correctly "completion" and well and properly within his rights, he would have continually used them, would he not? Wink.

At the time, i did look at the actual AC registry from Brian Angliss's safe storage and those latter-day Shelby chassis were never entered, but all the other history of AC were within the book. [i don't recall the serial numbers of the oldest in the book, but they went way back before the Cobras.]

By the way, the AC factory nomenclature in the Registry further calls our car an "AC 427 Mark III SC", which is consistent with British and AC practice in the middle nineties. The Certification also states that it "...was manufactured by AC Cars Limited using the original Cobra Tooling."

Well, that IS what it says, but those tools had been re-built enough times to be a bit like George Washington's "original" axe, the hickory handle of which was replaced several times and the head of which was replaced at least once, all by the "original" owner.
(Insert laugh track here.)

Further, AC under Angliss during the middle and late nineties also decided not to ship any more cars with those same 30XX serial numbers after the very very few that had already been made (up to and stopping with my 3058, the last AC Cars Limited, England, completion/continuation car). There was really no known reason requiring AC to stop, but it was either an informal agreement with CS, a formal secret agreement or a courtesy. i don't know which or none. Sadly, i recall that they didn't have much available courtesy betwixt themselves at the time of the cross-suits, that's for sure!

The 30xx continuation cars from AC Cars, Ltd, England, were built to the original "as shipped" design specification on record and to original AC drawings. If CS or SA had added gussets or bits attached to "as raced" specifications, if they existed, i haven't seen any. Several knowledgeable persons have seen our 3058 and cannot find any variances between the originals and the AC continuations (3056, 3057, 3058).

i do not know if any variances exist on the McCluskey-built Shelby-claimed "completions". i would expect that the "continuations" would be very accurate (i would expect McCluskey to be rather meticulous about that point in the day), while Shelby's later CSX 4XXX, 5XXX, 6XXX, etc are different in both simple and less than obvious ways. ie: fiberglass bodies in some, non-Girling brakes in others and much more... continuing today.

Beyond these musings,
I know nothing!