Quote:
Originally Posted by olddog
It suck's that Shelby sold the Cobra trademark to Ford, and Ford saw fit to use it on the Cobra II. But Ford owns it and can do as they want with their intellectual property. What is not OK is for China to use Cobra on a car that they build to look like an original. Nor would it be OK if Chrysler built a lookalike with a Hemi and called it a Cobra.
AC built cars minus the power train and sold to Shelby. Shelby named the car and trademarked the name. AC Cars Ltd was nothing more than a subcontractor with a legal agreement to build the car. AC Cars Ltd has no right to the trademark unless licensed by the owner of that trademark.
Mitsubishi manufactured the Dodge Challenger in 1980, for Chrysler. Mitsubishi has no right to produce a car and name it Dodge Challenger. Same thing with Mazda making the Ford Ranger truck.
Personally, as far as I am concerned, the present owner of AC Cars Ltd doesn't even have a legitimate claim that what he builds today has anything to do with the original Shelby Cobra. He is building replica (Kit Cars) like everyone else. I hold Kirkham in much higher regard than AC. For that matter ERA, Superformance, Shelby, and a few others would all be higher on my list.
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From what I have read is that AC Cars Ltd. supplied CSX cars to Shelby to be Cobras for North America sales . AC maintained the rights and design of the same car for European and the rest of the world. TomAtoe- Tomatoe Shelby is the registered builder of the car North America and held the trademark on the name COBRA. AC Cars Ltd . design and rights for the rest of the world. The new owners of AC Cars Ltd. is like I told Jeff, he bought a Mini Cooper. Ok did he buy a Mini or just a replica built by BMW? Or Indian Motorcycle if today you buy one are you buying an Indian mc or just some kind of ripoff fake? A Shelby today is a real Shelby but the company that built the Cobra went out business for almost a decade and came back hot rodding four banger Omni's for Chrysler and today not a single person, not a single building, not so much as a screwdriver is from Shelby American that built a car that was made by AC, powered by FORD and built it into the worlds greatest , world beating, world champion Shelby COBRA! And the only car Shelby ever actually made completely on his own was the Series 1 and that he powered with a GM Oldsmobile, Chevy in a Cobra?????