[Mark IV]

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.

Mazda made the "Courier" truck for Ford, not the Ranger. And later Ford made a Ranger variant for Mazda called the "B" series. What goes around, comes around.....