[Dangerous poll #2] Who played the most important role in the Cobra?

m5extc · #1 (**permalink**) 02-04-2010, 10:58 PM

They all did have a hand in it. Ford backed it. There is no denying any of that. However if it weren't fort Shelby it would never had seen the sucess that it did. For god sakes he painted that poor, now blue, used to be cream, 289 car something like 20+ times. Shelby is good at what he does, plus he has always been smart in marketed. Just like Steve Dinan with BMW and Chip Foose and every other household name. There is a reason my glove bow has his signature on it.........

Andrei

RICK LAKE · #2 (**permalink**) 02-05-2010, 03:20 AM

Ac Bristol and Ford made this possible. Shelby is a pitch man. The fact of having one of the best west coast drivers at this time added to this legend, Ken Miles. IMO the real people who played the most important role where the mechanics, engineers, and machinists. No car can win without a good motor that becomes a great motor. This means both Small block and Big block cars. Some of the greatest drivers all where in the right location also. When the stars line up in order, you can do no wrong. I do think it is nice that in the last couple of years CS has acknowledged some of the people who this fairy tale could not have been done without.

Rick L.

James Stern · #3 (**permalink**) 02-05-2010, 03:29 AM

Rick, Time to batten down the hatches. It's not going to be a Cobra kind of day

CobraEd · #4 (**permalink**) 02-05-2010, 04:50 AM

Who the hell is Ken Miles ?

.

Snakebit · #5 (**permalink**) 02-05-2010, 06:04 AM

You don't know about Ken Miles? Pick up a Cobra book and start reading about "Teddy Tea Bag".

Buzz · #6 (**permalink**) 02-05-2010, 06:44 AM

I'm sure this poll was created to stir up some good ol' forum fireworks, but in all seriousness - the bottom line is that Shelby initiated and drove the whole Cobra project. Agree or not with his business decisions later on in life, but one cannot deny that he is the man behind the Cobra.

Others played key roles in contributing towards the development and success of the car, but were it not for Shelby, they would have been working on other things. He pulled the team and the resources together and if some of the great names associated with the car had not been available, he would have found and employed someone else. The names would have changed and details of the car and the history, but Shelby would have forged ahead with his pet project regardless.

We can speculate all we want about the guy who might have met John Tojeiro's mother and convinced her to make him study design instead of pottery as the pivotal figure in making the Cobra a reality; but at the end of the day it all comes down to the one man who made it happen. Shelby.

computerworks · #7 (**permalink**) 02-05-2010, 07:40 AM

Intriguing question.. I can't answer with the "most" important

To create that magic, you need:

A master with the vision, the engineering, the implementation and the design.

Four legs of the chair.

Carroll, Remington, Miles and Brock.

Take away any one of them and the results are considerably different.

SunDude · #8 (**permalink**) 02-06-2010, 04:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buzz

I'm sure this poll was created to stir up some good ol' forum fireworks...

To some degree that's true. I figured this would be a far more interesting topic than something lame like, "What's your favorite Cobra color?"

So far the results and comments are as I expected, with one big exception: I thought Phil Remington was gonna get many more votes...