AC enters the fray

[acaskie]

Maybe my memory is failing me, but I had a later model Ace a few years back. Seems to me it had the same leaf-spring suspension that is in the CS 7000 cars Shelby is currently producing. It also had the same smaller opening on the front clip and front discs.

It didn't have flared fenders, but the car only weighed about 1700 lbs, so the tires could be pretty skinny and no flares were necessary. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that with tons more horsepower, a stronger rear end and bigger tires and brakes would be necessary. That isn't genius, it's what every hotrodder since the dawn of the automobile has done.

The Ace was, for it's time, one of the lightest, most nimble and successful sports cars as well as the best looking. Shelby didn't pick it to drop a big motor into just for the heck of it. The Ace was the perfect choice.

There is no question that much of the allure of the Cobra derives from it's classic and graceful bodywork. That wasn't Shelby's design. If anything, the 427 body style, which he had more input into designing, is a much less graceful, more bloated, and clearly derivative effort.

Does anyone think that if Shelby had picked, say a TR3, to drop his Detroit motor into, that it would have the same following today? Would everyone be falling all over themselves saying how beautiful the design is? Would it still be the most copied bodystyle in the replica market? I don't think so.

It's true that AC no longer had a motor to put in their pretty little chassis, so putting the Ford V-8 into it worked out for everyone. They owe a lot to Shelby for his foresight, but without AC, I'm not sure that Shelby wouldn't just be a footnote either.