Did the Cobra exist before Carroll Shelby visited AC?

[Turk]

Tom T.
I almost posted a disclaimer that my post wasn't directed at you fearing you might take it wrong. It wasn't. You are always civil.

Bandit,
Taking excerpts from posts and shooting holes in them is a style of debate that lends itself to written debate better than if we were face to face. Not everything you say in your post is debatable, and leaving out things that don't need a response is obvious.

Shelby does get credit for the Cobra and SHOULD for the same reason Jello gets credit for the product. Before Jello, gellatin, water, color red, and sugar were all in existence. It is safe to say Mr. Jellowois did not invent anything. He mixed all those ingredients up and put them in a box. Rest is history, totally useless, food we all love in many colors.

AC does get credit for their part. They were a donor to a noble cause. There is a reason why Shelby did not do this on a Vauxhall, or a Borgward chassis. The lines, the artistic side of Cobra is NOT Shelby's. The old man never claimed to be an artist or designer. He refers to himself as an innovator. Not an Inventor.

We can give credit to others for their contribution to the Cobra.
I am sure AC did not invent round wheels, or doors or windshields. The argument is not why we don't acknowledge all the contributors to the inventor of every component on the car, but the car itself. It is like saying without Texaco, there would have been no Cobra. True, but a pointless fact.

If we start acknowledging who contributed what in the creation of the car, would we have to go back to Brazil for the origins of the rubber tree, and the mines where the iron ore came from?

If Carroll didn't someone else might have is like saying if Bill Gates didn't someone else would have. They might have but they didn't.

I think what irks people is the credit CS gets for something as simple as what he did. Take two things that came from two different places and make something unique out of it that is more than the sum of it's parts.

Other than that he did not do much more. We would be more willing to give him credit if he had invented the Internal Combustion Engine.

Ford and GM and others do it today and use engines made by others to grace their cars, and have no apologies for having created a new car. Can we cut CS the same slack?

GM is using Isuzu engines in some of their trucks, and apologize to no one.

Pete Rose will also be remembered for what he did for the the game. His shortcomings will be a footnote to his professional accomplishments. So will Shelby's.

Why do you have such a sour taste for him in your mouth?

TURK