Best 427 original rear wheel well shape ?

[Cobra #3170]

Originally Posted by computerworks

Actually..there were three configurations of the rear shape:

The Comp cars and most of the street cars were what is known now as 'wide-hip'... broad rear wings with no flare.

The S/Cs had a 1-inch flare pounded into them before paint for street use, but they were Comp cars with wide hip to begin with

And finally, the 'narrow-hip' was a design change that lasted only for a few dozen street cars in the first production run. After they changed over to street production, they tried to minimize the size of the rear fenders, since the street-sized tires left a lot of "air" in the wheel arch opening. A few dozen were built that way...but it didn't look as good as the old way, so they switched back. The 'narrow-hip' had no flare either.

Actually there was a fourth shape, my car was a "wide hip" car and I ordered it with flared fenders, Shelby moved the outer surface outboard but did not add the SC right angle at the wheel opening. I don't know how many cars were done like this but I have had racing tires with a 13.5 " cross-section on with only slight contact with the square tube at the front of the inner fender.
I used to run the Goodyear transAm slicks that were used on Mustangs in the late 60's and early 70's. The rims were the stock factory 9.5" Hallibrands. I believe the tires were about 26.5 tall with a 12" tread and a 13.5 section width, they would probably rub on an original SC.. I would also caution against setting ride heights to get the right look, chassis rake angle has a major effect on roll couple distribution and can really cause major handling issues if it is wrong.