Shelby little involvement in creating the Cobra

[Trevor Legate]

All very true Buzz! When I first started on a Cobra book project circa 1979, I went to visit the handful of people in the UK who sold and owned Cobras and everyone said the same thing - it was the shape. The performance and noise was pretty darn good as well (of course) but the first thing that grabbed them was the look of the thing. It's is the perfect sports car shape even it was 'designed' more by accident (although Alan Turner at AC deserves huge credit for smoothing out the lines of the Tojeiro/Barchetta that AC purchased from John Tojeiro)

Having read the Shelby biography, and believed some of it, he always intended using the Cobra name because to him, it sounded right. It could have also been applied to the Austin Healey 3000 had Donald Healey liked the idea, or a Jensen or an Aston Martin. It just happened to be an AC. Fortunately.....

[What'saCobra?]

Whilst the early 260/289's were certainly AC Cobras and sold and raced as such, I would have little beef with calling all the 428/427's Shelby Cobras or Ford Cobras (with which the latter, FORD would have strongly disagreed, to lower liabilities).

AC billed FORD for the chassis and FORD netted the remittances from the Ford dealership sales with the standard engine and tranny invoices and sent the net to Shelby, minus some adjustments. Care was taken to show a modest taxable profit at Shelby for auto sales, helped after 1964 by GT 350 (etc) sales.

Shelby also was a sub-contractor to FORD for various projects, eventually including GT40 racing against Ferrari. In truth, Shelby American made precious little profit and without the Goodyear franchise and FORD projects might have also been scored as a Reventlov "hobby loss" entity by the IRS.

For instance, once FORD dropped any subsidy of the 289, all factory racing and manufacture stopped nearly overnight. So an otherwise fine classic car dropped off the edge of the world. It could not pay its way. But, it was a fine car in every way, but consumed by its own excesses as expressed in the 427's.

To my tastes, the sweeter racer and streeter were the BProduction 289's, without the excesses and drama-queen Webers... Lighter, quicker on tight tracks and less "fat a$$" bad boy image. Mine were always confused with Healeys, until the light changed. They were really great "Q" ships. No side pipes were tattletaling the punter's risk. 140 MPH at 7000 RPM was more than enough on the street. And little money easily brought around 350 HP. With the same street HP as the better Vettes and over 1000#'s less weight, Chevies were doomed.

When I bot ex-factory Bp racer CSX 2137 for $3750 in 1971, it became my favorite forever. Simply wonderful sportier. Very serious sleeper. 1900 lbs or so. Sunoco 260 and 10:1 heads. Firestone GP race rain tires on the street.

More is not always better. Ask Donna Mae Mims. Smarter is better. Adding lightness always pays. Ask Leon Musk. And Lotus' chairman Chapman.

Similarly, once the FORD 427 and Hemi blocks were outlawed by NASCAR, it's use to FORD disappeared and the Cobra 427/8 cars were lost forthwith. Of course, neither did they sell; in my opinion, because they were too expensive and excessive compared to 'Vettes and Jags. Too much fender, too much fuel and too much $$. Big depreciations were killer.

Frankly, my dear, I think the loss of the AC Cobra 289 to the excesses of simply too much of everything was a sorry day.

Terrible price to pay for a few seconds (or less!) per lap.

[A-Snake]

FWIW, By far the most used term on SA invoices for 289 Cobras in total was 'Cobra Ford'. The most used term for the 260 Cobras alone was 'Shelby AC Cobra.'