Shelby little involvement in creating the Cobra

[REAL 1]

Originally Posted by Joe's Garage

Another one who knows not of what he speaks -

AC ACE History
Early cars used AC's elderly 100 bhp (75 kW) two-litre overhead cam straight-six engine (circa 1953)

From 1956, there was the option of Bristol Cars' two-litre 120 bhp (89 kW) straight-six with 3 downdraught carburettors and slick four-speed gearbox.

In 1961 a new 2.6-litre (2,553 cc /155.8 cu in) straight-six 'Ruddspeed' option was available, adapted by Ken Rudd from the unit used in the Ford Zephyr. It used three Weber or SU carburetors and either a 'Mays' or an iron cast head. This setup boosted the car's performance further, with some versions tuned to 170 bhp (127 kW), providing a top speed of 130 mph (209 km/h) and 0–60 mph (0–100 km/h) in 8.1 seconds.

Had AC not hooked up with Shelby I'm sure a much more refined AC ACE would have continued to evolve, the Ruddspeed was a formidable racer in its' own right at the time. Shelby came along and continued what AC had already started. As I said in post #103, Brits were the first to put V8's in the ACE, not Shelby.

The fact is, Shelby was a value-added re-seller for AC Bristol in the USA and nothing more. Give credit where credit is due, Shelby stuffed a larger V8 in a British roadster and called it a "Cobra", that's it. This whole thing reminds me of the history surrounding Tesla vs. Edison. Edison gets all the credit but it was done on Tesla's back using his inventions and patents.

Except for his misstatement about the engine size at the end of Rickd's post he is dead nuts right and all you are doing is speculating while giving us a dissertation on AC engine sizes. Your analogy of Edison and Tesla is also fallacious.