English Roots
The United States has had a long history of importing things and ideas from other countries and making them uniquely our own. Thus the Magna Carta became the Bill of Rights, African and Irish rhythms merged to become Rock-n- Roll, and beer became something called Budweiser.
The Shelby Cobra is another example of Americanizing an item
The Old World origins of the Cobra came from Surrey, England, in the form of a sports car. The car was manufactured by AC Cars of Thames Ditton and it was called the Ace. The Ace was a lightweight, open topped sports car that was beautifully styled for speed. Its aggressive front opening merged down the chassis with classic, flowing lines that suggested speed even when the car was standing still. The Ace had a very effective 6-cylinder Bristol engine under its bonnet, which resulted in a respectable performance on the British racing circuit. The little car even took tenth overall at Le Mans in 1957.
In 1961, AC Cars found themselves in a spot. The Bristol engine company discontinued production of the 6 cylinder engine, and AC was getting ready to settle for a slightly inferior Ford Zephyr 6 cylinder engine. Then the cowboy appeared. Technically, he wasn't a cowboy; he was a Texan and a chicken-farmer-turned-racecar-driver-turned-auto-engineer. To your average Briton, though, that large black Stetson signaled "cowboy", and his unorthodox proposal reinforced that perception.
Carroll Shelby knew about the Ace, and he took a liking to the stylish little car. He also thought the Ace could use a V8 engine in it. When Shelby proposed the idea to Charles Hurlock, owner of AC, he had no idea where he would get a V8 that would fit inside the engine compartment. He was sure one would show up, though, so he made the proposal. There is no record of Hurlock's reaction, but once his good breeding had reasserted itself, he wrote back to Shelby saying he was open to the idea, if a suitable engine could be found.
New World Branches
Another European import that Americans had received and then Americanized was the internal combustion engine. Ford Motor Company had been tinkering around with engines for about sixty years when Bristol Engines decided to discontinue their old 6-cylinder. One of the latest tinkering projects had been figuring out how to make a V8 engine smaller and lighter without melting or sacrificing power. They finally figured out how to do it about the time that Shelby figured out he needed one.
It didn't take Shelby very long to find out about Ford's new thin wall 8 cylinder engine, and it took even less time for him to convince Hurlock that this was The One. In February, 1962, Shelby received shipment of an Ace chassis, minus the engine and drive train. The small block engine was already patiently waiting at the Los Angeles production facility. Less than eight hours after receiving the Ace, Shelby and his team installed the new engine and connected a Borg-Warner four-speed transmission. A few nights earlier, a name had come to Shelby in the middle of the night. The name was "Cobra", and it seemed a fitting label for the car he was about to create.
Once Americans have improved on an idea, the next step is to show it off. Carroll Shelby and Dean Moon took the new Cobra out for a drive, hoping to bait some Corvettes into a street race. No Corvettes were found, so the little Cobra crept quietly back into its den.
The next month, Shelby-American began tooling up for mass production of the Cobra, and Shelby invited Ray Geddes from Ford to help him manage the business. While Geddes was helping Shelby on the business end, he was also following instructions from Ford to stay in the background. Any business that had an obvious hand in producing a bullet with bumpers was asking for liability issues. The lawyers at Ford were busy enough at the moment, thank you.
The prototype Cobra was called the CSX 200, and showed up at the New York Auto Show painted pearlescent yellow. The response from car dealers was to order some models immediately and then put cash in the bank. Shelby invited sports car magazines to test drive the Cobra, and superlative-splashed articles began showing up nationwide.
There is such a thing as being too popular. Auto dealers wanted the Cobra, car magazines wanted the Cobra, and race car drivers really wanted the Cobra. The problem was, Shelby had only one Cobra. That's right. One.
AC Cars had to do some serious refitting on the Ace chassis before it could accept the engine. This situation slowed down the shipment schedules of the chassis to Los Angeles, which created a delay in production start-up for Shelby. The cowboy was also a successful marketer, and he knew that it would be hard to sell cars if folks knew that he didn't have cars to sell. His solution was simple: he repainted the prototype Cobra after each test drive. This gave the magazine readers, dealers, and potential customers the impression that there were already many Cobras on the road, just none in their town yet.
AC finally was able to step up the delivery of the chassis, but It took until June of 1963 for Shelby-American to produce 100 Cobras. This number was important because the Federation Internationale d'Automobile (FIA) required that 100 cars be produced in a twelve month period before that car could compete in international races.
International Crown
In October, 1962, Bill Krause drove the Cobra in its first race. Krause's poor start, coupled with some problems with the rear hubs, prevented the Cobra from finishing the race. During its short time on the track, though, the little Cobra showed that being one ton lighter than, and just as powerful as, the big Corvettes was a good thing. Phil Remington spent the winter working on stronger rear hubs and by January of 1963 the Cobra was ready to race again.
The race in Riverside, California went a bit better than the previous one. Two Cobras ran in this race, and they placed first and second. Ken Miles drove the second-place cobra that day, and he exhibited some gracious sportsmanship by taking an extra pit stop for a drink of water. The water must have done the trick, because Miles came back into the race and lapped the Corvettes a second time.
That next month, the Cobra went to Daytona and placed ahead of the Corvettes, again. It was not recorded whether Miles brought any Riverside water with him. A Ferrari GTO actually won the race, though. Now that the Cobra had established itself against other American race cars, Shelby now decided that it needed to go international.
In June of that year, the Cobra had passed the 100-in-production threshold and Shelby needed funding to send the Cobra to Le Mans. Ford, oddly enough, didn't want to get involved (the lawyers were still apparently busy). Shelby arranged a deal with Ed Hugus, builder of the CSX 2000, and AC Cars, who was still making the Cobra chassis. AC and Hugus built one Cobra each. The top Cobra finished 7th, and two Ferrari GTOs placed ahead of the top Cobra. The Cobras made a good showing, but clearly there was more work to be done.
Shelby's team in Los Angeles got busy trying to re-improve the improved car. The already-produced Cobras stayed busy, however, and had a fairly good year. The first American to win an FIA race in an American car was Dan Gurney, driving a Cobra in the Bridgehampton 500KM. The Cobra also won the US Road Racing Championship in 1963. These little victories were useful for keeping morale up, and the press positive, while Shelby-American planned how they would dominate the international racing circuit properly.
In order to make a fast car even faster, an engineer has one of three options: more horsepower, less friction, or a combination of both. Shelby explored the first two options with two different cars.
1964 was a busy year for Shelby-American. Working under the assumption that a car with a roof is more aerodynamic than an open topped car with a driver sticking out of it, Shelby produced the first Daytona Coupé. The Coupé was completed in February of that year. Working under another theory that more speed is always a good thing, Shelby took a special leaf-spring Cobra chassis and stuffed it full of a 427 cubic inch big block Ford engine.
Shelby unleashed the big block Cobra at Sebring that year and finally beat the Ferrari GTO in that race. The Daytona Coupé was saved for the 1964 Le Mans, and it placed first.
Automotive Superpower
For the rest of that decade, the Cobra enjoyed a reputation as a winning race car. More significantly, the cobra became a cultural icon. The Shelby Cobra developed a fan base beyond race car fans, and even beyond the muscle car culture of its day.
Shelby-American stopped producing the Cobra in 1967. A good measure of the car's popularity is the fact that it took no time at all for replica Cobras to begin showing up. The replicas continued racing, too, albeit in car club races instead of Le Mans. Among the replica owners, the beefed up 1964 version of the Cobra is by far more popular than the original spoke-wheeled Ace that caught Shelby's eye.
Appropriately, since 2003, the finest Cobra "replica" available is made by Shelby Automobiles of Las Vegas, Nevada. While a car made by its original designer might not technically be a replica, certain features place a wide gulf between today's Shelby Cobras and their ancestors.
The body of the new Cobra is available in fiberglass, carbon fiber, or aluminum. The frame is much stronger than the original and the cooling and heat shielding technology is mercifully top of the line 2008. There's no possible way to improve perfection, however, so Shelby's replica Cobras look exactly the same as the originals, even to an expert. Shelby offers both the earlier, 289 spoke wheeled Cobra and the '64 big block version for fans of either elegance or overindulgence.
Most sports car lovers agree that cars should move quickly and shine brightly. Cobra drivers are slightly different because they think that velocity takes precedence over the paint job. After all, if your Cobra is being driven correctly, no one will be able to tell what that gust of wind looked like; only that it sucked the doors off of their Neon without even stopping to chat. The glorious thing about owning a Cobra, though, is knowing that even standing still, the Cobra is still the best looking car in town.
James Martell is a long-time admirer of Carroll Shelby and his designs. He owns a Shelby Cobra replica and has visited the Las Vegas Shelby American factory many times. James is the publisher of KitCarConnection.com, a website devoted to Shelby Cobra kit cars.
James lives with his beautiful, patient and understanding wife Arlene, and their four children, Adam, Justin, Shelby and Victoria. Arlene graciously allowed James to name their third child Shelby, after the man, not the car. James is lucky enough to live in a beautiful suburb of Victoria, British Columbia, on Canada's west coast. James spends his spare time driving his Cobra, attending car shows and going on cruises as well as developing his website.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Martell
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