Carroll Shelby had a thing for speed. First, it was airplanes. During the war, Shelby flew everything from a Beechcraft AT-11 to a North American B-25 Mitchell.
After the war, Shelby tried his hand at a variety of endeavors. He had a dump truck business, he was an oil well roughneck, then he tried chicken farming. He went bankrupt doing that. Lucky for us, because if the chickens had made him a fortune, we never would have had the car we are about to talk about.
Shelby’s racing career put him in a wide variety of machines, with outright wins at Le Mans, Sebring, and the Grand Prix at Riverside, to mention a few. His last race was in a Birdcage Maserati for the 1960 Los Angeles Times Grand Prix. He retired from racing at the end of the year due to heart problems that had plagued him his whole life.
Witnessing, first hand, the quick and nimble sports cars of Europe, Shelby decided that there had to be an American counterpart. An all-around racecar/road car.
Shelby soon opened Shelby-American in Los Angeles, CA. It was initially a performance equipment and customization facility.
Shelby could talk and was a convincing salesman. He saw potential in the AC Ace and, at the time, the company was not in great shape. Shelby convinced Charles Turlock of AC to provide him with a roller chassis (able to accept a V8) on credit. AC prepped the roller, utilizing the short-lived AC Ace 2.6 mode. Stamped it CSX2000 and shipped it off to the West Coast of the USA. He then got Dave Evans of Ford Motor Company to do the same with a 221-cubic-inch (3.6-liter) V8 motor as well as a 260-cubic-inch (4.3-liter) V8 motor, both with transmissions.
Shelby’s team took under eight hours to mate the AC with the Ford motor and start road testing it. To the inner circle, the creation was known as the Carroll Shelby Experimental or CSX0001. It was the Shelby AC Cobra to the rest of the world at large.
Other changes Shelby made included enlarging the fender flares for the larger wheels and tires he felt the more powerful car required, as well as a more sturdy differential. The first 75 cars were powered by the 260 cubic inch power plant. After that, it would be the 289 under the hood.
In late 1962, a major design change was carried out on the front of the car to allow for rack and pinion steering. The new version went into production in 1963 and was known as the Mk. II
Counting the 289 and 427 street cars, competition cars, and semi-competition cars, 998 cars in total were completed. Yet today, there are thousands of Cobra tribute machines in existence, so loved was Shelby’s original creation.
But something about an original really sets it apart from all the fiberglass recreations.
For a machine with such mythical status, it is amazingly not quirky. There is nothing strange or exotic about it. There is a compliment of Smiths gauges taking care of most everything with a Rotunda Tachometer keeping you appraised of the RPMs. With pipes exiting just in front of the rear wheels and proper mufflers, the sound is subdued but still deep and throaty, a sound that lets anyone around know that it means business.
Behind the wheel, you quickly adapt and become one with the myth. It has plenty of torque and power without being off the chart. And the spartan interior is really quite comfortable. It cruises at triple digits without breaking a sweat and eats up miles with plenty of smiles. The 427 may have a more sophisticated suspension, but to me, it is over-engined. It is always on the ragged edge, and the back end can easily kick out if you are too enthusiastic with your right foot. The 289 is a hair’s breath away from putting out 300HP in a car weighing just over 2000 lbs. That is a formula for lots of fun without the mayhem. It is a real-world sports car with extra big, big-time creds. Some of the biggest around.
Another plus about owning a real Cobra… you could participate in one of the (Barn Find Hunter) Tom Cotter’s Cobra tours. There are only two rules to be invited on one of his odysseys. The Cobra has to be real, and you can’t be an asshole. The same as in life. Be real, and don’t be an asshole. Follow those rules, and someday you may be behind the wheel of one of Carroll’s best.
Specifications
| Length: | 3848 mm / 151.5 in |
| Width: | 1549 mm / 61 in |
| Height: | 1143 mm / 45 in |
| Wheelbase: | 2286 mm / 90 in |
| Front track: | 1308 mm / 51.5 in |
| Rear track: | 1334 mm / 52.5 in |
| Ground clearance: | 178 mm / 7 in |
| Engine manufacturer: | Ford Windsor V-8 289 |
| Engine type: | Spark-ignition 4-stroke |
| Fuel type: | Gasoline (petrol) |
| Fuel system: | Carburetor |
| Charge system: | Naturally aspirated |
| Additional features: | Holley 4-barrel |
| Displacement: | 4727 cm3 / 288.5 cui |
| Bore: | 101.6 mm / 4 in |
| Stroke: | 72.89 mm / 2.87 in |
| Compression ratio: | 11 : 1 |
| Horsepower gross: | 271 @ 5800 |
| Torque gross: | 312 ft-lb @ 3400 |
Valuation
| Concours | $1,050,000 |
| Excellent | $855,000 |
| Good | $727,000 |
| Fair | $627,000 |
