Background
Rightly regarded as one of the all-time great classic sports cars, the squat, steroidal, tarmac-shredding Cobra succeeded in capturing the hearts of enthusiasts like few of its contemporaries.
Texan Carroll Shelby had gone racing in Europe in the late 1950s and realized that a combination of a lightweight American V8 engine and a proven European chassis was a winning recipe.
Convinced that a market existed for an inexpensive sports car combining European chassis engineering and American V8 power, Le Mans-winning Texan racing driver Carroll Shelby concocted an unlikely alliance between AC Cars and the Ford Motor Company.
The former's Ace provided the simple twin-tube chassis frame - designed by John Tojeiro - into which was shoe-horned one of Ford's lightweight, small-block V8s. To cope with the projected power increase, the Ace chassis was strengthened with heavier gauge tubing and supplied fitted with four-wheel disc brakes.
Weighing less than 200lbs more than a Bristol-engined Ace, yet endowed with double the power and torque, the Cobra turned in a breathtaking performance, racing to 60mph in 4.4 seconds and reaching the 100 in under 12, exceptional figures by early 1960s standards and none too shabby today.
The 260ci (4.2-litre) prototype first ran in January 1962, with production commencing later that year. In 1963, the more powerful 289ci (4.7-litre) unit was standardized. Rack-and-pinion steering was the major MkII up-date; then in 1965 a new, stronger, coil-suspended MkIII chassis was introduced to accommodate Ford's 427ci (7-litre) V8 engine, which in race trim could produce well in excess of 500bhp.
Wider bodywork, extended wheel arch flares and a bigger radiator intake combined to create the definitive - and much copied - Cobra MkIII look.
Shelby's ‘dream team’ of drivers included Ken Miles, Phil Remington, and Pete Brock, who were supported by other racing legends behind the scenes. The Ford-powered, AC Ace-derived Cobra was faster and more reliable then almost anything else produced, dominating the competition in almost every instance.
The Cobra won the U.S. Manufacturer's Championship consecutively in 1963, 1964, and 1965. Shelby would go on to win the hotly contested 1965 FIA World Manufacturer's Championship in 1965 with the Pete Brock-designed Daytona Coupe.
Competition and semi, or 'street' competition (S/C) versions used the mighty 427.
The 'S/C' had been created by the simple expedient of mildly 'de-tuning' 31 unsold competition cars. De-tuned? How does 0-100mph in 8.8 seconds and 165mph sound?
The Cobra set new standards of performance for road cars and was highly effective in competition.
Just 1,000-or-so Cobras of all types were built between 1962 and 1967, and only 356 of those were the ultimate '427' version.
In the late 1990s AC Cars revived the legendary Mklll model with a limited run of 'continuation' cars built on the original 1960s tooling.
The Brooklands Motor Company Group had helped AC with the completion of many continuation Cobras and, when the AC factory was closing, Brooklands’ employee Steve Gray formed AC Heritage as a subsidiary of Brooklands in 2007.
Aided by the recruitment of many skilled ex-AC craftsmen, they began manufacturing official continuation models with original tooling from the AC’s Thames Ditton factory and a reference library of original factory drawings.
These continuations featured hand-formed aluminium bodies, 1966-specification 427ci (7.0-litre) Ford side-oiler V8 engines, and top-loader gearboxes.
