Shelby AC Cobra, pure American product

Take a small British sports car chassis, give it to an American ex-driver with the ambition to beat Ferrari and just about anything else in competition, graft a V8 of almost 7 liters onto it and you get what is one of the most legendary American cars, the Shelby AC Cobra 427.

In 1960, a Texan driver named Carroll Shelby was forced to stop racing due to health problems. And what does a driver do in the 60's when he can't race anymore? He builds cars!

And this is exactly what Carroll Shelby is going to do, his goal is simple, to build the most performing race car in the world, and for that, he is going to look for a chassis not in the United States, but in England where a small manufacturer named AC creates rather performing chassis. The English brand had finished 7ᵉ overall in 1959.

Shelby then agreed to a deal with AC and sent them a V8, a pure American product, as well as a transmission, for AC to mount in what would become the future Cobra

After a series of tests on the Silverstone circuit, the car was presented to the public in 1962 at the New York Auto Show and if its design was already impressive, the characteristics were insane.

If at the beginning the first V8 engines were only 4.2L and 260 horsepower, the powers increased to arrive in October 1963, barely more than a year after its presentation, to the 7-liter V8 of more than 460 horsepower. This engine was the same one that equipped the Nascar cars.

The car was a huge success, especially in competition where the powerful Corvettes were dethroned by the lighter Cobra.

But the AC is particularly well known in GT, the car's favorite field, where it is formidable, thanks to its well-built chassis and its fabulous engine.

The car is therefore well known in long endurance races, which is why a version with a hard top has been developed, the car is more streamlined and therefore offers more comfort for its driver.

But to win Le Mans the simple Cobra was not enough, Carroll Shelby worked on a more powerful and racy version, so the "Daytona" was born, more tapered and powerful, it is it which allowed Shelby to take his revenge on Ferrari in 1964.

The car will be produced until 1966 and the appearance of the Mustang which will then dethrone the more exclusive Cobra, but this exclusivity continued to perpetuate the myth, because many replicas of Cobra are built today from the most faithful to the most extravagant, as the "iconic AC roadster" a modern revisit of the Cobra, but this time the 7.0 liter V8 is inflated to nearly 825 horsepower.

Following the success of his Cobra, Carroll Shelby was contacted by Ford to create the fastest car in the world to win the 24 hours of Le Mans, and gave birth to the GT40.

Thereafter, he will continue to work with Ford to develop supercars always more powerful by improving in particular the Mustang to create the Shelby GT500. The Texan will sign in his last works the Viper, a real modern Cobra, just as crazy with its V10 truck.

It is therefore more than the story of a car, but also the story of a man, Carroll Shelby, a car enthusiast who created what is today one of the most mythical cars in the automotive world.

This car still crosses our time by appearing in certain films like "Le Mans 66", "Michel Vaillant" but also in games, where which (big) child does not have for wish to be able to pilot this legendary car, the Shelby AC Cobra.

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