Posts Tagged: Shelby Cobra
Shelby rated the 1965 Cobra 427 at 410 horsepower in street trim and roughly 485 in competition specification, numbers that made it the fastest American road car of its era. So where does a figure like 575 horsepower come from? The answer involves continuation cars, modern crate engines, and a shape that never stopped being built. Here is how to tell the original numbers from everything that followed.
A collector spent years tracking down a genuine Shelby Cobra, a rare AC Ace, and a numbers-matching 1968 Shelby GT500 — three of the most coveted names to come out of Carroll Shelby’s era. He never got to finish restoring any of them. Now his daughter and her husband are working through the list, one barn-worn classic at a time.
Carroll Shelby’s Cobra started as an opportunistic phone call to a small British manufacturer about to lose its engine supplier, and it ended as one of the most feared shapes in racing. This 1964 289 roadster changed colors partway through its restoration, which is an appropriate twist for a car whose entire history is built on improvisation. The 289 cars are lighter, sharper and more usable than the big-block monsters that followed. Read on for why the small block Cobras have their own devoted following.
CNN doesn’t usually cover classic cars, but this 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake earned a rare mainstream feature built around its extreme rarity and a documented, unusual ownership history. Built in famously small numbers by Carroll Shelby’s shop, the Super Snake pushed the already fearsome 427 Cobra platform to its absolute limit with almost no concession to comfort. One commenter’s father sold Cobras from a 1960s Ford dealership and had stories to match. Watch to see why this one earned its nickname honestly.
A Shelby Cobra doing donuts on what looks like an office floor, filmed back in 2011, comes with a title that gives away exactly how things ended at home. Behind the joke is one of the most significant nameplates in American performance car history, Carroll Shelby’s lightweight, big-block giant-killer that’s spawned a massive replica culture since original examples became nearly unobtainable. See why this clip still finds new viewers well over a decade later.
The AC Cobra Mark III started life as a British roadster body flown to Los Angeles with an empty engine bay, and ended up as the car that forced a national government to invent a speed limit. Along the way it collected a Jaguar differential, an MGB steering rack, a Volkswagen steering column, and a Ford 427 side-oiler that made 425 horsepower. One example later sold for $5.5 million. Read on for how a hurried eleventh-hour decision produced all of it.
This all-original 1967 Shelby Cobra is a Street Car variant, nicknamed the Gentleman’s Cobra by enthusiasts, built with a smoother 428 big block instead of the legendary 427 side-oiler that powered its track-focused siblings. V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week breaks down what separates it from the side-piped, roll-barred Competition Cobras most fans picture, while commenters debate its value, its rarity, and whether it even counts as a muscle car at all. Watch the full breakdown.
A routine wrap-up video at a local car show turned into something no one on the TCcustoms crew expected to film. A big block Shelby Cobra replica, built with far more muscle than its classic lines let on, didn’t make it out of the parking lot the way it rolled in. Nobody was hurt, but the car — described as a genuine monster under that fiberglass body — didn’t survive the encounter intact. See what the cameras caught.
Carroll Shelby dropped a 427 cubic inch Ford FE into a British roadster and accidentally built the fastest production car in the world. But the version that earned that title only exists because Shelby failed to finish enough race cars to satisfy the rulebook, and had to do something creative with the leftovers. Here is how a homologation shortfall created the most valuable Cobra of them all.
Tom Cotter’s Barn Find Hunter uncovers a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/2 Long-nose Alloy coupe and a 1967 Shelby Cobra 427 sitting together in a condemned Charlotte garage scheduled for demolition, with no local tow company willing to move them. Both cars were extracted and consigned to Gooding & Company’s Amelia Island Auction. Watch to see how a rescue this dramatic actually comes together before the wrecking crew arrives.
This 1967 Ford Mustang GT Fastback started life as a documented S-code 390 California car before a ground-up rebuild pushed it to Shelby GT500 specification inside and out, right down to the correct wheels and fiberglass hood. Backed by a Marti Report and sold through Fast Lane Classic Cars, it offers genuine Shelby presence at a fraction of what a real 1967 GT500 now commands at auction. Watch to see the build up close.
Every horsepower figure printed on a 1960s muscle car brochure was a negotiation between engineering and marketing, and both sides cheated. Some engines were inflated on paper to win showroom arguments. Others were deliberately understated to slip past insurance underwriters and racing sanctioning bodies. Sorting out which classic muscle cars actually made the most power means throwing out the window sticker entirely and looking at what these engines really did. Read on to find out which numbers hold up.