Classic Car Reviews: 1965 Shelby Cobra

The Anglo-American partnership which spawned the Shelby Cobra may have been a financial disaster, but the car they produced became a motoring icon. A flamboyant Texan racing driver, the might of Ford and a small British car company combined to create a formidable automobile.

AC Cars had happily been fitting the reliable but antiquated Bristol straight six engine to their models for many years. When Bristol stopped production of the power unit in 1961, AC located a successor in the 2.6 liter Ford Zephyr engine. It was in the same year that the company received correspondence from Carroll Shelby requesting one of their Cobra models to be made for him, but adapted to accept a V8 engine.

Carroll Shelby was already a highly successful and respected member of the international racing community. Drawing on previous experience of driving sports cars produced in partnership by Cadillac and the small British Allard firm, he realized the potential of an Anglo-American effort.

Over the next few years Shelby and AC developed the new car, adding ever larger engines along the way. The ultimate example came in October, 1964, when the 427 Shelby Cobra underwent its first test runs at Silverstone in England. A press launch followed in January 1965 at the Riverside International Raceway in California. Production of the radical and potent machine began the next month.

The car featured a tubular frame with lightweight aluminum bodywork and a coil sprung chassis. The Cobra's incredible performance came from a seven liter, 427 cubic inch V8, producing over 425 bhp at 6,500 rpm. Top speed was 165 mph, although the SC version could manage 180 mph. The SC stood for semi-competition. These models were detuned racing Cobras. It took just 4.2 seconds to go from 0-60 mph. With disc brakes all round it was effective at stopping too. It was rumored that, when speed limits were introduced on British motorways in the 1960s, the performance of the Cobra was one of the reasons for them. A racing Cobra had been tested on the M1 motorway at extremely high speed.

The Shelby Cobra proved to be an extremely successful racing car. Today SC Cobras can fetch around $1.5 million at auction due to their extreme rarity. The popularity of the car can be gaged by the number of replicas that are available on the market. Many kit car companies produce Cobra lookalikes which can be fitted with a variety of engines.