CSX 7015

As with many British specialist manufacturers, AC Cars had been using the smooth, refined Bristol straight-6 engine in its small-volume production, including its AC Ace 2-seater roadster. The engine was a pre-World War II BMW design which was by the 1960s considered remarkably outdated. Bristol, a small independent automobile manufacturer in its own right, decided in 1961 to cease production of its engine and instead to use Chrysler small-block V-8 engines. Non-plussed by this idea, AC started using the 2.6 liter Ford Zephyr in all of its cars. An idea was borne out of this concept and in September of that year, former champion racing driver Carroll Shelby approached AC about building a car that would accept a V-8 configuration. Chevrolet was not interested in providing their new 327ci V-8 due to too much direct competition with the Corvette, however Ford wanted a car that could compete with the radical new Sting Ray from across town. As luck would have it, they happened to have a brand new thin wall small block engine which could be used in this endeavor. The name Cobra came to Shelby “in a dream”, he recounted, and a legend was born. By 1963 the original AC Bristol-based leaf spring Cobra was losing its supremacy in racing. In desperation, Shelby tried fitting a big Ford FE engine of 390ci. Ken Miles drove and raced the FE powered Mark II car and said that the car was virtually undrivable, naming it 'The Turd'. A new chassis was designed in cooperation with Ford in Detroit, then developed by Shelby American and designated the Mark III. A whole new chassis was built which featured 4" main chassis tubes (instead of 3") and a new coil spring suspension all around. Necessitated by the suspension redesign and the wont for a greater contact patch, the car had wide fenders and a larger radiator opening. It was powered by the famed "side oiler" Ford 427 engine developing 425hp and attaining a top speed of 163 mph in the standard model and 485hp with a top speed of 180 mph in the competition model. The production of the Cobra Mark III began on January 1st 1965, three months after two prototypes had been sent to the United States in October of 1964. AC Cobras had an extensive racing career. Shelby wanted it to be a "Corvette-Beater" and at nearly 500 pounds less than the Corvette, the lightweight car did just that. The Cobra was perhaps too successful as a performance car and reputedly contributed to the implementation of national speed limits in the United Kingdom. An AC Cobra Coupe was calculated to have done 185 mph on the M1 motorway in 1964, driven by Jack Sears and Peter Bolton during shakedown tests prior to that year's 24 Hours of Le Mans race. However, government officials have cited the increasing accident death rate in the early 1960s as the principal motivation, the exploits of the AC Cars team just highlighting the potential risk. Although extremely successful in racing, production of the AC Cobra was a financial failure, which led Carroll Shelby to discontinue importing cars from England in 1967. AC Cars kept producing the coil springs AC Roadster with narrow fenders, a small block Ford 289 and called the car the AC 289, it was built and sold in Europe until 1969. So for those who still wanted one of these cars that hadn’t been pounded on at the track or otherwise abused by a private owner, the continuation cars built from parts still available from AC or in stock elsewhere after the firm finally hit bottom in the latter part of the 1970s. Brian Angliss’ Autocraft ended up with most of AC Cars’ tooling and thought it would be a good idea to begin a limited production of cars yet again. This was answered swiftly with a shot across the bow from none other than Carroll Shelby; his shot, a lawsuit. The resulting fallout from this created Shelby’s own desire to begin building a limited number of ‘true’ continuation cars, though by no means did this stem the wild tide of many tribute and kit manufacturers of the iconic original car. Titled as a 1964 model, this beautiful Shelby Cobra was one of only 12 all-aluminum FIA 7000 series Cobras built by Shelby American. Finished in Viking Blue with stunning yellow racing stripes and period decals, it is truly a complete racer down to its 4 point harnesses, Halon 5 pound fire system, Wilwood brakes, knockoff pin-drive wheels and stainless-braided lines. Under the hood, an aluminum head-equipped Roush 302ci Ford V-8 churns out over 400hp through a toploader 4-speed manual transmission.