The Shelby Cobra
These are some photos that I took during a meeting of the Texas Cobra club in San Marcos, TX.
I've been a fan of the Shelby Cobra for years, but I never really knew or understood the history of these cars.
I've been a fan of the Shelby Cobra for years, but I never really knew or understood the history of these cars.
A Little Bit Of Cobra History
There were 3 different models of the Shelby Cobra made. They're known as the Mk I, Mk II and the Mk III. The three models were in production beginning from 1962 through 1967.There was a brief production run of "new" Cobras in early 2003-2004, but I choose to ignore those cars since they're not part of the original run.
The original cars, named AC Cobras, started off with a 2.6 Litre Ford Zephyr engine. I don't know if you've ever seen a Ford Zephyr, but believe me, there's a good reason that you haven't seen one.
Despite having that engine, the Cobra met with some racing success.
The success of the car, caught the attention of Carrol Shelby, who needed and wanted a car with a V8 engine in it. Long story short, Shelby and the original manufacturer worked out a deal, AC shoehorned a V8 engine into their Cobra chassis and the Shelby Cobra came to life.
Cobra Stuff on Amazon
Shelby Cobra 427 S/C (Silver)
Amazon Price: $30.06 (as of 12/28/2009) 
Shelby Cobra: The Shelby American Original Color Archives 1963-1965
Amazon Price: $26.37 (as of 12/28/2009)
Shelby 427 Cobra 1:18 Scale Die Cast (Red)
Amazon Price: $41.99 (as of 12/28/2009)
Shelby Cobra Gold Portfolio 1962~1969
Amazon Price: $21.75 (as of 12/28/2009)
Shelby Cobra Special Models
There were a couple of limited production versions of the Cobra. One of the limited editions was the Super Snake.The Super Snake had Twin Paxton superchargers, racing headers, racing rear end and racing breaks. The Super Snake was fast as all get out and was not for the faint of heart. Shelby's personal Super Snake sold at auction in 2007 for $5.5 million. The super snake is one of the rarest of the Cobra Models.
There was a Coupe model made. 6 total chassis were made for improved aerodynamics down the Mulsanne straight in the 24 hours of LeMans. They were known as Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupes. 1 of these cars was at the meetup, I had no idea what I was looking at when I saw it.
Shelby Cobra on the web
- Shelby crashed by an inexperienced driver
- This is a link to a video of an inexperienced driver
- Jay Leno drives the famous CSX2287 Daytona Coupe
- Legend has it that this car was in a shed for 30+ years. It was discovered years after the owner died. One of the original owners of this car was Phil Spector. This was one of the 6 original coupes and was worth an estimated $4 million.
Customizations
There were a lot of different models at the show. Some of them were more interesting than others, but I think that this one was my favorite of all the modifications.I don't know enough to know or tell if this is a real original or a replica, but I think it looks cool nonetheless.
I named this car "Fang."
Cobra Stuff on eBay
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by rafaelmarquez
Rafael is a renaissance man. His career path includes stints in the financial services industry, in operations management for a large multinational co... (more)
