Istorie
Shelby's Cobra is the most re-produced super car, the look, the sound, the history and the performance engrained a permanent impression since introduced in 1963. Under the massive bulge in the hood houses a 6.8 liter Ford Triton V10 warmed up to an estimated 400 horsepower and 440 pound feet of torque.
Full description
In the autumn of 1961, Texan racer Carroll Shelby approached AC Cars with the idea of fitting a 4.2-litre Ford V8 engine into their lithe and handsome light alloy Ace sports car. By early 1962, AC had built the first prototypes and by the autumn had dispatched 100 cars for completion. AC Cobra is a legendary car, perhaps the most famous muscle-car and certainly the fastest.
The first car had a 4.2 litre engine, but it wasn’t long before a bigger 4,727 cc was slotted in by Shelby, boosting power from 164 to 195 hp. Top speed of the 289 car was 138 mph (221 km/h), but even more impressive was the acceleration: 0-100 km/h came up in 5.5 seconds and the standing quarter-mile in 13.9 seconds.
This wasn’t enough for Shelby. In 1965 he slotted in the 6899 cc engine to produce the Cobra 427. It had claimed 345 bhp in its standard form – tuned cars gave 480 bhp or more – and acceleration that put the Cobra in the record books in 1967 as the world’s fastest accelerating production car: 0-100 km/h in 4.2 seconds. There was a milder Cobra 428 version with 390 bhp, 6997 cc, V8, from the Ford Thunderbird. In reality the seven litre was virtually an all-new Cobra with a different coach. It shared only the doors and bonnet with the 289. More importantly, the chassis was totally redesigned and much stiffer, while the suspension now used coil springs rather than leaf springs.
The chassis of the Cobra lived on under an elegant Italian coupe body designed by Petro Frua and was known as the AC 428, launched in 1966. As recently as 1983 Brian Angliss revived the car as the Mk IV Cobra.
Shelby's Cobra is the most re-produced super car, the look, the sound, the history and the performance engrained a permanent impression since introduced in 1963. This car in the Țiriac Collection is a replica of a 1965 model. Under the massive bulge in the hood houses a 6.8 liter Ford Triton V10 warmed up to an estimated 400 horsepower and 440 pound feet of torque.
This car has covered 2,169 miles.
