AC Cobra History Revisited

The AC Cobra, also known colloquially as the Shelby Cobra in North America, is an Anglo-American sports car that was produced during the 1960s. To many car fans, the Cobra is America’s iconic supercar. With its exotic looks, Shelby-tuned V8 power and Ferrari-beating performance, Cobra is the car that most American gear heads dream about at night. Not only are the AC replicas highly sought-after, the desire to find a genuine Cobra for sale is so strong, people are willing to pay over a quarter of a million dollars for an original 60′s-vintage car. The 1966 AC Cobra 427 Super Snake made history on January 21, 2007, fetching $5.5 million at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction, this Cobra price is a world record price for an American car, auction organizers said. The car was one of just two produced and was used as personal transportation by famed racer and performance-car builder Carroll Shelby himself. The buyer of this 1966 AC for sale was a car collector Ron Pratt of Chandler, Arizona.

With many people viewing the AC Cobra as “America’s supercar”, it’s surprising to find out that not many people know that this car’s roots are just as British as they are American. Yes, we all know that a big Ford V8 lies under the hood of this car, but not many people know that the “AC” in AC Cobra is the name of the British coachbuilder that originally made the car. Introduced in 1951, the AC Ace was one of England’s premier roadsters.

Sporting a Bristol-supplied 120-horsepower inline six, a four wheel independent suspension and a very light chassis, the Ace was a stellar performer for its day. However, when engine builder Bristol announced that it was closing up shop, the future wasn’t looking so bright for the good old’ Ace. Luckily for the Ace, American racer/car builder Carrol Shelby stepped in and revitalized what then becoming the Cobra kit car. As we all know, it was Shelby’s idea to shoehorn a Ford V8 into the body of this British roadster, and it was this American/European hybrid, the AC, that went on to dominate the roads and racetracks of the world and essentially, define the car itself.

AC Cobra had an extensive racing career. It was February 2, 1963 at Riverside International Raceway that driver Dave MacDonald beat an impressive field of Corvettes, Jaguars, Porsches, and Maseratis to give the AC Cobra its first-ever victory. 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 Cobra Coupe was calculated to have done 186 mph (299 km/h) on the M1 motorway in 1964, driven by Jack Sears and Peter Bolton during shakedown tests prior to that year’s Le Mans 24h race. In 1965, one of the AC Cobra was selected and converted into a special model called the 427 “AC Cobra to End All Cobras.” The first one of these 1965 Cobra (number CSX3015) was originally part of a European promotional tour before its conversion. Although successful in racing, the Cobra was a financial failure, which led Ford and Carroll Shelby to discontinue importing cars from England in 1967. With the demise of the 428 and succeeding 3000ME, Cobra shut their doors in 1984 and sold the AC Cobra name to a Scottish company. The company’s tooling, and eventually the right to use the name, were licensed by Autokraft, an AC parts reseller and replica car manufacturer owned by Brian A. Angliss.