Shelby Cobra 427

Carroll Shelby dared, and created a car that blew the minds of sports car fans all around the world

OFTEN IMITATED

Carroll Shelby had a dream of building sports cars under his own name long before his professional racing career started. Happily for him — and the rest of us — he eventually managed to direct his energies into realizing that dream after poor health crushed his racing ambitions and put his other business ventures on hold. Shelby wondered why no one in the US had built a sports car that offered precise European handling with the power of an American V8 engine, and that could be easily serviced at any car dealership. Made in the US, such a sports car could also be sold for much less than the European marques. During a dream, he came up with the name for his car, the Cobra.

LUCKY BREAK

Shelby got wind that a British company, AC Cars, was about to cease production of the AC Ace sports car due to the unavailability of Bristol sixcylinder engines. The entrepreneurial Shelby instantly realized that the light, nimble British roadster could be the ideal partner for a powerful American V8 engine. This could be his chance to become a carmaker, and not just a retired racing car driver.

Shelby wasted no time in contacting AC Cars and very soon he had an engineless body in his Californian workshop. However, he needed backers as well as engines, so he proposed his sports car vision to the Ford Motor Company, which liked the idea of a sports car that would go head-to-head with the Chevrolet Corvette on the track. Shelby, always the racer, explained his ambition to race

Cobras against Corvette in the US and against Ferrari in Europe. He wanted to win the International Championship for GT Manufacturers, which had been the sole preserve of Ferrari since its inception.

With the combined help of Ford and a small team of engineers and mechanics, Shelby’s first Cobra was completed in 1962. It was powered by Ford’s 260-cubic-inch (4.26-litre) V8 engine, and later fitted with the revered 289-cubic-inch (4.73-litre) V8. The Shelby Cobra took the sports car world by a storm. Its radical combination of a lightweight body, small dimensions, and brute US power captured the imagination of every performance junkie.

A sports car that offered precise European handling with the power of an American V8 engine, and that could be easily serviced at any car dealership

MORE IS BEST

Shelby was convinced that his car had even more potential. Two years later, he started working on a version powered by a monstrous 427-cubic-inch (sevenlitre) Ford big block V8 engine that produced an eye-watering 450bhp (335.5kw). The car was to be called the ‘Shelby Cobra 427’.

The Ford FE 427-cubic-inch V8 engine was fitted with a single fourbarrel 780cfm Holley carburettor — dual four-barrel Holley carburettors, as fitted to our feature car, were optional — and was originally designed to be used in race cars, with its most notable feature being its ‘side-oiler’ design, which prioritized oil distribution to the crankshaft and main bearings before the oil made its way to the cylinder head and valve train.

Like most performance cars of the era, the Shelby 427 Cobra was available only with a manual transmission. Ford’s indestructible Toploader four-speed was chosen because it could withstand the immense horsepower of the Shelby Cobra 427. Shelby was never one to shy away from horsepower, and despite the insane notion of installing such a powerful engine into such a light car, he was determined to build the ultimate classic muscle car.

Shelby knew there would be issues squeezing such a monster engine into a compact engine bay. The Cobra body needed to be stretched and widened, with consequential improvements to the chassis and suspension. The overall design remained the same. Although 289 and 427 Cobras looked very similar, none of the body panels, except for the bonnet, boot lid, and windscreen, is interchangeable between them. Other improvements included bolstering the main chassis frame with four-inch-diameter tubing, up from the three-inch tubing used before. On the exterior, new guards were fitted to house the now-wider wheel track, and a redesigned front bumper provided a larger opening for the front radiator. These changes gave the new Cobra a more aggressive appearance, matching its fearsome bite.

BRUTAL ACCELERATION

Not surprisingly, the Shelby Cobra 427 was blindingly fast. With a 0–60mph (97kph) time of 4.2 seconds and a 0–100mph (161kph) sprint time of just 10.3 seconds, it was impressively quick, even by today’s standards.

For years, the Shelby Cobra 427 was the fastest American car bar none. Its brutal acceleration was one of the best selling points and, according to legend, Carroll Shelby put a $100 bill on the dash of the Cobra 427, saying that anybody who could reach it during acceleration could keep it. Apparently, nobody walked away $100 richer.

The Cobra 427 was definitely not for the faint-hearted. Raw performance under the bonnet is great, but only if you can handle it — sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. Many people who purchased a Shelby Cobra found their financial ability had stretched beyond their driving capability. Quite a few original Cobras were crashed by their owners, adding to the value of those that remained truly accident-free. Shelby historians don’t actually know how many cars have been crashed and destroyed, but they believe all of the surviving examples have been accounted for.

BRITISH-AMERICAN HYBRID

The Shelby Cobra 427 was indeed an extreme car and, predictably, creature comforts were sparse. Aside from the addition of carpet, the original Cobra interior was carried over from the AC Ace. It offered two leather seats without headrests, an oversized wood-rimmed steering wheel, all necessary gauges, and an ignition switch. A rollover hoop was optional for the driver. As all Cobra 427s were roadsters, there was no convertible roof top — just a piece of canvas with Plexiglass side windows in case it rained.

Lack of weather protection was considered by some to be a safety feature that actively discouraged you from taking it out in the rain. Driving a 427 Cobra on a wet surface at any speed could easily be fatal.

Most of the 427s were built as street cars, but Shelby offered a Competition package for owners with racing aspirations and a Semi-competition package for people who wanted a street car they could race from time to time.

The Shelby Cobra is undoubtedly one of the most legendary American cars ever built, and has also proved to be the most successful British-american hybrid. It helped Carroll Shelby forge a reputation as a constructor of highperformance vehicles rather than just as a race car driver.

The Cobras dominated Corvettes in North America, winning races from one coast to the other. On 4 July 1965, the Cobra — in roadster and coupé form — defeated Ferrari to win the International Championship for GT Manufacturers. Shelby American is the only American vehicle manufacturer to have won the prestigious championship, before or since.

Now, more than half a century later, the Shelby Cobra is one of most desirable sports cars on the planet, often cherished and preserved by its owners and rarely offered for sale.

Lack of weather protection was considered by some to be a safety feature that actively discouraged you from taking it out in the rain