Shelby Sports Cars

1000 horsepower fire-breathing monsters are a common sight at almost any drag strip these days, but I’m sure most people would like to know how some sports cars perform out of the box.

Well in their latest video, Wheels shows a bone stock C7 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 taking on a Shelby Mustang GT350 and Shelby Mustang GT500. Let’s see which one comes out on top. The showdown took place at the Mission Raceway Park up in BC, Canada.

Continuation models aren’t a new concept. Shelby and AC introduced the CSX1000 in early 2000s and built just 14 of them. One of them is up for sale on Bring-a-Trailer! It features a blue paint with white racing stripes and an all-aluminum V-8 engine under the hood mated to a manual gearbox. This 2006 CSX1000 has 1,700 miles on the odometer and has been in the possession of just one owner so far. The car is going for close to $200,000.

Superformance is known to create some classic builds that are priced like crazy, but the company has gone generous with one of their builds – the 1962 MKII Shelby 289 Slab Side. Superformance has donated the car to Petersen Automotive Museum for its upcoming digital gala that’s set to take place on September 26. The car is officially licensed by Shelby and built aesthetically and dimensionally correct to the original289 Cobras of the early 1960s. The only difference here is that the Superformance builds have modern-day mods complementing the classic styling. Isn’t that a win-win situation?

Carroll Shelby started making cars in the early 1960s by dropping V-8 engines in AC Ace bodies imported from Britain, and it took just a couple years of him to become a performance icon in the United States. A few years before he started working with Ford to produce some of the greatest Mustangs ever built, Shelby began to race his Cobras. Although highly competitive, the roadster wasn’t fast enough on Le Mans’ 3.7-mile Mulsanne Straight, so Shelby wanted a different Cobra that could beat the Ferrari 250 GTO. That’s how the Shelby Daytona Coupe was born in 1964.

This is a duel between the conspicuous and the subtle. The raw and the precise. The Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 and the Porsche 911. They’re both rear-wheel-driven automotive icons and they serve the same purpose, but with a totally different set of tools in their bags.

The new Porsche (992) 911 has got a 3.0-liter, twin-turbo flat-six powerplant while the Shelby GT350 packs a V-8. So, how do they fare against each other in a hot lap track battle? The answer comes courtesy of MotorTrend.

In 1965, Ford won the World Manufacturer’s Title in the GT ranks with the Cobra Daytona Coupe. But you wouldn’t have found the aerodynamic Kamm-tailed endurance racer on almost any bedroom wall around that time. Instead, everyone was hooked on Shelby’s new roadster - the Cobra 427. Sporting the ’side-oiler’ big block 7.0-liter V-8 good for at least 500 ponies, the revised Cobra was five inches wider than the AC Ace-based examples before it, handled slightly better due to an all-new chassis with independent suspension, and was one of the fastest cars you could register in 1965. With a 0-60 mph time of four seconds flat and tires that would go alight at the lightest depressing of the gas pedal, the 427 was unruly but that’s what made it a legend.

Think about what American cars you have loved throughout your life. It’s almost certain that the Cobra 427 was (or still is) in amongst your favorites. With rounded, flared arches, a gaping mouth and a scoop on the hood, and a pair of racing stripes traversing the (usually) blue paintwork, the baddest Cobra found its place in the history books from the moment it entered production. It was as loud as a pack of lions - if lions were ever to attack in packs - and more unruly than a teenager who’s going through a phase that’s "totally not a phase". The first 50 cars made were Competition or Semi/Competition-spec while the other 260 copies built until late ’67 were tuned to be more street-oriented, although even this can be considered a stretch. That’s why probably no other car can boast with such a wide variety of replicas quite like the Cobra and, naturally, most try to copy the look of the Cobra 427.

Since most American automakers offer only a small fraction of their vehicles in Europe, it’s not surprising that the U.S.-based brands skipped the 2018 Paris Motor Show. But surprisingly enough, Shelby American came to France to showcase its latest products, including the new-old Series 2 sports car.

There’s nothing like a Shelby Cobra 427 revving its big V-8 engine - it’s even better when it happens at the race track. And, this footage recorded by YouTube user "bbrandle2" at the 2017 Goodguys Pleasanton Autocross is proof that the original Shelby Cobra is a crowd pleaser. And loud. And downright awesome!

Sure, modern Mustangs and Camaros are cool too, and a Dodge Viper lapping the Laguna Seca is something I could watch for hours, but nothing compared to the magnificent Cobra 427 that Shelby Carroll himself designed in the mid-1960s. It has the looks, the power (425 horsepower of it!), the exhaust note, and all the fame a muscle car can get. Seeing one in action is a real treat too, since the 427 was produced in less than 350 units, including S/C and Competition roadsters.

Continue reading for the video.

After winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1959 (in the Aston Martin DBR1), Carroll Shelby wanted to return to Europe to beat Ferrari with a car of his own design. In 1964, he began work on the 1964-1965 Shelby Daytona Coupe, a car that would solve the 1963 Shelby Cobra’s issues with aerodynamic drag, which limited its top speed on the 3-mile long Mulsanne straight. Only six were built before Shelby was reassigned to the 1964-1969 Ford GT40 project, but the Daytona Coupe went on to win 10 races during 1964 and 1965, as well as the 1965 FIA World Sportscar Championship.

Not only did the Daytona Coupe become the first car to beat Ferrari since 1959, but it also made Shelby the first American constructor to win an international title. Additionally, the Coupe set no fewer than 25 land-
speed records at Bonneville in 1965. It’s been half a decade since those tremendous achievements, and Shelby American is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its FIA World Championship with a limited series of continuation Cobra Daytona Coupes.

Though this isn’t the first continuation Daytona (Superformance already offers a licensed replica), Shelby’s is arguably the most authentic to date. The 50th anniversary Daytona Coupe is actually more than just a replica, sporting modern disc brakes and a stronger frame, and including an aluminum body option, a first for continuation cars.

Updated 9/1/2015: Our man Jonathan Lopez took some pics at Monterey Car Week. Enjoy!

Continue reading to learn more about the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe 50th Anniversary.

Since 3D printing is still very much in its infancy, we are still trying to figure out just how it can be used to improve our lives. There are surely automotive applications for such a thing, but what they are and how they would be best implemented is largely unknown. So Oak Ridge National Laboratory, working with the Department of Energy, has built a Shelby Cobra replica using 3D printing to manufacture many of the parts. Specifically, the entire chassis and body of the car.

Obviously, quite a bit of the car couldn’t be printed, like the electric drivetrain, for instance. But those parts that were printed were good enough that you can’t tell the difference just to look at the car. As is mentioned in the video, the process isn’t suited to mass-producing cars and it won’t be for years. But it is an amazingly efficient way of producing one-offs and/prototypes, much faster than the practices currently in use. What this means to those of us who don’t run car companies is something we’ll have to wait to see, but what we’re hoping is that it means a lot more concepts and prototypes turning up at car shows, in much greater variety.

Introduced in late 2014 and put on sale in January 2015, the 50th Anniversary Cobra 427 meant that Shelby enthusiasts can purchase a limited-edition, classic-looking Cobra without having to pay the million-dollar sticker the original 427s fetch at auctions. A few months later, and the anniversary roadster could spell trouble for Shelby American, in the form of a lawsuit for alleged acts of unfair competition and breach of its dealer agreement.

In a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by Stephen Becker Automotive Group, a Georgia-based authorized Shelby dealer known as Planet Shelby Cobra (Planet Shelby), the manufacturer is accused of violating Plaintiff’s dealer agreement as well as California and Nevada statutes against unfair competition. Specifically, Stephen Becker Automotive Group claims Shelby American engaged in direct sales of vehicles to members of the general public and stopped referring customers to Planet Shelby, as required by the dealer agreement.

The complainant went on to add that Shelby American refused to provide a VIN number for a 50th Anniversary Cobra 427 it had ordered for one of its customers. Later on, Shelby informed dealerships it had already sold a "significant" number of the Anniversary roadsters directly to the public and gathered dealers, including Planet Shelby, to participate in a lottery to determine which would be able to order the cars. The lottery was contrary to the "first come first serve" basis promised initially, the dealership added.

Continue reading to learn more about the new lawsuit against Shelby.

The iconic Shelby Cobra — based on the British-built AC Ace roadster — first left Carroll Shelby’s shop in 1962 with a 4.3-liter, V-8 engine under its hood. It took the Cobra name only a few months to become famous and Carroll quickly turned to making it equally popular on the race track. Although the 4.7-liter version was unbeatable in the U.S. racing scene throughout 1964, Carroll also wanted the Cobra to become competitive in the FIA GT class, which was dominated by Ferrari back in the early 1960s. Thus the Cobra 427 was born, a roadster that featured wider fenders, fatter tires, an upgraded chassis and a massive, 7.0-liter, V-8 engine.

Notwithstanding the fact that it missed homologation for the 1965 racing season, the Cobra 427 went on to capture the SCCA’s covered "A Production" championship. A the same time, its road-legal version rocked the sports car world thanks to its amazingly powerful engine and reduced weight, which combined helped the Cobra obliterate most of its competitors. As the 427 turns 50 years old in January 2015, Shelby American is building 50 new examples, which are dubbed the 50th Anniversary Cobra 427, to commemorate the occasion and bring back the most powerful roadster of the 1960s. Read on for the full details.

Click past the jump to read more about the Shelby 50th Anniversary Cobra 427.

If you think that you’re an authority on the Shelby Cobra, then you probably have never met Lynn Park, the man many regard as the most well-versed historian of the iconic American sports car. XCar Films was able to spend some time with the man people call Mr. Cobra, giving us a close look at what it really means to be a Cobra historian. Park’s stature isn’t unfounded. He’s owned well over 50 Cobras at one point or another in his life and one look at his garage shows that he’s got a whole lot more registered to his name.

Clearly, Park didn’t get nicknamed Mr. Cobra by a happy accident.

His fascination with Cobras started at an early age, even at a time when he couldn’t afford to build one. So he built his first makeshift Cobra using an AC body and a Ford engine, and later moved to restoring models that he picked up on the cheap. Since then, he’s been a one-car guy, even making it a life mission to espouse his passion for the Cobra to anyone who shares it, including Carroll Shelby himself. The two actually fostered a friendship that lasted until the day Shelby passed away, forged by a shared obsession with a car that still turns a lot of heads wherever it goes.

During the course of the episode, Park also shows us some of his prized possessions, including some of the rarest Cobras in the world today. He has “16,,” which he describes as the first of five FIA cars Shelby built. It’s also one of the rare Cobras with a significant racing history, having been wrecked by Bob Johnson at Sebring in 1964. Naturally, Park got his hands on the wreckage and with the help of some of his friends, he managed to return it back to its pristine form. Park also has one of five Dragonsnake factory-built Cobra drag racers he bought from Shelby himself, signed pink slip and all.

The man’s passion for Cobras isn’t just evident with all the Cobras he has in his garage. You can see it in every corner of the room, whether its press clippings, books, or whatever memorabilia that’s associated with the American sports car. So the next time somebody tells you that he knows a lot about the Shelby Cobra, bring up the name Lynn Park and tell that someone to look him up.

The Gumball 3000 is an exciting thing to be a part of, but when you get hundreds of nice cars together to go on a 3,000-mile road trip, there is bound to be some carnage and general mayhem. Sadly that often means that one of the cool and valuable cars entered in the rally will not be going home in one piece. That story rings true for this modified Shelby Cobra.

The car is said to be good for 800 horsepower, and it looked downright menacing with its matte-black vinyl wrap. At some point during what looks like the UK leg of the trip, the Cobra was involved in an accident that ripped most of the car’s front end clean off. Most of the suspension, wheels and body work are completely missing in the photos gathered by GT Spirit. There is no information on the cause of the crash, but thankfully it appears that all those involved are safe.

The car itself was a 1966 model and as entry number 113, it was the official car from Battery Energy Drink, one of the main sponsors of this year’s rally.

Epic road trips are lots of fun, I love them, but it is important to remember to keep it safe out there. Especially when piloting an 800-horsepower hot rod with no roof.

Click past the jump to read more about the Shelby Cobra.

Jay Leno has all of the fun, sans his twice being ousted from the Tonight Show, as he sees and drives some of the most amazing cars in the world. This time around, he got a crack at a Brock Coupe.

It shouldn’t be a surprise if this wedge-nosed beast looks a little familiar toy you, as it is the only licensed continuation of the legendary Shelby Daytona Coupe. That’s right, kiddies, this ain’t no kit car right here... This is car has been given the stamp of approval by Carol Shelby himself.

Only about 130 of these continuation cars are known to exist today, so this is certainly one of the rarest models available in the U.S. And this one is even more special, as it was once bought by Shelby, slathered in racing decals from the Shelby Daytona car and put in the Shelby museum in Las Vegan with no engine.

Bruce Goldsmith snagged up the car, got it licensed, then started tearing into it to make it the monster that it is today.

Check out the above video to see what Jay has to say about it.