The Shelby Cobra is an instantly recognizable shape, a performance icon, and an object of automotive desire for decades. The Cobra’s probably the most copied automobile on the planet, with repli-cars and kit-cars by scores of names and dozens of makers outnumbering the originals. As they say, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.
Yet the notion the Shelby American organization could create a modern automobile one completely of its own design rather than adapted from the A.C. Ace with a Ford pushrod V8 crammed in was s powerful one. So the idea of creating an all new roadster, starting from a clean sheet of paper, with some of that magic Shelby DNA sprinkled here an there, seemed laudable.
It would be a 21st century Cobra, if you will, yet something different: with an aluminum DOHC V8 that’s the basis of something interesting IRL and Le Mans race cars replacing the old Ford pushrod V8; a single rail six speed transmission taking the place of the crunchy old Ford Toploader, plus an ultra lightweight aluminium space frame, carbon fiber body panels, racing style control arm suspension with pushrods and rocker actuated shocks, and so forth, the Series 1 sounded formidable indeed.
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