The meanest Cobra ever made. EVER. Carroll's personal 800HP AC Competition Cobra

Carroll had an AC Cobra upgraded just the way he wanted it, for his own pleasure. Twin supercharged, dual quad, 427 side oiler. 800 HP.

It's going to auctioned. Some fortunate filthy rich guy is going to plop his butt into the car Carroll told his mechanics to assemble, FOR THE BOSS. I think that merits bold typeface. I think that deserves some thought.

The crew knew when they put it together that it wasn't just for a customer, it was for the racing legend, the car building icon, the man who made saved a car (the AC) and put racing into the blood of Ford. I don't mean left hand turns, I mean RACING THE EFFIN BEST ON THE PLANET!

IN THEIR ARENA!

HE WON LEMANS! The only American car to ever win the FIA World Manufacturers Championship for GT cars was the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. http://www.petersen.org/default.cfm?DocID=1014&cat=Shelby&ExhibitID=264&index=4
















http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars-f.htm

BEARDED THE FERRARI'S!

I think this deserves a hell of a lot of respect, he may be the greatest.
Andretti is a great driver, never built a car company.
Richard Petty won lots of races as a driver, never designed a damn car.
John Force and Bob Glidden set lots of drag race records. Nothing in the common car model names.
The Sunoco Camaro is synonymous with Roger Penske.

But Shelby developed the GT 40 from a previous similar design and beat the snot out of Ferrari.

Some great circuit racers like Sterling Moss are known in more countries than than Micheal Jordan or Tiger Woods, and doesn't have his name on a single production car anywhere.
Cale Yarborough has his name on a Talledega, and Mark Donahue has his name across the Javelin, now let's be sure to remember those, and not let them be forgotten. That means something, drivers so good their name sold cars because it was written on them.
Even Dale Earndhart had an Impala SS with his name. I'm sure I don't know of some that also were honored on new Impala SS's, or Monte Carlo SS's. I don't follow new NASCAR, my interest ends in the very early 70's when it comes to NASCAR. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Most either are new, or old NASCAR fans, but not both. Thats an entry for another time... this one is for CARROLL"S PERSONAL FREAKING EPITOMIUS COBRA! Never was another made better, equal, but never better.

Now here are the links for more, http://www.wurthitdesigns.com/cobrastory.htm is the 1981 restoration story photographed by the mechanic who brought it back from some body damage and it was missing all the original cool parts that bolted on, the Shelby dual quad intake, Paxton superchargers, etc.

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/carlist/cardetails.asp?In_AuctionID=221&In_LotNumber=1301 is the Auction site's authenticator's breakdown of how we can be sure this is the real Super Snake Cobra of Carroll's. One of only 23 427 Cobra Competition Roadsters built, different from the AC Cobras sold to the public, later in 67 it was transformed into the Super Snake and reclassified as 427 Cobra Semi-Competition.

I find the description a bit confusing, and doesn't make it clear if this guy denies the legitimacy of the 68 Road and Track article, or just specifies why that car pictured is the real deal. I think he should have had someone read over his notes to check it's clarity. Hell, this car is worth around 15 million, a little extra effort isn't amiss.

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/11/carroll-shelby-once-had-special-ac.html#links for the Road and Track article I blogged earlier here on this website.

The first Shelby Cobra

http://www.petersen.org/default.cfm?DocID=1014&cat=Shelby&ExhibitID=264&index=6 has a pic of the car recently in the Peterson museum in Pomona (part of Los Angeles).

Carroll shelby once had a special AC Cobra made for Bill Cosby

Bill met Carroll in a department store one day, and Carroll asked Bill why he drove foreign cars - outraged that an American would buy foreign cars. Bill said no American car was fast enough for the daily drive to work. So Carroll took this as a personal slight, being the builder of the coolest and fastest American car, and had a duplicate made of his own personal customized AC Cobra, just like this one in this February 1968 Road and Track article.
Listen to the Bill Cosby stand up routine on side A of the album, 200 MPH around a tree, no one can tell a story as well. Dual supercharged, dual quad, Shelby 427 side oiler... and Carroll had his mechaincs put it together exactly to his specs, and never allowed any others made that could match it. It held the record for the fastest production car for about 3 decades.

Not exactly a production car, but neither is an Enzo model Ferrari. At the level these guys compete, and build, it's close enough for me. Worth reading and learning.

From the 1969 Hot Rod magazine classifieds.... I bet this guy still kicks himself

Steve McQueen tests the new GT's of 1966 for Sports Illustrated

Via: http://42ndblackwatch1881.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/sports-illustrated-vintage-1966-steve-mcqueen-reviews-the-hottest-new-gts/

Bizarre variety of photos from 5window tumbler, a lot of cool stuff though

For another shot of this Cobra, and a write up, see http://magneticbrain.blogspot.com/2010/03/bit-player.html

more at http://5window.tumblr.com/

Symbolic Motors in LaJolla, Dealership for Bugatti, Spyker, Lamborghini and Saleen which does sales and restorations of classic exotics too

They have a website with that keeps a current inventory and more info http://www.finecars.cc/en/dealer-inventory/index.html?request[show]=1&request[filter][dealer]=1
For galleries of the restoration facility during the annual open house, and galleries of the vehicles that Symbolic brings to the LaJolla Concours: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Symbolic%20Motors

Here is a quick sample of what you'll see in the pits at Speedfest

The above is rare, it's a air cooled opposed piston engine like the VW... DB is the symbol on the nose of the car... stands for Duetsch something... I can't recall, but it was a French company and it was made for rally racing.

Above is a Railton

Lagonda

Big corrals of race cars!