SallyRand

People around here seem to need an education in COBRAS, so here we go!

The original COBRA was based on the AC Ace, first marketed in 1953 with a body designed by John Tojeiro, which body was a virtual copy of the Superleggara Touring "Barchetta" body used on the Tipo (Tee-po) 166 Mille (Mee-lay) Miglia (Mee-lee-uh) Ferrari and powered by a lumbering 2-litre Bristol car(tractor) engine.

This was no fun, so in 1961 Carroll Shelby approached AC about buying a few Aces in which he would install the FORD 221 CID V-8 to sell on a limited commercial basis. Shelby built a prototype and everybody who saw or drove it positively SHOUTED "SHIT!". Ford discontinued the 221 and went to the 260, so the new engine was installed.

Now the 260 4 bbl engine developed a whopping 164 BHP but would nevertheless propel the new car to insane speeds and 0-60 times; stuff like 0-60 MPH in 4-5 seconds but the best thing about the car was the HANDLING and an early Cobra would blow the doors off damn near anything on a road course.

The 260 went away so Shelby began installing 289s; only the first 75 cars had 260s.

The current replicas are NOT of the 289 for the most part but of the "427", which is a completely different car, resembling the original car only in appearance.

The "427", of which the car in the OP is a replica was a great car but only about 55 or so of them actually were equipped with 427 side-oilers. The rest had box-stock Thunderbird 428s!

The OP has a much better car as the 427 equipped versions were so nose heavy that a 289 would eat their lunch on a road course and the cars sold in Britain were not equipped with the big-block but rather the 289/302/351 engines.

I have driven both ORIGINAL 289s and 427s as well as a "427" fitted with a 351 and that one was the best car by far. It's not all about straight-line acceleration, you know!

The 289:



The "427":



Listen, learn and enjoy: