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1962 was a watershed year in American racing. Everything we thought about speed, about power, and about foreign vs. domestic changed that year. Race car design can be broken down into two eras; before the Cobra and after the Cobra.

Prehistory

The Cobra Roadster actually began on the other side of the Atlantic, in England. In 1954, AC Cars of Surrey, England, started producing an open top sports car called the Ace. The Ace was a beautiful little car with smooth, classic lines and an assertive front end. It had a lightweight 6 cylinder Bristol engine tucked inside its perky little bonnet, which provided a respectable amount of power relative to its size. The Ace was never going to put Ferrari out of business, but it earned its keep on the British Racing circuit. The Ace even took tenth overall in the1957 Le Mans.  That’s a pretty good run for a six-cylinder sports car!

Then in 1961, two events changed the racing landscape for good.

Bristol Engine Company stopped producing the lightweight straight 6 engine which the Ace was engineered for.  AC considered refitting the Ace to receive a heavier and rather inferior 6-cylinder Ford Zephyr engine.

At the same time, some mad scientists at Ford Motor Company had figured out how to make a “small block” V8 engine. Ford used a new method of thin wall casting to make the engine smaller and lighter. The result of this reengineering party was an engine with all of the pistons and half the carcass of your typical 8-cylinder coming out of Detroit. Only one step remained before the little jet-pack could dominate the open road: a chassis in which to contain it.

Oddly enough, a third party had to step in to take advantage of these two events. Predictably enough, that third party was a Texan. Racing legend Carroll Shelby had already established a reputation for seeing opportunities and ignoring limitations. Shelby had been an admirer of the little Ace, and when he heard that she had lost her favorite engine, he thought it was time she lived up to her potential.

Shelby airmailed a proposal to AC owner Charles Hurlock. Shelby suggested that the Ace be re-engineered to receive an American V8 engine. Shelby didn’t know about Ford’s small block yet, but he was certain that some engine out there could do the job. Hurlock responded with a very polite and very non committal letter, saying that he was open to the idea, provided a “suitable” engine could be found. Then Shelby found out about Ford’s engine, and Hurlock found out that Shelby was quite serious.  In February, 1962, Hurlock shipped the first Ace Roadster chassis to Shelby-American’s Los Angeles production facility.

A New Age Dawns

Before he received the chassis, Shelby woke up one night and scribbled a word on the pad of paper he kept at his bedside. When he looked at the paper that morning, it said “cobra”. It looked like a good name for a new car.

Shelby received the chassis without an engine or drive train.  Within eight hours, the little Ace was now sporting a Ford 260 engine and a Borg-Warner four-speed transmission.  Shelby was now the proud father of a new baby Cobra.

Carroll Shelby and Dean Moon took the baby out for a stroll that same day, hoping to meet and then dust a Corvette or two.  Perhaps there was a huge secret Corvette convention that day in Pittsburgh, or perhaps they had all been warned. In any event, there were no Stingrays for the Cobra to bite that day, so Shelby and Moon took their baby back home.

The next month, Shelby-American was tooling up for Cobra production, and Shelby borrowed Ray Geddes from Ford Motor Company to help with the process. Geddes had instructions from Ford to stay low and quiet, because Ford was very concerned about liability issues. Ford didn’t want to have a visible (read: actionable) role in a project that amounted to putting bumpers on a bullet.

The 1962 New York Auto Show saw two very interesting entries that year. The 100,000th MGA sports car had arrived in New York on the Queen Mary. The MG’s European pedigree was announced by its gold metallic paint and lambs wool carpet. The well-established MGA must have looked comfortably superior amid a pack of American jalopies.  Until the Cobra was unveiled, that is.

The very first Cobra was also displayed at that show. The Cobra, painted pearlescent yellow and labeled the CSX 2000, was all about New World audacity and function over form. It boasted no lamb’s wool anywhere on the car, and the seat felt like an upholstered bale of hay.  Auto Dealers responded by ordering Cobras and happily dropping cash deposits into the bank.

Popularity can have its down side. AC needed to refit the chassis to allow it to accept the V8 engine, which delayed the delivery of more chassis to Shelby-American, resulting in a slow start-up.  Shelby understood the marketing value of proper reviews, so he aggressively invited auto magazine writers to take the Cobra for a test drive. Shelby also understood that there isn’t a large market for cars that aren’t in production, so he kept re-painting the CSX 2000 after each test drive. The resulting impression was that there were many Cobras already on the street.

In order for a car to compete internationally, it must be registered with The Federation Internationale d’Automobile (FIA).  The FIA requires that, in order for a car to be registered, there must b at least 100 units of that particular car produced in a 12-month period. In August of 1962, Shelby had only produced eight Cobras. Shelby registered the car anyway. Fortunately for all of us, AC soon sped up the chassis delivery, and by June of 1963, Shelby-American had completed 125 cobras.

Renaissance

The Cobra had its first race in October of 1962 with driver Bill Krause. A problem with the rear hubs prevented the Cobra from finishing the race, but it was apparent that the Corvettes wouldn’t be safe for long. The Corvettes were powerful cars, to be sure, but the Cobra was and just as powerful, and was hauling around a carcass that was 2000 pounds lighter.  After Phil Remington developed some new rear hubs, for the Cobra, the Stingrays didn’t have a chance.

A pair of Cobras took the track at Riverside in January, 1963, placing first and second. Second-place Cobra driver Ken Miles took an extra pit stop for a drink of water, just to make a point. Miles then rejoined the race to lap the Corvettes – the second time.  The following month in Daytona, the Cobra repeated the Stingray spanking, but was beaten by a Ferrari GTO. The Cobra-Ferrari wars were on.

By June of 1963, Shelby thought it was time to send a Cobra to Le Mans. Ford wasn’t interested in funding the project, so Carroll Shelby got creative again. Shelby contacted AC Cars, who were still supplying him with chassis, and Ed Hugus, who built the CSX 2000. By the time the conversation was over, Hugus and AC had each agreed to build one Cobra to compete in the Le Mans.  The top Cobra that year finished seventh.  Clearly, there was still room for improvement. 

In 1963, Dan Gurney was the first American to win an FIA race in an American car. Gurney was driving a Cobra in the Bridgehampton 500KM.  The US Road Racing Championship in 1963 was also won by a Cobra.  These little accomplishments were useful for keeping the press happy. They did not, however, distract Shelby-American from its new objective: making the Ferrari GTO look like a road apple.

In 1963, the popular opinion in America was that race cars should be large and powerful in order to be fast.  European race cars of the time were trying to stay small and quick, but often had to sacrifice power in order to do so. Shelby had made a career of dispensing with popular opinions, on both continents, so he came up with his own strategies for improving the Cobra.

Shelby’s first plan was to put a larger and more powerful engine in the same small Cobra. A special leaf-spring chassis was chosen, and Shelby’s team greased up the engine compartment and shoved in a 427 cubic inch big block engine. Shelby’s ripped-out reptile was entered in the 1963 Sebring in the prototype class, and finally wiped the track with the Ferrari GTO.

Shelby’s second plan was to make a more aerodynamic Cobra. A car with a roof should have less drag than an open top car with a driver sticking out of it. This line of thinking resulted in the 1964 Daytona Coupé, which was basically the ’62 roadster with closed fuselage. Three months after the Sebring race, the Cobra Coupé placed 4th at Le Mans, and the nearest Ferrari was 5th. 

The Golden Years

During the next three years, the Cobra enjoyed its reputation as a successful race car.  During those years, the Cobra also developed a following among street racers and the general public. North Americans love upstarts, and they especially love successful upstarts. 

When the very last Cobra was produced in 1967, it was a beefed up 427 Cobra which had sprouted wide fenders and large racing hubs. When Cobra replicas started appearing almost the next year, the big-block version was favored over the more elegant, more obviously British ‘62 Cobra that Shelby fell in love with.  American culture still prefers obvious domination over subtle superiority.

It should be no surprise that the finest Cobra “replica” available since 2003 is made by Carroll Shelby at Shelby Automobiles of Las Vegas, Nevada.  It makes sense that the original designer of the car would do the best job of re-creating his most enduring creation.

Shelby has, once again, improved the almost-perfect vehicle. The body is available in fiberglass, carbon fiber, or aluminum, the frame is much stronger than the original, and the cooling and heat shielding technology is mercifully up to date. There were no improvements needed on the car’s appearance, though, so none were made. Shelby’s replica Cobras are identical to the originals, even to a classic auto expert. Shelby Automobiles now offers both the ’62 Cobra and the ‘64 big block version for connoisseurs of either taste or torque.

Cobra drivers have a lot in common with other sports car lovers. They appreciate workmanship and speed, and they like an engine that rumbles up through the seats.  Cobra owners are a bit different in their priorities, though. For them, the engine is far more beautiful than the upholstery, and a well-made transmission sounds better than any stereo system. The incredibly cool thing about being a Cobra owner is that the fastest car on the block (yours) also just happens to be the best looking one. It just can’t help itself.

About the Author

James Martell is a long-time admirer of Carroll Shelby and his designs. He owns a replica Cobra roadster and has visited the Las Vegas Shelby American factory many times.  Arlene graciously allowed James to name their third child Shelby, after the man, not the car. James is lucky enough to live in a beautiful suburb of Victoria, British Columbia, on Canada’s west coast. James spends his spare time driving his Cobra, attending car shows and going on cruises as well as developing his website.

Carroll Shelby has been accused of “reinventing” himself repeatedly, as if he were some aging pop star who realizes that she’s now too old for the naughty schoolgirl photos.
 
What Carroll Shelby has actually done, over the last 85 years, is simply make a comfortable living by being Carroll Shelby. Being Carroll Shelby has meant doing two things and doing them consistently: overcoming obstacles and disregarding physics. His varied careers and businesses were just tasks on a “to do” list.

Task #1 – Get a Life

Shelby is a native Texan, a point that may partially explain some of his more astonishing exploits. He was born in Leesburg, Texas in 1923. During World War II, Shelby joined the Army Air Corps and then spent the war at Lackland AFB, near San Antonio, training pilots and testing planes. When Shelby met the love of his life, Jeanne Fields, he was short of time, postage, and money, so courting was complicated. Shelby overcame the obstacles with flair, though, by dropping flight boots with love letters in them over Jeanne’s farm while on his test flights. Carroll and Jeanne were married in 1943.

After the war, Shelby started chicken farming, which may have been the closest he ever came to defeat. He made a good profit on his first batch of broilers, but the second year they all died from limberneck disease. That was one tough year. He stuck with the farming, though, long enough to feed his family while he figured out what he really did best.

Task #2 – Get a Job

Shelby drove in his first professional race in January, 1952. He drove a hotrod with a flathead Ford V8 and did reasonably well, so he kept entering races, and apparently got very good at it. Four months later, Shelby had gotten so good that he entered two road races in the same day and won them both. Shelby was driving an MG-TC, so it wasn’t a shock when he won the MG road race that morning. However, when he drove the MG against a field of Jaguar XK 120s later that day and won, racecar drivers and physicists took notice.

Another thing that got Shelby noticed was his racing clothes. During his early racing years, he was still depending on chicken farming to pay the bills. When he started coming to the track directly from the farm in his pinstriped overalls, he soon realized that his britches were nearly as entertaining as his driving. Shelby was never the shy type, and he liked a good joke, so he kept wearing the overalls long after it was necessary. Those overalls, along with his usual black cowboy hat, soon became two of his many trademarks.

By 1954, Shelby and his overalls had come to the attention of the Aston-Martin racing team, and Shelby was racing for Aston-Martin in the United States and in Europe.  November of 1954 saw Shelby in Mexico driving an Austin-Healy in the Carrera Pan Americana. Shelby t-boned the car on a boulder and flipped the car four times just north of Oaxaca, resulting in broken bones, a shattered elbow, and too many bruises to count. Local Indians bandaged his wounds and offered him enough liquor to ease the pain for a bit. By the next spring Shelby’s elbow was not fully healed, but Shelby was still on the track. In between surgeries, he wore a customized fiberglass cast and taped his hand to the steering wheel so that he could still race.

Please don’t try this at home.

In March of 1955, Shelby and his cast co-drove a Monza Ferrari with Phil Hill at the Sebring. Within a few months, he raced against Hill at Torrey Pines and won, and soon found himself racing in Europe again.
 
1957 marked the high point in Shelby’s racing career, and also marked the beginning of Shelby’s next career as a car designer. Shelby began the year by opening Shelby Sports Cars in Dallas, Texas. In March of that year, he was named Driver of the Year by Sports Illustrated. By November, that magazine was enjoying its newfound reputation as an oracle because of what happened in Riverside, California.

Riverside was a 100 mile race which Shelby drove in a Maserati single-seater. Early in the race, Shelby spun out and ended up in the back of the pack. Shelby then put his foot and the double-overhead-cam V8 engine to work. Shelby’s Maserati not only took the lead, but then lapped all the cars on the track. This single event defined not only Shelby’s racing style, but also his very Texan approach to life: setbacks are someone else’s problem.

Carroll Shelby’s racing career came to an abrupt halt in 1960. He was staying with a friend in Dallas when he started feeling chest pains. Shelby began putting nitroglycerine pills under his tongue for relief. His symptoms were initially misdiagnosed, but soon Shelby was told that he had a heart condition which would prevent him from racing any longer. Shelby’s last race was the Los Angeles Times-Mirror Grand Prix in December of 1960.  He finished fifth, but won the overall USAC driving championship for that year.
 
Task #3 – Get a Real Job

1961 proved to be a busy year for Carroll Shelby, and a defining one in American racing. AC Cars, in Surrey, England, had been manufacturing a lovely little sports car called the Ace. In 1961, Bristol Motors, also in England, stopped making the six cylinder engines which the Ace was designed to receive. Carroll Shelby was aware of the Ace, and had taken a liking to the stylish little car. When he heard that the Ace was engineless, Shelby wrote to Charles Hurlock, owner of AC, and suggested that they continue to build the chassis, but modify it to accept an American V8 engine.

Hurlock agreed, in principal, but neither Hurlock nor Shelby had a particular engine in mind.  At the same time, Ford Motor Company was developing a small block 211 inch V8 engine. When Shelby found out about the Ford small block, he arranged to have AC ship the Ace Chassis to him in Los Angeles, where he would insert the Ford engine. The result of this assault on physics was called the Cobra, and racing was never the same.

Carroll Shelby continued working with Ford Motors for the next nine years. That partnership produced a series of vehicles which became icons of America’s muscle car culture:

1964: Cobra Daytona Coupe
1964: GT40
1965: GT350 Mustang
1966: GT40 Mark II
1967: GT500 Mustang

The Cobra Roadster remained the main production vehicle for Shelby. The last one was produced in 1967, and was fitted with a big-block 427 engine, to the consternation of corvette drivers everywhere. In 1969 the lights were turned off at Shelby Automotive Racing for the last time, and it appeared that an era had come to an end.
  
Carroll Shelby, however, was far from his end, and he opened the Shelby-Dowd Wheel company in 1973. A more interesting event happened in 1976 in Oakland, California, though. The Shelby American Automobile Club had its first convention that year, and Shelby and many of his drivers reunited for the first time in nearly a decade.

The 1980’s saw Shelby again designing autos for an American manufacturer, but this time it was Dodge. Shelby had his hand in many different projects for Dodge, including the Shelby Daytona, but his most outstanding contribution to the company was the 1989 Dodge Viper, an aggressively gorgeous car wrapped around a modified aluminum-block V-10 truck engine. Once again, Shelby stuffed a very large engine into a much smaller engine compartment and made the designers at Chevrolet cry. Shelby drove the Viper in 1991 as the pace car in the Indianapolis 500, and was afterward inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. He wasn’t done yet, though.

Task #4 – Get a Heart

Thirty years after he was diagnosed with a heart ailment, Shelby became a candidate for a heart transplant. A guy has lots of time to think while he is waiting for a heart, and one of the things Carroll Shelby thought about was how hard it was, even for a rich grown-up, to be a transplant recipient.  After his transplant, Shelby founded the Carroll Shelby Children’s Foundation, which helps children in need of organ and tissue transplants, as well as those with acute cardiac disorders.  Shelby has remained active in that foundation to this day.

Task #5 – Follow Your Heart

In 2003, eighty year old Carroll Shelby was approached by Edsel Ford of Ford Motors who asked him once again to lend them a hand in designing cars.  Together, Ford and Shelby produced a new Ford-Shelby GT 500 convertible. Shelby then set about re-designing the Mustang (again) and has introduced a few new models and packages:

• In 2006, the new Shelby GT and the Ford-Shelby GT-H, a 40th Anniversary tribute car
• In 2007, the Shelby GT500KR, the Shelby GT and GT-H convertible, and a Post-title Super Snake package for the Shelby GT 500’s.
• For the 2008 model year, the Shelby GT 500KR, another 40th Anniversary tribute.

In 2008, Shelby was named the Automotive Executive of the Year. The title is a lifetime award given by the Automotive Industry Action Group to honor a career of excellence in the auto industry. When most individuals earn a lifetime achievement award it signifies the end of his career. Carroll Shelby is not most individuals, though, and his previous habits suggest that he will be busy for a few more years – just being Carroll Shelby.

About the Author

James Martell is a long-time admirer of Carroll Shelby and his designs. He owns a replica Cobra roadster and has visited the Las Vegas Shelby American factory many times.  Arlene graciously allowed James to name their third child Shelby, after the man, not the car. James is lucky enough to live in a beautiful suburb of Victoria, British Columbia, on Canada’s west coast. James spends his spare time driving his Cobra, attending car shows and going on cruises as well as developing his website.