A Cool Video Of The Story Of The Shelby Cobra.

Watch this Cool Video Of The Story Of The amazing Shelby Cobra.

Posted on YouTube By: King Rose Archives

Aluminum Shelby Cobra On Track

The Shelby Cobra Story

Video Transcript

Carroll Shelby: My name is Carol Shelby and performance is my business.

Narrator: From Day one Carroll Shelby’s cars have been stunning the world with blistering performance. It didn’t matter whether he was at the wheel or commanding a racing team, Shelby was destined to win. No matter how many cars he created or the races he won, it was always about building the next one better and faster.

Shelby Cobra #98 Red Racing

Carroll Shelby: I guess fast cars have always been an important part of my life. I started driving them on dirt track down in Texas and after a while I worked my way up to sports car driving. Finally, the big win, Le Mans 1959 and boy I was sitting on top of the world. Shortly after that I became a retired race driver. But, I had an idea, you might even call it a dream. It was to build a sports Car, that, first of all, more people could own and enjoy driving. And second, they could race under American colors and maybe beat the old establishment names a little bit.

Carroll Shelby Wins Le Mans 1959

Having practically no capital I started off. First the AC car company in England produced a good basic chassis and body, but I had no engine source. On the other hand, the Ford Motor Company over here was just in the development stage of a promising new high-performance engine.

Silver AC

After a lot of talking I got a hold of some bodies from the AC people and Ford agreed to help me build a new Sports Car I called the Cobra. The Rest is in the record books. The new Ford powered Cobras beat just about everything in sight. Won the US Road Championship in 1963.

Carroll Shelby in the Cobra

You either get to win races or you get to ride in comfort and I decided to build a car that would win races. You could drive it down the street, but you needed Preparation H if you were going to drive it very far.

Aluminum Shelby Cobra Body

We originally wanted to build a hundred of them, we build a hundred and the demand was so, we built another 500 and then we put a 427 engine and a new chassis. The First chassis designed on a computer. They did it at midnight because nobody at Ford would put up the money at that time to design a new car and we knew that we better come up with something pretty good.

Shelby Cobra #98 Blue Racing

Narrator: The powerful new engine gave the Cobras lightning acceleration, but also meant that the cars needed to be beefed up to take advantage of the increased power and torque. While designed for racing some were sold as street-legal that could be raced. These were the fastest street cars anyone could buy. But, you had to know what you were doing to keep the Cobra from biting.

Shelby Cobra #98 Blue Racing

Shelby’s Cobras were nearly invincible in America and he would eventually gear up to take on the world.

Carroll Shelby

Carroll Shelby: I wish I could live forever because I’d still be building cars.

Carroll Shelby and the Cobra

Narrator: Carroll Shelby passes away in 2012. But, his legend lives on in the cars he created and, in the hearts, and minds of all the people who still like to take his cars out on the road and on the track.