Althouse: Nice Cobra!

June 4, 2011

Nice Cobra!

42 comments:

Expat(ish) said...: Cobra or Fauxbra?

-XC; 6/4/11, 3:50 PM
The Drill SGT said...: Is that a AC Cobra or an AC Shelby Cobra?

I think the later; 6/4/11, 4:09 PM
Carol_Herman said...: I don't see the crowds.

Not that it's not a nice day to get to walk downtown. (How big's the downtown crowds on weekends, anyway?)

I wonder if you can question the vendors, to find out how well they're doing.; 6/4/11, 4:16 PM
edutcher said...: Very nice Cobra.

Glad you guys didn't spend all day with the Walkervillains.; 6/4/11, 4:16 PM
Michael K said...: I wonder how much the owner gets to drive it there.; 6/4/11, 4:28 PM
A. Shmendrik said...: I'm thinking Fauxbra - if it was an original, that clean, you''d never let the hoi polloi get that close.; 6/4/11, 4:46 PM
Anonymous said...: Just make sure some rich Chicago playboy doesn't run you over in his high-priced vehicle because he'll get off Scot-free.

A Chicago millionaire killed two pensioners with his vehicle, fled the scene of the accident and has over 50 traffic tickets ... but gets no jail time.

He was sentenced to pay the families some money, and got off with a wrist-slap. But the judge won't say how much he paid. The lawyers were paid off too but won't say how much.

No wait ... it gets better. The rich guy was on 10-years probation for running over a Chicago cop with his car.

Wait ... it gets better. Long history of drug abuse.

There are no laws if you're a rich, connected Chicago. Our society is fucked:

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/news/local/ct-met-levin-hit-and-run-2-20110603,0,7039906.story?page=1&track=rss; 6/4/11, 4:49 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Kit car. Most likely.

But still nice to look at :-D; 6/4/11, 4:50 PM
Chip S. said...: Can't quite lay off the Weiner jokes, can you?; 6/4/11, 4:51 PM
vnjagvet said...: That is the car I always coveted. Over the years it had many engines. The original AC Ace, built during the '50s. had a straight six Bristol engine of pre-war design It was somewhat underpowered. That car was also known as the AC Bristol.

Beginning in the early '60s, came a series of cars with AC Ace bodies and Ford "Cobra" V8 engines co-engineered by Shelby and Ford. These were known as the AC Cobras or Shelby Cobras.

Unfortunately, they were always out of my price range.

The pictured Cobra has my favorite blue wide white stripe color combination. It is a real classic.; 6/4/11, 4:58 PM
Bob Ellison said...: I saw a guy at a car show sitting next to a beautiful Jaguar from about 1956. I asked him how long he had owned it, and he said, "well, let's see...I bought it new..."; 6/4/11, 5:02 PM
paul a'barge said...: Real or Kit? Huge, huge difference ... just huge.

I'm guessing Kit.; 6/4/11, 5:21 PM
MadTownGuy said...: If Carroll Shelby's signature on the glove box is any indication, it's the real deal.; 6/4/11, 5:25 PM
DADvocate said...: No such thing as a nice Cobra. Cobras are beyond nice. If it's a kit, it's nice.; 6/4/11, 5:26 PM
Michael Haz said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/4/11, 5:28 PM
Michael Haz said...: It's a replica, a very good replica, though. It looks like it was manufactured by Factory Five Racing, essentially a new Cobra made of the best stuff available.

There are two giveways:

1) It has a current license plate. An actual Cobra would have collectors plates.

2) An original Cobra with a value north of $500,000 would not be anywhere where someone leaning on it might cause even the smallest of scratches in its paint.; 6/4/11, 5:30 PM
BJM said...: Fauxbra.

We had a 66 Super Snake...built by Shelby with a few custom "tweaks". A brutally quick car, worst best drive evah. The bottoms melted off my tennies on a summer drive to Laguna Seca.

We sold it when Johnson invited us to join his band of merry men...next owner stacked it...they sell in the 5-6 mil range now.

Sigh.

Most of my yute was misspent at car shows,shops and tracks.; 6/4/11, 5:31 PM
Bartender Cabbie said...: I thought you were talking about Weiner's wiener. You know Cobra equates dingaling....Never mind; 6/4/11, 6:17 PM
The Dude said...: I've met Carrol Shelby - and besides being one of the longest lived recipients of a heart transplant one thing I know for certain is that he will sign anything that makes him money.

My money is on replica. The originals rarely get out in the real world.; 6/4/11, 6:20 PM
Mark said...: Does Meade have a birthday coming up?; 6/4/11, 6:28 PM
J said...: Sweet!

I saw one of these rumbling downtown at about 25 m.p.h. I was fascinated at how the body vibrated as it rolled.

As it approached I could hear the whine of a supercharger belt. In passing the whine was replaced by the "burgle burgle" from the exhaust. The deep base hit my chest and increased my heart rate.; 6/4/11, 6:39 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I'm trying to read the sign in the window on another photo that I have. It's partially blocked by the wiper, but I think it says "1965" and after the date it says "Rep." -- replica? -- and under "outstanding features" it says "factory built [unreadable] Carroll [unreadable] Corp."

At the top, under "make" it says "superperformance."; 6/4/11, 7:09 PM
Michael K said...: When I was in college, back in the 1950s, road racing was the big event. We used to go to the Palm Springs road race which was run at Palm Springs Airport Easter Week. One day, as we drove to the airport, Shelby went by warming up his 5 liter Ferrari on the local streets.

Pretty much of a thrill to drive past him. The guy is immortal.; 6/4/11, 7:09 PM
Ann Althouse said...: It has a big, conspicuous fire extinguisher mounted behind the driver's seat.; 6/4/11, 7:10 PM
William said...: By the time one gets sufficient money to afford such a car, one's own suspension system is shot. How does one even get into it? That's not even mentioning the hydraulics of having to get out of it multiple times on the interstate....That's the curse of living in this rotten capitalist society. You can have anything you want as long as you're too old to enjoy it.; 6/4/11, 7:12 PM
al said...: Looks like a replica. There is one at work in yellow that is an incredibly powerful car. Freaky fast. Skittish in the wrong hands. Also incredibly fun.; 6/4/11, 7:17 PM
Anga2010 said...: Aye! Dat's way better than protests and other nuisance. Nice car!!!; 6/4/11, 7:51 PM
Anga2010 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/4/11, 7:52 PM
Ralph L said...: It has a big, conspicuous fire extinguisher mounted behind the driver's seat.

By the time one gets sufficient money to afford such a car, one's own suspension system is shot

Sure it isn't an oxygen tank?

wv - pologra - Spanish viagra; 6/4/11, 7:54 PM
Ralph L said...: William, you should have been good looking and hung and gotten a sugar daddy/Indian husband.; 6/4/11, 7:56 PM
MadTownGuy said...: OK, should have looked at the other pictures I took of the front. Placard reads: "Superformance Cobra - Mk III - Roadster - 1965 Replica - 500 H.P. - 351 Windsor stroked 408 - Factory built - not a kit car - lic. by Carroll Shelby Corp." I stand corrected.

wv: crommu (a customized cow?); 6/4/11, 8:28 PM
bagoh20 said...: Just an exceptional design that has driven men crazy for over half a century. Something about it just captivates us, and makes us want it. Unparalleled.; 6/4/11, 8:53 PM
kjbe said...: Sweet. I should have walked down one more block...but my meter was running out.; 6/4/11, 9:34 PM
Conserve Liberty said...: IMHO a Cobra isn't a COBRA unless the body is aluminum.

(I include the Kirkham continuation and custom bodies in that statement. They come with an MSO).; 6/4/11, 11:09 PM
Titus said...: Wisconsin is so flyover country.

I realize you, Althouse and the rest of your commenter believe it is some liberal stronghold but really it is just a piece of shit part of the country.

I am sorry but that is the trust.

I saw a trans am and corvette convertable today. I am sorry but that is totally white trash.

You would never see that in Boston. Only BMW, Mercedes and international cars.; 6/4/11, 11:44 PM
Dustin said...: It looks too good to be a kit. It's probably something like a Kirkham (a company using an old Poland Mig factory to make Cobra bodies).

It also looks too good to be authentic. Those cars were almost all races very hard and hammered back into shape. They are sweet as historical relics, but not really as nice as a great fake.

Either way, it's an incredibly dangerous car. I saw someone nearly fly off the road in one. I'd love to have one, of course.; 6/5/11, 3:01 AM
Quaestor said...: DBQ wrote: Kit car. Most likely.

But still nice to look at :-D

Most Cobra replicas today are sold as finished turn-key cars or as "rollers" -- factory finished except for the engine and drive train, which are then added by professional hotrod and race car builders such as Rauch Fenway Racing. One of the best "Fauxbras" out there is made by a South African company called Superformance They ship their cars without power plants to avoid those onerous nanny state import regs that make exotic sport cars much more expensive then they ought to be. Superformance has a partner just down the road from my home which receives about 60% of their US sales for completion. Occasionally I see their road tests drive by. The most impressive models are their GT-40 replicas (Shouldn't be called a replica, more a reproduction. They are faster and safer than original GT-40s, with carbon fiber bodies instead of aluminum) Another amazing car they build is the Brock Coupe, an enlarged and civilized version of the Cobra GT racer from the mid-sixties (Only six Cobra GTs were built. One eventually was bought by the monster Phil Spector, who drove that priceless, and not street legal, beauty in LA traffic. That he got away with such behavior illustrates nevadabob's "no justice for the lowly" thesis); 6/5/11, 3:19 AM
Toad Trend said...: Real thing, or a replicar???

I'm guessing replicar. If I owned it, it would never be parked like that for people to drool all over.

People can be idiots when it comes to cars.; 6/5/11, 7:05 AM
Loren Ibsen said...: Shelby had a bunch of extra VINs left over from the original production run. Fifteen or so years ago he realized that meant he he could build new "original" Cobras without all the performance-choking earth-loving body-swaddling nonsense our nannies had imposed in the intervening years.

California didn't see it that way, naturally, but Shelby eventually won and restarted his line. A six figure nonrefundable deposit would buy you a spot on the mile long waiting list.

Supposedly, Tom Cruise (fresh off Days of Thunder and his PSAs telling the rest of us to ride the bus) was on the list but got cold feet. He threw a John Edwards level tantrum and the Shelby folks figured he wasn't worth the hassle, so he won, temporarily.

Some time later he changed his mind and called back to demand he be put back on the list, in his original position. They'd had enough, though, and no amount of wheedling would allow him cutsys.

Moral: Being rich might put you above the law, and 99.99% of humanity, but eventually you'll run into a Carroll Shelby.

Actually, that's a pretty crappy moral. Needs work.; 6/5/11, 10:17 AM
Jim said...: The fender flares look wrong for a 'real' 1965 street car, but it doesn't look as though it's set up for racing, either. Here's how you test: sit on a fender; if it dents, it's aluminum and original. ; > )

In 1966 I had a chance to buy a 1965 289 from a guy who raced it. It went through a minor under-hood fire and he purchased it cheap from Danny Gerber of Gerber Baby Foods. He sold it for $3500, but I was in a Doc program and couldn't afford it.

You can watch Cobras and other extraordinary vintage cars race at Road America during the Brian Redman vintage car races 7/14 - 7/17.; 6/5/11, 11:01 AM
Methadras said...: It's a kit AC Shelby Cobra. I know, I re-engineered and built 2 of them. Great cars with modern suspension and I dropped a 429 instead of a 427 in them and married them both to borg-warner T6 transmissions. They were a blast to drive. The power-to-weight ratio's where unbelievable. So much power with so little effort. The wife hated them because she doesn't like convertibles because they ruin her hair. But I sold them for nice profit.

That is a nice kit however and I always love the tradition blue with white stripe. That was my first. My second was red with a black stripe, but I was torn with making it black with a red stripe.; 6/6/11, 1:32 AM
Anonymous said...: Cool cars,I want to wear dinner jackets while driving that cool car.; 8/2/11, 12:46 AM