Althouse: Nice Cobra!

४ जून, २०११

Nice Cobra!

४२ टिप्पण्या:

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

-XC; ४/६/११, ३:५० PM
The Drill SGT म्हणाले...: Is that a AC Cobra or an AC Shelby Cobra?

I think the later; ४/६/११, ४:०९ PM
Carol_Herman म्हणाले...: 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.; ४/६/११, ४:१६ PM
edutcher म्हणाले...: Very nice Cobra.

Glad you guys didn't spend all day with the Walkervillains.; ४/६/११, ४:१६ PM
Michael K म्हणाले...: I wonder how much the owner gets to drive it there.; ४/६/११, ४:२८ PM
A. Shmendrik म्हणाले...: I'm thinking Fauxbra - if it was an original, that clean, you''d never let the hoi polloi get that close.; ४/६/११, ४:४६ PM
अनामित म्हणाले...: 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; ४/६/११, ४:४९ PM
Dust Bunny Queen म्हणाले...: Kit car. Most likely.

But still nice to look at :-D; ४/६/११, ४:५० PM
Chip S. म्हणाले...: Can't quite lay off the Weiner jokes, can you?; ४/६/११, ४:५१ PM
vnjagvet म्हणाले...: 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.; ४/६/११, ४:५८ PM
Bob Ellison म्हणाले...: 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..."; ४/६/११, ५:०२ PM
paul a'barge म्हणाले...: Real or Kit? Huge, huge difference ... just huge.

I'm guessing Kit.; ४/६/११, ५:२१ PM
MadTownGuy म्हणाले...: If Carroll Shelby's signature on the glove box is any indication, it's the real deal.; ४/६/११, ५:२५ PM
DADvocate म्हणाले...: No such thing as a nice Cobra. Cobras are beyond nice. If it's a kit, it's nice.; ४/६/११, ५:२६ PM
Michael Haz म्हणाले...: ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.; ४/६/११, ५:२८ PM
Michael Haz म्हणाले...: 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.; ४/६/११, ५:३० PM
BJM म्हणाले...: 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.; ४/६/११, ५:३१ PM
Bartender Cabbie म्हणाले...: I thought you were talking about Weiner's wiener. You know Cobra equates dingaling....Never mind; ४/६/११, ६:१७ PM
The Dude म्हणाले...: 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.; ४/६/११, ६:२० PM
Mark म्हणाले...: Does Meade have a birthday coming up?; ४/६/११, ६:२८ PM
J म्हणाले...: 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.; ४/६/११, ६:३९ PM
Ann Althouse म्हणाले...: 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."; ४/६/११, ७:०९ PM
Michael K म्हणाले...: 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.; ४/६/११, ७:०९ PM
Ann Althouse म्हणाले...: It has a big, conspicuous fire extinguisher mounted behind the driver's seat.; ४/६/११, ७:१० PM
William म्हणाले...: 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.; ४/६/११, ७:१२ PM
al म्हणाले...: 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.; ४/६/११, ७:१७ PM
Anga2010 म्हणाले...: Aye! Dat's way better than protests and other nuisance. Nice car!!!; ४/६/११, ७:५१ PM
Anga2010 म्हणाले...: ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.; ४/६/११, ७:५२ PM
Ralph L म्हणाले...: 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; ४/६/११, ७:५४ PM
Ralph L म्हणाले...: William, you should have been good looking and hung and gotten a sugar daddy/Indian husband.; ४/६/११, ७:५६ PM
MadTownGuy म्हणाले...: 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?); ४/६/११, ८:२८ PM
bagoh20 म्हणाले...: 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.; ४/६/११, ८:५३ PM
kjbe म्हणाले...: Sweet. I should have walked down one more block...but my meter was running out.; ४/६/११, ९:३४ PM
Conserve Liberty म्हणाले...: 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).; ४/६/११, ११:०९ PM
Titus म्हणाले...: 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.; ४/६/११, ११:४४ PM
Dustin म्हणाले...: 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.; ५/६/११, ३:०१ AM
Quaestor म्हणाले...: 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); ५/६/११, ३:१९ AM
Toad Trend म्हणाले...: 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.; ५/६/११, ७:०५ AM
Loren Ibsen म्हणाले...: 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.; ५/६/११, १०:१७ AM
Jim म्हणाले...: 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.; ५/६/११, ११:०१ AM
Methadras म्हणाले...: 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.; ६/६/११, १:३२ AM
अनामित म्हणाले...: Cool cars,I want to wear dinner jackets while driving that cool car.; २/८/११, १२:४६ AM