Messages

I read that in some recent Shelby literature, too, that they have
   aluminum bodywork made in England. I don't suppose they could be pinched for false adverts?
   Maybe they meant "designed in England."

I liked the pictures but was disappointed they didn't have more old art
   showing the car with that odd hardtop that looked like a 250LM and also
   thought the owner should have painted the car the color it was sold in.
   Were any other Cobras retrofitted with 289s in that shop in France?

The best part of these kinds of forums, besides historical input, is these
   queries about chassis and fudged numbers. Now that there is the internet, bodged cars can 't be passed off as easily on unsuspecting buyers. Bravo!

Is there an expert on genuine Cobras that have raced in France? I have a sort of potted chain of ownership and events for the car but no second source to confirm any of it. Appreciate any correspondence if any memories are jogged when I list the names of previous owners and of events where it raced:
   
   Dr. Richard Milo
   Lloyd "Lucky" Casner,
   Jean-Marie Vincent
   ----------------------------------
   Some of the events it ran :
    tour de France
    1000 km de Paris. I
    Rallye de I'A
   G.A.C.I. in Reims,
    Course de Cote in
   D'Hebecrevon, La Pommerate
   and Des Andelya. (not speaking French I don't know if these are cities or locations in that race ...)
     ------------------------------------------------------
   More owners:
   Pierre Landerau
   Herve Arnone-Demoy
   Bernard Afchain
   Dominic Ellenreider
   
   As you can see, the car had a lot of owners and a few livery & equipment changes. Any comments on any of these owners & their life with this car would be appreciated by someone who is 4000 miles w. of France
   
   PS. Lloyd "Lucky" Casner had a particularly unfortunate nickname as he was killed in a Maserati coupe that flipped in practice.

Found new pictures. The rear window on the hardtop was inset like a 250LM. One unusual thing is though the rear arches are flared as wide as a FIA 289, it does not have cutback doors like the FIA 289 Cobras.

Although I think 1984MkIV is pulling our collective legs with the comment the car might still be there, I no longer doubt that old leads are worth following, as Michael Lamm has documented that some old GM dream cars were found at a junkyard close to the GM Tech Center decades after they were scrapped. Also Jay Leno followed up on an Old Wive's tale of a Duesneberg in a NYC parking garage by treking through numerous garages until he found out the rumor was true. He bought the car, the garage having confiscated it from the owners in lieu of unpayed parking fees that must have covered half a century!

Mr. MkIV:
   
   After I finished the message I remembered that this Stateside website is running the image of my painting.
   
   http://www.csxinfo.net/web/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3
   or try just www.csxinfo.net
   
   But I can still send you the print anyhow.
   
   Cheers,
   ww

To 1984 Mk.IV
   I already painted the painting (I would post it but don't know how) I portrayed the hood "bump" in my fornt 3/4 view as one with no opening but there might have been one on the windscreen side. I will be happy to look at any pictures you send and once I have your postal address can send you an 8" x 10" print of the painting for you to post here and then will willingly accept brickbats if I have the car technically wrong in any detail. Fortunately I can correct the painting (now using acrylics instead of all too transparent watercolours).
   
   My address to send your prints to is: WW, 13038 Melon Ave. Chino,CA 91710
   
   Incidentally I have also seen pictures of the first raw aluminum finished Cobra 427 prototype rear 3/4 view and noted that it had a glovebox door when the Comp versions were not supposed to have that. Maybe it had a street 289 dashboard. The rear 3/4 view also shows that it had a horizontal decal above the side wastegates but I have never seen a photo of sufficient clarity to devine what this decal is--looks sort of Thunderbird emblem shaped but might have been a Holman & Moody decal as I suspect Shelby had to ask Holman & Moody for a race prepped 427 engine as they were well into developing that engine for the 7-liter Galaxie fastbacks racing in NASCAR.

Latest information:
   The book is called Shelby Cars in Detail
   It is going to be $149.95 USD
   which is a lot to us yanks
   but now that our currency is falling, might be a bargain overseas.
   No idea on page length or how much devoted to Cobra.
   More news as I get it.

Larry Shinoda might have designed it. He was Bill Mitchell's "private" designer at
   GM doing the '63 Corvette, etc. but followed Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen over to Ford
   to do Ford high performance cars, among which he did the Boss 302. He quit the day
   Knudsen was fired by Henry Ford II.

Coming in late on the discussion. I missed if the car has a coil spring suspension or leaf springs like the Shelby small block cars.
   Also the vent in the side wing (fender over here in the US) seems reminescent of Giugiaro's penchant at the time of putting side vents in everything from Maserati 5000s to the one off Ferrari swb 250GT he did for Carrozzeria Bertone. Has anyone talked to Giugiaro to see if he free lanced this on the side from Bertone?
   
   Also I missed seeing the rear 3/4 views. Was it posted?
   
   I got a laugh out of the engineers' disappointment in the six. I guess it takes a lot to admit you can't reinvent the wheel and Porsche had invented the wheel with the flat six.
   
   Congratulations to the owner who sees this car as significant as it is...
   
   California History Buff

I was in Arizona at the Gooding Auction in Jan.2011 and they
   sold a Fiat 8Vwith a Ghia built supersonic body on it
   and it occured to me that's the same body
   as is on the 427 Cobra chassis associated once
   with Sir John Whitmore (and maybe one of the land speed Campbells before that).  I understand the Cobra is still out and about.
   Since the Fiat sold for over $1 million, I wonder what the combination of the now much treasured body and 427 chassis is worth? Maybe not too much more than a 427 Cobra because there seems to be two other Supersonic bodies for sale on the net. Anyhow if anybody has a good original picture (not out of a magazine) of the Cobra Supersonic bodied car I'll trade a brand new Cobra book for it.
   Write Photojournalistpro@hotmail.com

If two English producers are anywhere near as enthusiastic as they sound we may soon see a TV series in the UK on racing at the 24 Hours of LeMans.Though it sounds by the title of the book they are basing it on, SHELBY The Man The Cars The Legend, one of the production companies (Headline Pictures) on their website makes it clear that the series, The Drivers,  is a drama based on many drivers.
   
   A couple of pundits in the TV field entitled their announcement of the project by calling it "Mad Men on Wheels" alluding to the popular programme on American TV which shows ad men in the Fifties complete with zaftig ladies, huge befinned and bechromed motorcars, smoking cigarettes and other politically incorrect things so let's hope this series goes all the way and shows what racing back then was really like...one of the producers, Ridley Scott, even told reporters that when he was a lad in the North of England that Sir Stirling Moss was his hero.
   
   
   
   The author of the book has temporarily switched to another marque, reporting that he is now beating the bushes for an agent for his first novel, one of a series featuring a detective who operates in the heady milieu of million dollar collector Ferraris. "If I can't find an agent and/or publisher, I'll publish it myself in time to make its debut at the Concorso Ferrari 2011 show on Colorado Boulevard May 22nd in Pasadena."
   
   .
   
                                                                                          ####

This might have been discussed long ago on the forum but I wonder
   what the story is on the first Cobra, which here is CSX2000, though in early stories in 1962 it was mentioned as CSX1001. My question is, as I understand it, Shelby went to England to test the first prototype with a 221 cu. in. V8 at Silverstone and that, after the tests, that engine was taken out and the car shipped to America to become CSX2000. My question is, does anyone with history of Zephry-engined Aces know if one Zephyr-engined Ace was sacrificed to make CSX2000 or was  an all new chassis and body built for Shelby and not numbered until it was used for Shelby's mule? I thought maybe they kept the original chassis and body in England and just built Shelby another chassis to send to America. If my theory is right there should be one less 2.6 liter Ace accounted for today than the original production records account for. Also at some point Shelby made the trunk (boot to Brits) less deep to make the body more rigid and I wonder if that was done to CSX2000 or to later small block Cobras only.

Hello
   I've been away from  writing for awhile, mucking about with paintbrushes and canvases, but wonder if anyone out there has some glossy black & white fotos of:
   
   --AC Cobra being made in Thames-Ditton
   --AC Cobras being ready to be shipped by truck out of Thames Ditton
   --AC Cobras in rallies back before 1969
   --Cobra chassis back when they were in production
   --CSX2001 when it still had the ugly 250LM style hardtop
   --Carroll Shelby back when he was still a race driver, before 1961
   
   I would like to trade the use of your pictures for any prints I have  of my original oils.So far have prints available of:
   -289 Cobra at Willow
   -Dan Gurney in Targa Florio
   -427 Cobra prototype (probably CSX3002) at Silverstone
   -Daytona coupe (No. 12 in roundel) at LeMans 1965
   --movie poster style format portrait of Carroll Shelby,
       this poster promoting biography of him (on slick paper)
   Most of these can be seen on the website:
   http://legendconnection.org/links.aspx
   
   all of the prints besides the movie poster style are on heavyweight watercolour paper; individually signed and numbered as part of a limited edition.
   
   Interested barterers can write Photojournalistpro@hotmail.com