Cobra featured marque at Monterey Historics 2012

[SunDude]

The AC/Shelby Cobra will be the featured marque at next year's Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca, to celebrate the car's 50th anniversary.
   
   Brian
   
   ****************
   
   PRESS RELEASE: Cobra 50th Anniversary to be Featured at 2012 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion
   
   MONTEREY, Calif., August 21, 2011 – Cobra, one of the most recognized and iconic names in the motorsports and automotive worlds, will be the featured marque at next year's Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion on August 17-19, 2012. Today's announcement was made at the closing awards ceremony by Gill Campbell, CEO/general manager of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca who was accompanied by the growl of a Cobra driving on stage.
   
   Created by Carroll Shelby in 1962, the original Shelby Cobra quickly established itself as the dominant American competitor on the international sports car racing scene, narrowly missing the World Sports Car Championship in 1964 and winning the championship in 1965, a remarkable achievement "from scratch" against established European competitors. This success was prompted by a strong partnership between Carroll Shelby and Ford Motor Company. Shelby chose Ford engines to power his cars that consistently outperformed its competitors.
   
   Next year will be the 39th year of historic racing at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Carroll Shelby was honored in 1997 at the formerly-named Monterey Historic Automobile Races®, and 2012 will be the first time the Shelby Cobra will be featured.
   
   The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion is an annual tradition that hosts approximately 550 authentic and historic race cars from nearly every decade of motorsports history. The cars are divided into individual groups according to age and engine size, and each one must be period-correct in their presentation.
   
   Visit //www.MazdaRaceway.com for additional information.
   
   Source: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
   
   ****************
   
   Here are some pics from the 2011 Monterey Historics, courtesy of AOL Autos.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

[nikbj68]

Look at the compression on #59, reckon there are blisters in the paint from tyre-rubbing?
   
   
   
   Chafford, All our American cousins know that Ol` Shel` took a good for nuthin` buggy-sprung, wino-under-railway-arch-built piece o` crap and created singlehandedly "from scratch" the winninginestest vee-hickle the world ever done saw... Will we Limeys never understand?! [:0]
   Just like (as James May recounted on Top Gear) how 'they' came over here in WWII and saved Europe from Winston Hitler. [}:)]

[Chafford]

quote:Originally posted by nikbj68
   
   Chafford, All our American cousins know that Ol` Shel` took a good for nuthin` buggy-sprung, wino-under-railway-arch-built piece o` crap and created singlehandedly "from scratch" the winninginestest vee-hickle the world ever done saw... Will we Limeys never understand?! [:0]
   Just like (as James May recounted on Top Gear) how 'they' came over here in WWII and saved Europe from Winston Hitler. [}:)]
   

   
   Nice one, Nick!  [:)][:)]

[TLegate]

They saved Yew-rup. Check your spellin' thar boy.
   
   I also note in one recent article that Mr. Shelby was a fighter pilot in that little skirmish. Don't think even he's got around to inventing that one yet!

[Gus Meyjes]

Photos are heavily "retouched" similar to what some of us Americans like to do with our women....

[Laurence Kent]

I find it ironic that American automotive historians who talk about Mr. Shelby as though he were a god, and who go out of their ways to say how magnanimous he was in sharing credit where it was due, overlook how he has always swept AC under the carpet. In one 1980s interview he went as far as to say that what AC had done was sell him "a few parts".

[Gus Meyjes]

That's why every Cobra is a kit car that was not completed by AC craftsmen in an AC facility[;)][:D]

[A-Snake]

In their own words - Carroll Shelby.
   
   Don't shoot the messenger ;-)
   
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqQ6LGpiGY4&feature

[Laurence Kent]

Well, A-Snake, I'm not sure if that video is supposed to counter what I said above, or vindicate it!  Mr. Shelby says he gor "AC to build a couple of chassis" for him. How about AC build COMPLETE CARS for him, minus engine and gearbox?  Also, how about the fact that AC built the original prototype CSX 2000 for him, including testing it at Silverstone? What about Shelby's agreement with AC of February 5, 1962, where he agreed in writing that the cars would be AC-badged? He wasted no time in removing the AC badges from CSX 2000. When the first magazine coverage ever of the Cobra came out, Charles Hurlock was furious to see that his badges had been removed, only to have "Shelby" painted overtop.  As Shelby was getting his Cobras ON CREDIT FROM AC, he quickly came up with an excuse when talking to an angry Charles Hurlock on the phone: that a worker had got carried away by painting "Shelby" where the AC badge had once stood, and that he was commissioning a new badge that did include the AC logo, per their agreement. Shelby thus rushed with the AC badges to a badge manufacturing company, and instructed them on what sort of badge he wanted.  What resulted was a badge with a large red "SHELBY" towering over the word "COBRA" down below in half the size of his own name. In the middle was a tiny AC logo, HALF the size of that of a key fob!  Even this badge went away by very early 1963. Mr. Shelby's first employee, Pete Brock, had thought that that badge with the tiny AC logo "came from England" (and Shelby never set him straight about having commissioned it himself)...and Brock told Shelby that he could design a cool snake badge...so as to get rid of that "English" badge with the AC logo.  By now Shelby had sold a few Cobras, with which to start paying AC for the cars he had bought on credit from AC so far, so he now had no big problem with breaking his agreement with AC about the cars being AC-badged. Back in England, Hurlock had received a bunch of those Shelby AC Cobra badges from Shelby. The AC logo was so tiny that on that first handful of Mk II Cobras for the British market, he had those cars double-badged in the back, with both Shelby's badge and a large chrome AC logo, of the type that was to be placed on non-Shelby COB and COX Cobras, right up to the AC 289, and the Frua beyond that. By then, though, Shelby was no longer living up to his agreement with his snake badges...so so much for being this magnanimous gentleman when it came to sharing credit and whose word was his bond, and all that blarney...
        In the late 1980s, when doing battle with Brian Angliss over who had been the true manufacturer of the Cobra, Mr. Shelby accused AC of having sold him cars whose bodies had been built by drunkards under bridges (on Taggs Island), that had headlamp alignments off by several inches, and that all that AC had ever done was just sell him "a few parts".  Now that's what I call being a gentleman who lives up to agreements, and who gives credit where credit is due.

[Jam2]

I'm not sure when the AC Cobra was last the featured marque at Monterey, but it was the marque in1981 and I had great fun shipping my Cobra (at the grand cost of £200)  from Southampton (UK) to Newark, then driving across the US to Monterey.  The drive was fascinating and we enjoyed a lot of kindness from people during the trip and once we we arrived.
   I can highly recommend any Cobra owner doing something similar.

[TLegate]

Hello John
   
   Nice to hear from you - I recall paying you a visit shortly after your trip to talk about it while I was writing my first Cobra book. I still think that was one of the finest examples of using a Cobra 'properly' rather than buying one to keep in the garage. Sadly I think that in this world, the chances of anyone repeating your wonderful road trip is close to zero. Not impossible, but highly unlikely.

[Jam2]

Hello Trevor, what an excellent memory you have.  How sad to think that most people won't consider such a trip, it's nothing like doing the Paris / Peking and the Cobra is so very useable as a touring car.  I did put a high ratio axle in which enabled some very high cruising speeds (despite the 50mph limit at the time) and we were only stopped once for speeding. Circa 130mph, but the patrolman was so confused by the English plates, RHD etc., that he let us off.
   John

[Gus Meyjes]

I was actually thinking about driving out to Monterey myself, albeit from Michigan, where I reside. So no coast to coast.. oh, and in a Kirkham...[V], but should give a near experience anyway[;)]
   
   Anyone else planning anything like that?
   
   Gus

[TLegate]

I will - if somebody will kindly lend me their Cobra (of any variety...I'm not fussy...)