 |
| My Nissan Leaf and this beautiful 1965 Ford Cobra |
 |
| The original aluminum bodies were made by AC Bristol in England - and shipped to Shelby in California |
Last night Lulu and I went out to dinner with our friends Josh and Melissa. After a couple hours of good friendship - food - and fun - Lulu noticed something out of the corner of her eye - a bunch of cars with their hood up. She knew right away what that meant - an old guy's car show. We hopped into our electric Leaf and sped to the scene.
I have owned 75 cars in my short life of 70 years - more than one a year. I always wanted more than I could afford - a trait that does not seem to wane as you get older. Some old guys like guns - probably replacement therapy - I like cars.
When I was 16 - a car came onto the scene that was my dream. I always loved little cars - they did not have to have a big engine - but a small nimble car that did not use a lot of gasoline was my goal. American Carroll Shelby seemed to have the ticket. Carroll was a racer - he won the famous LeMans race driving a Ford. So he had some connections with the company. Carroll went to England and found a company AC Bristol that made a sleek light sports car. Shelby's idea was to buy the British bodies - ship them to California - and shoehorn small block Ford V8's under the hood. He eventually figure a way to fit the Ford 427 engine under the hood - and he invented a fire breather that could beat the Chevy Corvette on almost every track.
In 1966 - when I turned 18 and graduated from THS - one could buy Carroll Sheby's Cobra for $7800. I have proof because I wrote to Shelby - and they sent me sales literature. I have very few things left from 50 years ago - but I still have that orange piece of paper.
 |
| In my hope chest - I keep this original Shelby Cobra sales literature. Pretty rustic huh? Note the price. |
The Cobra weighs about 2800 pounds and had 465 horsepower. It could go and stop like no other. It could go from 0 MPH to 100 MPH and back to 0 MPH in 12 seconds! It was loud - brash - has no power steering or air conditioning. The clutch pedal required weight training to engage it.
Maybe I can get one of these engines - and put it into my motor home :-)
I did not even engage the owners - I say owners because there were two Cobras there. The one looked original - some of these cars have sold for over one million dollars today. The second one may have been a replicar - several companies make a "mock off" of the car. Carroll Shelby is dead - but his company still makes the specialty car in Las Vegas. See the my tour of the factory here -
Shelby Factory - Las Vegas
I will probably never own one. I would probably have trouble getting in and out of it. But it does not stop me from admiring one - especially one this pretty.
 |
| That is my Nissan Leaf behind this 1965 Ford AC Cobra. Look hard - you can see Lulu waiting inside - letting me have some drool time. You can see I was in a hurry - my wheel was on the curb. |
 |
| This Ford 427 aluminum block engine was spotless |
 |
| This second Cobra appeared to be a replicar |
 |
| Roush is a modern company that builts high performance race engines |
No comments:
Post a Comment