These snaps from the Cobra “assembly line” have been bouncing around Tumblr this week and I couldn’t be more pleased to add them to our gallery of sports and racing factories, workshops, raceshops, and garages.
via T-Top Coupe
Bonus, Steve McQueen picking his Windsor block Cobra from the man himself.
The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering always draws out many of the best vintage racing cars on the planet—so it only makes sense that Bonham’s auction at the event will follow suit. From Duesenbergs to McLarens, there are too many amazing sports and racing cars coming across that magnificent auction block to list them all. I do want to point out a few personal favorites. Some of these may not be the cars that command the high-end bids. They are just some that made me smile as I perused the auction catalog.
The first Ford Shelby Cobra 260 print ad – 1963.
via Griftomatic.
Marvelous 20 minute film of Team Shelby’s racing exploits. Even if this film was just the Willow Springs chalk talk with Peter Brock it would be worth the watch. That it’s interspersed with sequences of Dan Gurney or Ken Miles illustrating his lecture on the track makes it mandatory viewing. You might just learn a touch of racecraft that’s just as true today as it was 50 years ago. Of course that first-generation GT40 and a spinning and drifting 289 Cobra aren’t hard to look at either.
Thanks for sending this one in, Craig!
At least I didn’t have as bad a day as these guys did a few years ago.
Props to Rick Ostman for posting this image to the Vintage Road Racing Archive Facebook group.
Learn Driving in formula or sports cars at world famous Riverside International Raceway. Individual instruction by Carroll Shelby. Send $1.00 for details on beginners and advanced classes.
Carroll Shelby School of High Performance Driving.
10820 So. Norwalk Blvd., Dept. C, Santa Fe Springs, Calif.
That location is now Mooneyes!
Thanks for sending this one in, Chris!
Music to Charm a Cobra!
The incredible roar of a Ford “289 High Performance” V-8 being tested at peak R.P.M. on the Shelby American engine dyno! A powerful, thundering, bellow that has shaken the ground and reverberated in a million thrilled road racing fans from LeMans to Riverside. A sound as smooth as it is brutal; the culmination of thousands of hours of research, testing, and development, to field the most fantastic production sports car the world has ever known, the Cobra! It’s the sound of precision engineering… of victory!
Cobra powered by Ford
Shelby American, Inc. 1042 Princeton Drive, Venice, California
Shelby G.T.350 is “Son of Cobra”
Adults only!
Shelby-American presents America’s fastest, race-bred stock car! You’ll thrill to its performance, you’ll hold your breath behind the wheel!! Every minute is something new never seen before!!!
SEE 306 Ford horses packed into the wild and wooly 289 engine…four barrel carburation, high rise aluminum manifold and a hand-built tuned exhaust system. SEE distinctive Mustang styling to which has been added such “everybody will notice” features as rear quarter panel windows, rear brake scoops and “there goes a G.T. 350” striping. SEE computer designed suspension with front anti-roll bar, competition shocks, front disc brakes and torque controlled rear axle. SEE the G.T. 350 scream from zero to sixty in 5.7 seconds. SEE the G.T. 350…the car that’s not for everybody. Just for you.
FIRST Bp at Cumberland. Bob Johnson. FIRST overall at Kent, Washington. Jerry Titus. FIRST in Bp at Elkhart Lakes, Tom Yeager. FIRST overall at Mid-Ohio. Bob Johnson. FIRST, second, third and fourth in Bp at Lime Rock. Johnson, Donahue, Krinner and Owens. FIRST overall at Mossport. Wietzes and Fisher.
Written and Directed by Carroll Shelby. Producted by Shelby-American, Inc.
Misspelling Elkhart Lake!? Sacrilege! And the “Adults Only” tag might be my favorite part of this “in a world”-style, ham-fisted grindhouse-y trailer copy. Great illustration, too.
With more and more video from last weekend’s Goodwood Revival showing up on the YouTubes, don’t be surprised to see a handful of them here as a sort of self-medication for the depression I’m experiencing for not going.
GoodwoodRRClub says:
To celebrate Carroll Shelby’s magnificent Ferrari beating Cobra’s fiftieth anniversary, the 2012 Goodwood Revival played host to an inspiring one-make race of his fabulous creations. Lasting forty five minutes for two drivers, crowds were wowed by the sound of the biggest gathering of such machines ever in the UK. Victory was taken by the Hall brothers ahead of the Dutch pairing ofTom Colonel and David Hart in second and Ludovic Caron and Anthony Reid in Third.
This set seems appropriate as we all catch our breath from Cobra’s celebration at the Monterey Historics. I often wonder if precious racing artifacts like this body buck for the Daytona Coupe are sitting under a tarp in a forgotten corner of a forgotten warehouse.
Whenever I see the wooden grid of one of these body bucks, or even a clay blank for a fiberglass mold, I am overcome with the desire to learn how to do this.
via The Henry Ford Museum’s Dave Friedman collection.
Update: In the comments, Fab says that some of these photos are of the body buck for the AC Coupe and not the Daytona Coupe. Looking at the rear end of the buck, I think he may be right. I hate when I do that.