1966 Shelby Cobra 427

Carroll Shelby was among the most successful sports cars driver in the United States during the 1950s. He won three national championships during his eight-year career and set numerous records including one for winning nineteen consecutive races. In 1956, Sports Car Illustrated named him 'Sports Car Driver of the Year.'

Shelby was born on January 11th of 1912 in Leesburg, Texas. After high school, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, serving in World War II as a flight instructor. Prior to embarking on a racing career, his resume included dump trucks, oilfields, and chicken farms. His fame was taken to another level after he arrived nearly late at a race, wearing striped overalls, after spending the day vaccinating his chickens. After winning the race, he appeared in the local paper, complete with overalls, which would become part of the comical outfit that would eventually become his trademark.

After several notable racing accomplishments, he caught the eye of John Wyer, who helped Shelby secure a spot on the Aston Martin team. By 1958, the Texan found himself winning Le Mans and setting a new race record in the process. A few years later, however, he was diagnosed with a heart condition at the age of 37. After a successful eight-year career in motor racing, Shelby was forced to consider retirement.

After a glamorous career in international motorsports competition, his self-enforced departure from the sport he loved was undoubtedly very difficult. He tried his hand in the oil well drilling industry and even started a Texas trucking company. In 1961 he became the Goodyear Racing tire distributor for the West Coast and formed a motor racing school at Riverside Raceway in California. These ventures allowed him the financial resources to pursue a dream of building his own car.

Carroll Shelby looked to England where the sports car concept relied on 'simplicity'. The proven AC Ace roadster was lightweight and attractive with its main Achilles heel being its aging six-cylinder engine. The engine was an outdated single overhead camshaft unit that had been designed in 1919. After AC discontinued production of the Ace, Shelby decided to transplant an American V8 into the engine bay. The short engine could be positioned further back in the chassis offering better weight distribution. Additionally, the new thin-wall casting 260 cubic-inch Ford V8 engine offered in excess of 300 horsepower when mated to a four-barrel carburetor.

Carroll Shelby had already initiated homologation paperwork with the FIA to make the Cobra eligible for international competition. As such, the early Cobras were quickly transformed into race cars, with the installation of roll bars, quick jack pickups, racing windshields, competition belts, cooling scoops, and safety equipment.

Just five months after the first Cobra had arrived at Shelby in Venice, the first Cobra was competing in 500 miles of tire testing at Riverside. A month later, on February 3rd of 1963, the Shelby team entered two Cobras in the SCCA Divisional race at Riverside. In its third competitive appearance, the Cobras of MacDonald and Miles finished 1-2.

Horsepower output neared 400 horsepower with the 289 and earned the Cobra numerous checkered flags over the years. However, Chevrolet raised the bar even further with the introduction of the new Grand Sport Corvettes. Shelby settled on the 427 cubic inch V8 after the NASCAR contingent at Ford successfully laid claim to the 390. Even though it offered a reliable 500 horsepower, it required a redesigned, wider chassis with coil springs all around. Carroll Shelby and his team resolved the issue and placed an order with AC for 100 of these competition 427 Cobras. Each example was finished in primer, with a black interior, and air shipped to Shelby's facilities upon completion. When the FIA officials arrived in California for inspection in April 1965, only 51 of the required 100 Cobra 427s had been built. Competition features included a wider body to accommodate wider wheels and tires, an oil cooler, side exhaust, external fuel filler, front jacking points, roll bar, and a special 42-gallon fuel tank. This meant they were denied FIA homologation, but they were still eligible for Production Competition in SCCA Regional and National Racing events. After Shelby knew that the FIA was not going to allow the new 427 Cobra to compete in the International GT class he canceled his order for the remaining competition cars, and AC began production of street cars immediately.

Even Ferrari and his 250 LM were dealt a similar fate and were denied FIA approval. As a result, both archrivals were forced to return to last year's cars for the upcoming season.

Beginning in 1964, 427-powered Cobras raced in SCCA's top class and were often the winners. Drivers such as Ed Lowther, Sam Feinstein, Hal Keck, and Dick Smith continually found themselves occupying all three podium spots.

In June of 1965, the FIA classification system added a new class called 'Competition GT' with a production requirement of 50 examples. This allowed the 427 competition cars to complete, however, it created another problem, as it put the Cobra in the same class as Ford's GT40. Since Shelby was running the program for Ford, there was a clear conflict of interest. To resolve it, Shelby agreed not to campaign his own car, leaving it in the hands of the privateers. By this point in history, 53 examples of the competition chassis had been completed by AC (Chassis number CSX3001 through CSX3053), and of those, 16 had been sold to private teams. The first two were retained as prototypes, and one chassis (CSX3027) was sent to Ford Engineering. 35 chassis remained parked outside Shelby's L.A. warehouse. Shelby's east coast representative, Charles Beidler suggested they be painted and completed as street cars. The idea worked, and the 427 S/C (for semi-competition) was born. While these cars were being converted for street use, three more orders were received for full competition cars, for a total of just 19 'production' full competition cars.

By 1967, demand was lessening, Ford was losing money on the cars and production ceased. Only 312 427's were built before production ceased in 1967.

by Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2019