AC Cobra Facts for Kids

1966 AC Shelby Cobra

The AC Cobra is a super cool sportscar that mixes British style with American power! Imagine a British car body with a strong American engine and gearbox inside. In 1961, a famous race car driver named Carroll Shelby took an older car called the AC Ace and put a powerful Ford V-8 engine into it. He also added a special four-speed gearbox. This new car became super famous! It was designed to be faster than other sports cars like the Corvette, and it was one of the quickest cars you could buy back then. Carroll Shelby's company built and sold these amazing cars.

The Story Behind the Cobra
Gallery
Racing Success
How Many Were Made?
Images for kids
See also

The Story Behind the Cobra

Carroll Shelby was one of the first professional race car drivers in the world. When he was 37, he had to stop racing because of a heart problem. But he didn't give up on cars! He started building them in a small workshop in California. He really wanted to create an American sports car. Other people had tried putting American engines into European car bodies, but Shelby thought he could do it even better.

He first talked to General Motors, but they already had their Corvette and weren't interested in building a small number of special sports cars. However, Ford was very interested! Shelby also found out that a company in England, AC Limited, was having trouble getting engines for their cars. He told them Ford might supply engines if they sent him a car body to test.

So, AC sent a car body, and Ford sent a V-8 engine. Carroll Shelby and a friend worked all night to put the engine into the car. By morning, they had created the very first Shelby AC Cobra!

At first, Shelby used Ford's 260 cubic inch engine. This V8 engine fit perfectly and worked so well that Shelby looked for an even bigger one. In 1963, they started using the 289 cubic inch engine, which was also great. Then, in 1964, Shelby moved to Ford's huge 427 cubic inch engine and made the car's frame (called the chassis) even stronger in 1965.

Gallery

1965 AC Shelby Cobra (a common view)
The inside (called the cockpit) of an AC Shelby Cobra
A Shelby Cobra at a car show in 2011
The huge Ford 427 engine of an AC Cobra
1966 427 Shelby Cobra
Shelby AC Cobra competition 427, (CSX3009) "Ollie the Dragon"
A street 427 (a rare front view)
1963 Shelby Cobra coupe at Le Mans
CSX2000 is the first Shelby Cobra ever built and might be the most valuable American sports car in the world
A rare 428 Cobra Jet

Racing Success

The AC Cobra quickly became famous on the racetrack. In October 1962, a Cobra was winning a race in Riverside, California but had to stop because of a broken part. However, in January 1963, a Cobra won a race at Riverside! Cobras also raced in famous endurance races like Daytona, Sebring, and the Le Mans.

In 1964, a special 427 coupe version of the Cobra won the GT Championship. That same year, a Cobra raced at Le Mans and finished in fourth place. The legend of the AC Cobra continued to grow with its amazing performance on the track.

How Many Were Made?

From 1961 to 1968, not many AC Cobras were built – only 998 in total! Out of these, 655 were the 289 Cobras, and 343 were the more powerful 427 Cobras. In late 1968, the company AC stopped making the Ace car body, but they kept making AC Cobras for Shelby until that year.

Carroll Shelby didn't build any more Cobras until the early 1990s. He saw that the prices for his original cars were getting very high. He also noticed that many people were building "replica" Cobras, some good and some not so good.

Shelby still had some unused car identification numbers from cars that were supposed to be built in 1965. He wanted to sell them as new 1965 models. He built only nine special "Completion Cobras." Later, Shelby started selling cars as "rollers," which meant they were mostly built but needed an authorized dealer to finish them. You could get them with a fiberglass body or the original aluminum body. He offered 289 Cobras and Cobras with the powerful 427 "side-oiler" engines. For the 50th anniversary of the Cobra, Shelby offered a special edition in all black with red insides and cool gold badges. He made 50 of these, sold as rollers, and they all sold out in just 48 hours!