All my life I’ve been told if you come across an AC Cobra in the wild, it’s probably fake, so imagine my surprise that someone’s actually autocrossing a real one?
Shelby Cobras, less than a thousand were ever made and even less with 427s under the hood so, any AC Cobra news I come across is usually some monstrous auction that took place where some pristine Cobra sold for some godawful amount of money. But this AC Cobra news, this is something refreshing to come across. As per Destination Garage and their latest video post on Facebook earlier this week (Nov. 18,2018) they uploaded one of the many runs that this 1966 Shelby Cobra ran during the Good Guys 2018 Dual in the Desert in Scottsdale, AZ.
Check out the amazing run below.
What you’re looking at is a Shelby Cobra 427 in pristine autocross fighting form. According to the results, this Cobra took top honors and beat all the competition by a large margin. Second place went to former Indy Car driver Robby Unser so you can imagine the competition wasn’t exactly easy.
To the naked eye, this run looks absolutely flawless with that Shelby Cobra, quite literally, dancing around those cones. Its suspension setup really shines through with the driver, Scott Fraser, more than able to apply full WOT when needed but still manages to finesse this beast like a ballet dancer. It’s something quite special to watch.
The first and only owner of this particular 1966 AC Cobra Chassis No. CSX3170 is Bruce Cambern who, as Rod Authority reports, worked as chief chassis engineer at Ford for over three decades.
The only thing stock on this AC Cobra is the body, everything else has been modified, including the original engine. That, and numerous other original parts are stored away for safekeeping so, theoretically, if he wanted to return his AC Cobra to stock, he could.
The original 427 made somewhere in the neighborhood of 425 HP and 480 lb-ft and in something that weighs 2300 pounds, the power to weight ratio is supercar like. What replaces it is an absolute unit at 498 cu. inches, it’s an early Shelby aluminum block, with all the modifications, this engine makes upwards of 850 HP. That and countless suspension upgrades and you have a bonafide autocross crusher on your hands.
The fact that this car has so much prominence because so few were made makes this racecar for the streets that much more special.
Keep racing this Shelby Cobra!
Source: Destination Garage
