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24/01/2025 12:51 pm
Carroll Shelby saved British AC Motors from extinction and made him much more than a retired race car driver. No longer driving due to a severe heart condition, his brainstorm was to take the very nimble AC sports car and power it with an American V8. He commissioned AC to provide him with chassis modified to accept a V8 and he chose to collaborate with Ford for first their 260 V8 from the Falcon Futura in 1962 and the following year to replace the 260 with the 271 HP solid lifter K-code 289. 473 of the street 289s were built. For his race team, blue printed 289s would sport multi carburetor variants like the 6 Webers on this model which could produce up to 380 HP. The 289 offered great balance and was pretty competitive with the later 427 generation. The body changed for this 289 series (CX7000) included fairly mild fender flares to accommodate meatier tires on Hallibrand wheels with the front flares completed by a riveted aluminum piece that seems to act as a gravel guard. I like the embossed "AC" pedals that were retained almost as a tribute to the Cobra's British origins. This gen also sports the new Cobra badge..I posting pics of this #98 Ken Miles car liveried for the 1963 Road America 500 event. The model is, of course, by Exoto and I bought this one for its unusual side roundels and extended push bars. (I just couldn't stop buying these Cobras! I got this one from a shop at the Indy 500 in '08 after I swore I was going to quit.)
24/01/2025 1:35 pm
I just couldn't stop buying these Cobras! I got this one from a shop at the Indy 500 in '08 after I swore I was going to quit.
Excellent pics (and replica ) as always Rich. I don't know if you've ever had a 1:1 - I've known two guys that had one. It's a nutty, hot, scary ride! I'll stick with the models. 🙄
Topic starter
24/01/2025 2:51 pm
@chris I always get a kick out of those rich guys and their sons who sometimes never make it home from the dealership before they total the damned things. I remember watching a 5 mph parade of super cars in maybe LA. Making a right turn on a city street, a teenage son of the owner decided to gun the engine to impress female onlookers, he spun out and wrapped the car around a pole. In a similar parade, a kid gunned his Lamborghini makin a left turn and took out two other cars that had stopped for the light
24/01/2025 3:39 pm
I always get a kick out of those rich guys and their sons who sometimes never make it home from the dealership before they total the damned things.
Yeah, well... you got me there. YouTube is filled with such videos, and it's not always "rich guys" either. Today, it's possible that "Joey Bagadonuts & Johnny Avergae" can drive off with 400-800hp on tap and they "think" they know what they're doing - YouTube proves otherwise. 🙄 😯
24/01/2025 4:29 pm
Beautiful model, Rich...I've always really liked this version.
I don't know if you've ever had a 1:1 - I've known two guys that had one. It's a nutty, hot, scary ride! I'll stick with the models. 🙄
A few years ago, I got a ride in a Superformance replica of a 427...though strangely it was powered by a Ford 302. It was crazy quick...what an experience!
24/01/2025 5:10 pm
Gotta love Cobras...
25/01/2025 12:19 am
25/01/2025 11:21 am
I've the Exoto 289 in burgundy/gold stripes and an Exoto Daytona. I don't think I'll ever sell them although I don't know what's going to happen to them after I'm gone. I'm trying to get my great nephews interested in model cars but at their ages 11 and 9 they're not real excited yet. I'm going to keep trying though. LOL
Steve
25/01/2025 1:19 pm
"...at their ages 11 and 9 they're not real excited..."
I have grandkids around the same age..... they could care less! 😔 😔
Tony Perrone and Steve Jacobs reacted
27/01/2025 2:16 pm
In 1:12 scale by GMP...
27/01/2025 2:47 pm
One more #98 Cobra. This, also an Exoto, is a pre-production prototype 260.
27/01/2025 6:29 pm
30/01/2025 12:23 pm
Actually the first Ford engine slated for the Cobra was a Windsor 221-cu-in 3.6-liter, lightweight, small-block V8. By January 1962, modified the Ace with the help of AC Cars’ mechanics, and thus the “AC Ace 3.6” prototype, chassis #CSX2000, was born. It was the first Shelby Cobra. The 221 cu in was scrapped for the 260 cu in which was scrapped for the 289 cu in.
Topic starter
30/01/2025 1:48 pm
@john3976 Does a 221 Cobra exist today?
Christopher Moroni and Tony Perrone reacted
30/01/2025 9:01 pm
@rich-sufficool Not in the prototype form from AC Motors, once the prototype chassis (CSX2000) was shipped to Corral Shelby the 221 Windsor was no longer the engine of choice which is when Ford supplied Shelby with the 260 cu in small block that was installed at Dean Moons shop in Venice California. While Ford originally wanted the 221 cu in Windsor engine used for the Cobra things moved quickly and the 260 cu in became the engine of choice, then as you posted it was replaced by the 289 cu in engine.
The chassis was shipped to Shelby if I remember correctly without an engine installed. The 221 cu in Windsor engine did allow AC Motors to do the required changes to fit the Ford small block in the AC chassis. One of the changes was moving the steering box to the outside of the frame to fit the wider 221 cu in Windsor V8.
So in a way you can say yes the prototype does still exist as it was chassis CSX2000 but it does not exist as the prototype that was at the AC Motors factory where the changes were made to fit the V8 engine. Today it is Chassis CSX2000 with the 260 cu in Ford V8.
Another note on this car when Carrol Shelby started the ground work he went to Chevrolet (GM) first and asked them for a Chevrolet V8, GM declined because they saw the Cobra as a direct competitor to the Corvette. Corral Shelby then went to Ford and the rest as you can say is history, GM was correct in seeing the Cobra as a direct competitor to the Corvette as not only was the Cobra a direct competitor to the Corvette, the Cobra dominated the Corvette on the race track.
Another interesting fact about chassis CSX2000 is once it made it to America and the 260 cu in V8 was fitted at Dean Moons Venice California shop the car was used for media events and Corral Shelby not wanting the press to know it was the only one in existence at the time he repainted the car several times to make it appear like there was more than just the one car. I want to say the first paint job on the car was a pearl yellow but I could be mistaken on that however it was painted a pearl yellow at one point during the multiple paint jobs it received.
This is such a fascinating car when you stop to think about how it came about and everything Corral Shelby did to get this deal up and running.
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