Jameslist – for sale: AC Cobra (1908000 EUR), located in Valenza, Spain
1965 AC Shelby 427 Comp Cobra. Very Early 427 Comp Cobra, 1 of 23 Built, and 1 of 4 Dry Sump Cars. When AC lost their supply of Bristol and later Ford six-cylinder engines, it appeared that they would have to stop building the Ace, whose lightweight attractive aluminum body and sophisticated chassis and suspension made it in many ways the quintessential British sports car. At the same time, Carroll Shelby had recently retired from motor racing and was running a driving school and selling Goodyear tires, but wanted something more exciting. Having always wanted to build his own sports car, he approached the various Detroit manufacturers and was eventually offered a small but light eight cylinder engine by Ford from their pickup truck line. Aware of AC’s predicament, he approached the management with his inimitable flair, and the Cobra was born. The bodies were built by the AC factory in the United Kingdom before being shipped to the Shelby American’s Southern California factory. Initial impressions of the car, which was still in bare aluminum, were extremely favorable. Following its first competition outings, the bugs were gradually ironed out, and the car proved to be a durable, quick, and extremely capable car. The rest, as they say, is history, and the Cobras, in 260cid, 289cid and 427cid versions went on to achieve tremendous racing success, in addition to becoming culturally ingrained as one of the greatest and coolest cars ever made. The story of the competition Cobras is a particularly illustrious and fascinating one that in many ways defines motorsports in the 1960s, which are often considered to be the golden age of sports car racing. The car played a central role in the early years of the Ford-Ferrari wars which escalated during the 1964 season, and eventually culminated with four consecutive wins of Le Mans and five consecutive wins of the World Sports Car Championship, the first of which was in 1965. The 427 Competition Cobra emerged in earnest for the 1965 season because it had become clear that the successful 289 Cobras could not reliably produce more than 400hp, a power level that would be needed to keep up with the Ferraris on the fast European circuits. Thus, the now famous 427 cid cast iron side oiler high riser motor was fitted (originally seen in the 1963.5 Galaxie), and produced 485hp easy in comp trim, and as much as 550hp when appropriately configured and tuned. The chassis was significantly revamped as well, with the notable change to 4-inch tubes from 3-inch tubes, which were placed 5 inches wider apart than on the 289s. The leaf spring suspension was replaced with a more modern coil spring setup. In addition to the hard fought wins on the international scene, the Cobra proved to be an unbeatable force in American Club Racing events, essentially from the Cobra’s introduction, and the 427 continued that pattern, with 1-2-3 finishes becoming essentially routine. The 427 Cobra was available in a number of forms, ranging from the street trim version to the full on competition version. The comp cars had a single Holley Carburetor with “turkey pan” plenum chamber, aluminum cylinder heads and water pump, 12.5:1 compression ratio, lightweight valves, tubular headers, and straight pipes. The comp cars also had brass suspension bushings, anti roll bars, larger Girling brakes (with quick release mechanism to change pads in seconds), brake ducts, magnesium knock-off wheels, recessed large diameter fuel filler, roll bar, hood scoop. 21 competition 427 Roadsters were built, of which 4 were fitted with dry sump lubrication systems. The first production 427 Cobra was CSX3001, which was finished in late 1964, and this car, CSX3004, was the first comp car. It is one of the four cars equipped with dry sump lubrication, and also has some other unique traits as a very early production 427, including the 289 type dashboard and forward-braced roll bar