Hi Gang:
Was recently able to pick up this old issue of R&T which features a Road Test report (byJohn Lamm) of the $500,000 aluminum bodied Shelby Cobra 427 S/C. This article was both informative, puzzling and somewhat perplexing to me.
It was informative to learn that Carrol Shelby had stored away many parts and peices from the original Shelby AC Cobra 427 production run and has also pre-registered 43 non-exisitant cars in California! (in hopes to someday build them and avoid upcoming anti-smog and air polution regulations by having the cars grandfathered). Some forward thinking on Carroll Shelby's part!
Puzzling in that in the article, Shelby says that he stored away all the parts, engines, for the AC Cobra 427 S/C's that he never assembled. Sadly, according to the article, Shelby did not have the foresight to store away brake components. He said he spent nearly $2 Million dollars to build the tooling and molds to cast the Girling front brakes. "I started from scratch, took a caliper, cut it up, did the drawings and made the molds, we also had to redo the kingpins, rear hubs, center sections, steering wheels"
Shelby then admits (this is 1992 remember), his goal is only to sell only one or two or three of these $500K cars. He also updated the "very soft aluminum hand formed bodies". "So I built the new bodies (made locally) out of much stronger material".
Also stub axles, halfshafts, and so forth are made of aircraft-quality metal. Also Goodyear built us an new radial tire (Goodyear Blue Streak 6.00-15 Front and 8.00-15 Rear) with aluminum Halibrand style wheels. (the original magnisium had a habit of corroding over the years)
Now for the perplexing part of the road test. Other than a picture, there is no mention of the engine, carb, cam, crank, intake maifold, clutch, transmission (although one can deduce it is the Close Ratio 4 Speed Toploader), shocks, etc. This is sad (in my opinion) as I was hoping to get some insight on those component choices. The engine is indeed shown with the plain, chromed, pentroof covers, turkey pan, Stellings Air Cleaner on what is stated to be a Holley 730CFM carb. The engine block is cast iron with iron heads 4.24 X 3.79 bore and stoke. Rated horsepower is 425 at 6000 RPM with max torque at 480 Lb-Ft at 3700 RPM. Compression is 10.5:1 and.
Breaks were considered "good" but the 95 Lbs of pedal force needed to elicit a .5G stop from 60 MPH is accurate. (the same issue road tests the Viper of 1992 as well as the 1992 ZR-1 Corvette which require only 22 Lbs and 24 Lbs respectivly for the same brake test. (no wonder so many new Cobra replica owners, without power assisted brakes do often question the braking capability and pressure needed!)
All in all, I am happy to have this Road & Track roadtest of the 427 S/C. Sad, that Shelby seems to talk down the contribution of AC Motors of England in the development of the Shelby AC Cobra. Sad, that the writer (John Lamm) of Road and Track did not do a more technical article to suit my tastes. Happy that the article starts with the words RUMPA-RUMPA-RUMPA.... and ends with them as well.
BTW, RUMPA would make a nice vanity plate.
Grab this old Issue of Road & Track.... RUMPA!