Just to harp back to the AC issue, The Ace wasn`t the firm`s 'bread & butter', and had Shelby not put the V8 into the Ace, it would have undoubtedly carried on as a 'nice' sportscar probably with the Ford straight six until the end of it`s life.There was never the quest for 'Too much is enough' so it would never have reached the heights that Carroll took the Cobra to.....but had AC & Shelby not got it together, would there have been anything like the Cobra? What else was there to consider at the time? Healey...nope. Jaguar....never gonna happen. MG....don`t even go there!
As far as it goes,AC presented Shelby with a complete,well sorted car, for the job it had been built to do.(AC/Bristol power!) The move to rack & pinion was an obvious neccesity, and when things broke under race conditions, they were uprated & modified,which, had there been a more powerful engine option during AC`s development, would already have happened. Ford shifting focus to the GT40 took away the possibilty of seeing what the 427 was really capable of, but a well sorted leafsprung 289 was always a circuit winner, just not a drag racer.(Although that said, the John Woolfe 427 that held the 'fastest production car' Guinness Record 1967-`83 did it in 4.2 seconds and CS2131[289] would do it 3.9!!!)Shelby/Ford never built a Chassis, All cars arrived 'turnkey minus' to Shelby, making AC more than 'tinbeaters', All cars were made with an AC chassis number & had AC badges, regardless of whether they ended up 'tagged & badged' as 'SHELBY COBRA' They are AC`s. I don`t understand the need to write AC out of history to 'big up' Shelby`s part in the Cobra story......It wouldn`t have happened without EITHER party. Why can`t we just put this to bed saying 'WE' made a motoring legend?
p.s. 289FIA looks best
