[What'saCobra?]

They are.

A little clarification for our more open-minded friends is in order.

When AC stopped shipping to SA at the end of 1967, because SA didn't want any more cars they couldn't sell and had a mess of 427/428's upon which they were plonking left over race exhausts, roll bars and other over purchased race stuff made available by the FIA homologation cancellation by FORD and calling them the new moniker, "SC"... AC continued to build a 289 powered version of the MKIII chassis, which they called the AC 289 Sports. (This is not be be confused with the MKIV, this was a true MKIII, but not a 427/8.)

Lovely car, if a little underpowered appearing by our standards; yet, because of the lighter weight (not yet a "lightweight", which came much later), they discovered the car was a driver's driver, with handling that was undiscovered in prior years when loaded down with that iron lump of an FE, regardless of the state of tune of the FE.

Only the Brit's and a few germans (should always be small-capitals until the germans exorcise their east german controlled current government) knew this and then only the few that drove them. The fuel consumption (and fuel cost) of any of the prior 427's made the miserly europeans and their respectively monstrous displacement-based (7 Liters, remember) tax authorities formulate confiscatory registration costs, which the AC 289 Sports mostly dodged, at 4.7 liters.

Even so, AC eventually couldn't even sell many of these, since they were under pressure also about future emissions problems, still too high fuel and tax costs, increased prices at AC (still cheap at any comparison) and the lack of development; which was viewed negatively at the time, since the nostalgia for Cobras hadn't taken off at all until the early seventies, and then only really in 73,74 and 75.

Brian, who then owned Autocraft, the major supplier to AC, wanted to not just build replacement parts for Cobras for everyone in the world, but wanted to build new cars and push them into the USA. He cut a sweet deal with Hurlock...bot AC with FORD, designed and qualified the MKIV for both Britain and the USA (with FORD's help) and sold a bunch of MKIV's...read the books to see that part of the story.

Trevor is absolutely correct that Brian sensed (in 1990 or so) that the market would respond to a hot version of the AC Cobra MKIV and he sold the first few rather quickly and built and sold a few others at BIG margins, as he deserved and good for him. We should be so smart. Isn't this what we credit CS for doing throughout his gloriously adulterated history?

The Shelby American world registry (which title tells it all) doesn't really come to grips at all with understanding the Lightweights, their value and their handling improvements. All MKIV's are treated like bastards, "not real Shelby's" (which is, of course, tautologically true) and miss the entire point of handling vs horsepower that lies beneith Trevor's kindly verse and accurate perspective of the Lightweights. Of course, the US of A has historically missed this handling vs horsepower argument many times in the past and needed the winning of races by Porche and others to wack us up-side the head at Sebring, Daytona and elsewhere to get our attention.

The registry (which should remain in small caps until they remove the Shelby-colored bllinkers and get with the full history of the cars made by AC as real Cobras by law and contract, just not Shelby Cobras) shows the first lightweight as AKL1313 in 1990, which may or may not be true. I personally doubt it, because I know of several Lightweights that are not even in the registry. Some are obvious by their missing serial number gaps and 1313 doesn't sound very auspicious.

I issue the mildest rebuke to Trevor's thinking as he starts to establish anything other than the first 18ish as "genuine" Lightweights, whatever he intends that dislocation of lineage to discriminate. All Lightweights, so called by AC, serialized as such by AC and fabricated to Lightweight specifications by AC...are bloody Lightweights, particularly if they are, in fact, light weight! It can be measured, observed and established by documentation.

Just because a friend of ours or two thought Brian was only going to make 18ish of them or so (he changed his mind when he had a waiting list for the first time in years) doesn't make the rest that he made non-Lightweights...or not "original" Lightweights or otherwise heavy.

That kind of wishful preferred investment conditioned thinking (particularly by a justly acclaimed and rightly popular historian) is identical to that which causes the USA, with its' Shelby totem cult, not to understand ANY of the 289 or small block cars, the AC cars of any ilk, the issues of good handling, remarkable quality of fit and finish, faster lap times, safety improvements.....yada de yada.

The registry shows at least 48 Lightweights in the lastest edition of 1997 and perhaps the newest edition will show more and be more aware of these issues...I don't know...they didn't check with me, cause I'm Mr. Nobody. (canned laughter, insert here)

Anyway, Brian did a terrific job on the Lightweights and they are a joy to drive with gusto. Fixing a broken motor is child's play compared to digging up (literally) a pukka (those living more than 4 time-zones West of Greenwhich, look it up) FE SO TP 2x4bbl Dry Sump. Look, I have one of those monsters available, but if anyone wants it they should be prepared to give up their first born and most of their other assets or at the very least a couple of dozen of Shelby's original COBRA jackets. What price historicity?

Now, stop wasting a nice day/evening on the computer and go out and drive your "genuine Cobra" (my view? If it looks like a duck...) and your best girl somewhere nice and listen to those pipes, man...