colin Comers book Cobra 50 Years

[Historybuff]

It's being shipped out to buyers. I got one a week ago.
Amazon.com is selling them for $26.40, they say original cover price is $40.
Lots of historical stuff, some great color reproduction. Just noted a couple minor historical errors, one about Ferrari , the other crediting Shelby for the 260 Cobra design from the original AC-Zephyr. Review on SportsCarDigest.

Now, for collectors who want every book on Shelby and Cobra, the next book to watch out for on Cobra & Shelby is entitled "SHELBY the authorized biography " coming out of England by Rinsey Mills due April 15, 2012 --don't know who is going to publish that Stateside or even who is distributing it Stateside...Amazon.com is already advertising the 464- page hardbound tome for only $23.10 but I'll believe a book that's at least a third larger than the Comer Cobra book actually goes for that price when I heard someone stateside actually bought one at Amazon's price Stateside and has it in their hot little hands...

[mrmustang]

Originally Posted by Historybuff

It's being shipped out to buyers. I got one a week ago.
Amazon.com is selling them for $26.40, they say original cover price is $40.
Lots of historical stuff, some great color reproduction. Just noted a couple minor historical errors, one about Ferrari , the other crediting Shelby for the 260 Cobra design from the original AC-Zephyr. Review on SportsCarDigest.

Now, for collectors who want every book on Shelby and Cobra, the next book to watch out for on Cobra & Shelby is entitled "SHELBY the authorized biography " coming out of England by Rinsey Mills due April 15, 2012 --don't know who is going to publish that Stateside or even who is distributing it Stateside...Amazon.com is already advertising the 464- page hardbound tome for only $23.10 but I'll believe a book that's at least a third larger than the Comer Cobra book actually goes for that price when I heard someone stateside actually bought one at Amazon's price Stateside and has it in their hot little hands...

How many historical errors did you find in the last two Rinsey books on the Cobra, I lost count. I'll take the word of Mr Comer vs the words of Mr Mills any days, for at least Mr Comer actually speaks with the people he is writing about. Unlike some others who must gather information off the web and publish it as their own

[Historybuff]

so I gather inorder to be selected as the author of the
authorized book Mr. Shelby must have decided he was the most accurate.

I happen to be looking at a Rinsey Mills book on Cobra today and i don't have it in front of me but he says something about an aluminum block Indy V8 being on the Cobra option list which I have never read anywhere else. I know the first Indy V8s were not SOHC or DOHC so it's possible they would have bolted right in but I am sure they were very costly to Ford compared to iron block 4.7 liter 289s.

Anyhow when the over 400-page Rinsey Mills bio of shelby comes out in April 2012, we will see what it covers and what it doesn't.

As far as researching facts on the net, I thought that's what forums were for--to fact check rumors of long ago events, for instance just today i asked whether the Vince Gardner designed Mustang fastback two seater built by DST inspired the '65 1/2 Mustang 2 plus 2. It seems like Ford would have had the 2-plus-2 in the pipeline already by the time I saw the DST 2 seater fastback in '64. The answer to that is something probably only 5 or 6 people know and maybe some will read the question on the internet--otherwise I'd have to run classified ads like in the old days before the internet. Not that the internet is the solution to research, the newbies who came along after the net assume that if it's not on the net, it never happened where there can only be some news item posted on the internet if someone somewhere at some time posted it. If no one posted it, it's still in some print form somewhere...by the way before the internet there was something called microfilm (microfisch?) but I don't know if libraries still have that.

[CSX2009]

The Indy engine was run in Dan Gurney's Cobra for the February Daytona '63 race. Dan also tested the Indy engine prior to the Daytona race at Riverside. The Indy engine popped a few freeze plugs out in practice for Daytona and the engine was hastily replaced before the race started....Gurney started two laps down. Wallace do you have a copy of Shoen's Cobra Ferrari Wars....you might want to re-read that book if you do....

Erik

[philiprambo]

Good one.Thanks a lot for sharing.

[Historybuff]

At one point DeTomaso and Shelby were in bed together (I mean business wise) DeTomaso shepherding the building of a Can Am-style car styled by Pete Brock but the two fell out over funding when Shelby yanked the money to build more Daytona coupes. When DeTomaso unveiled the car as the Ghia 70P he claimed the 289 engine was pumping out over 500 hp. which I think Shelby and Ford laughed at (if it was that powerful, why would Ford bother to go to the 427 in the Cobra and Ford GT?). My question is: did anyone ever hear of DeTomaso making some alloy blocks? I seem to remember something about him making alloy heads that were extremely fragile. I think the real 70P and maybe a couple clones were sold once DeTomaso's factory closed but I don't know if they went to the new owners with alloy blocks. I for one would like to to see one with the aluminum block 289 and what power it cranks out.

[barry950]

We have a pair of those DeTomaso heads made for the 289 Engine installed in an original Cobra. After consulting with Peter Brock, we believe there are 3 pair in existance and ours maybe the only ones running. We have not experienced any reliability problems even though the engine produces 403BHP on street gas.
The heads are very similar to the Gurney Weslake heads ( Which we have on a GT40 ) in port configuration, but they have no combustion chambers ( Herron Head). If I can figure out how to post pics I will do so.

[barry950]

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