I'd just like to say two things.

1. LONG LIVE SHELBY!! I always thought the name was WAY too long and cluttered with Cobra sandwiched in there. Now the name will match the original name of the 1967 Shelby GT 500. And no name arguments - I own a '67 Shelby and the latest Shelby registry with the official names sitting right in front of me.

2. I said it once (check link at bottom of page to see what I mean - also, NOTE THE DATE), I'll say it again: A Shelby COBRA is, was, and ALWAYS WILL BE a R O A D S T E R ! A Shelby GT500 is a performance coupe. I TOLD YOU SO!! HAHAHAHAHA! Vindication!

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index....opic=20011&hl=

 

After reading the entire thread, I felt I had to add some information to the mix here.

All those here who dislike the Shelby name DO understand that the Cobra name you so love and adore also came from Carroll Shelby, right? You do know that the man made the Cobra name a legend when he ripped Ferrari a new one in the Le Mans betweeen '66 - '68. Ferrari was so enraged that his $100k+ cars were being beaten by cars that cost about $5k that he pulled his cars out of the competetion. The next year, Shelby's Cobras came in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th! Those Le Mans races made the Cobra name a LEGEND. My father still has a hat from back then that says "Hey Ferrari! We beat your A**!!"

So you see, without Carroll Shelby, the Cobra name would be mean NOTHING. The car that Carroll Shelby made a legend would have stayed the ball-less and terribly unbalanced "tea-time" roadster it was in England.

I really don't see why so many people have a problem with Carroll Shelby's name on the car. Like it or not, he was the grandfather of the muscle car era. In his time, he created some BEAUTIFUL automobiles. Granted, there were a few flops, but even the greatest of actors have starred in a few flops. John Coletti certain had his share of bad runs.

Why is it that I'm only 22 years old, and I realize why this man is such a legend, yet some of the 30 and 40 year olds on this forum seem ignorant of this important part of automotive history? I don't know, I suppose part of that may be that my father attended Shelby's driving school and there's always been magazine articles and books in my house detailing the history behind Carroll Shelby. But still, read a little bit about the man before you knock him, jeez!

 

Ummm, where do we start. It was not the Shelby Cobra that beat Ferrari at LeMans. Go back and read a little more. It was the GT40, and was not a $5,000.00 car. Check again.

 

Weren't the Cobras competing with the Corvettes?

 

I'm far less concerned with the marketing than with the design and egineering. As the saying goes, "A rose by any other name..."

If Ford, and the rest of Detroit, would invest 1/4 the money into design and engineering that they squander on cheesy marketing and ill-conceived rebate campaigns, they wouldn't have to basically bribe the market to buy their wares.

Guess that's what you get by companies run by bean-counting MBAs and marketeers more adept at spread-sheets and sloganeering rather than engineers and real, oil-in-their-veins car folks who would design cars at the very leading edge of style, technology and performance for affordable prices.

 

Go back and read some more.

The Cobras competed with Ferrari in GT class which determined the FIA World Manufacturer's Championship. The Cobras beat Ferrari in the GT class, including at LeMans.

The Ford GT-40s beat Ferrari in the Prototype class, different Ford and different Ferrari models in a different race car class.

When the 289 GT-40s won LeMans in 1968 & 1969 they were running in the Sports 50 class (minimum of 50 production models had to be made). They beat the prototype cars those years for the overall win.

With that said, all this happened around 40 years ago. Shelby hasn't done anything earth shattering since then and had very little to do with the Cobra roadster prototype and GT-500 development. I would have preferred that it just be the SVT Mustang or SVT Mustang Cobra.

 

I guess I should've gone back and read more. I thought you were referring to the 24hour race. As younger kids would say, that's my bad.

 

The Cobras did run in the 24 hour race.

In endurance racing there has always been multiple car classes running in the same race.

So Ford GT-40s and Ferrari LM & P prototypes ran against each other in the >2 liter prototype class while Cobras and Ferrari GTOs ran against each other in the >2 liter GT class in the same race.

For you kids who don't know your racing history, here is a fantastic web site that has an excellent history of the Ford - Ferrari battles. The best part about this site is that is actually factually correct and has original new reports from the 1960s posted. http://www.imca-slotracing.com Click on the "Ford-Ferrari 1963-1966 box on the lower left.