65SC
02-13-2012, 12:41 AM
The great thing about anniversary parties is that some choice pieces of history come out of the woodwork, and that’s exactly what will happen when not one but two of the remaining Shelby-modified Cooper Monacos better known as the King Cobras will appear at the Ford-Cobra-Shelby Reunion at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, one of several events taking place across the country to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Shelby Cobra (http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2011/11/04/shelby-enthusiasts-gearing-up-to-celebrate-cobras-50th-anniversary/).
Conceived and built to compete against the mid-engine cars then coming into dominance in sports car racing, the King Cobras followed essentially the same pattern as the Shelby Cobras, with Carroll Shelby marrying a British chassis and body with an American engine – in this case the mid-engine tube-frame Cooper T61M Monaco with a full-race Ford 289-cu.in. V-8. The contemporary press called them King Cobras. Shelby built just eight in 1963 and 1964, and while the cars took a number of wins and accolades, Ford never backed Shelby’s development of the cars. Competing mid-engine sports cars thus rendered the King Cobras obsolete in a hurry, and Shelby soon turned his focus to the Ford-funded GT40 program.
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2012/02/06/two-shelby-king-cobras-to-highlight-ford-cobra-shelby-reunion/?refer=news
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Conceived and built to compete against the mid-engine cars then coming into dominance in sports car racing, the King Cobras followed essentially the same pattern as the Shelby Cobras, with Carroll Shelby marrying a British chassis and body with an American engine – in this case the mid-engine tube-frame Cooper T61M Monaco with a full-race Ford 289-cu.in. V-8. The contemporary press called them King Cobras. Shelby built just eight in 1963 and 1964, and while the cars took a number of wins and accolades, Ford never backed Shelby’s development of the cars. Competing mid-engine sports cars thus rendered the King Cobras obsolete in a hurry, and Shelby soon turned his focus to the Ford-funded GT40 program.
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2012/02/06/two-shelby-king-cobras-to-highlight-ford-cobra-shelby-reunion/?refer=news
[/URL][URL="javascript:;"] (javascript:;)