Cars
A Stars and Stripes Cobra
The Shelby Cobra, also known as the Ford Cobra, was an American sports car created by Carroll Shelby in the 1960s to challenge and defeat the dominant European Gran Turismo and sports cars such as Jaguar, Aston Martin, and Ferrari.
The Cobra, Ford Cobra or, more correctly, Shelby Cobra, was the result of the dream of having an American car, driven by Americans, that could hold its own and indeed defeat the all-powerful European Gran Turismo and sports cars of the likes of Jaguar, Aston Martin and Ferrari, to name just a few of the winners of Le Mans.
The Cobra immediately demonstrated its great potential in 1962 with performance far beyond its direct rival, the Corvette Sting Ray.
This idea came to an American driver, Carroll Shelby who, after his 1959 victory at Le Mans behind the wheel of an Aston Martin, was forced to give up driving due to congenital heart problems and transformed himself into a car manufacturer. More accurately, a skilled car assembler. Shelby had noticed that a small British spider powered by a two-litre Bristol engine had performed excellently at Le Mans. The tubular chassis could well be the right basis for what Europeans call “an American extravagances”.
