HOT ROD WAS THERE WHEN SHELBY'S COBRA WAS BORN

To help celebrate the 100th anniversary of Carroll Shelby's birth, we thought we'd take a look at arguably his most famous creation.

- DREW HARDIN

Most think of Shelby's Cobra as a sports car, but it could be argued that there's more than a little hot rod in the heady mix that created it. Let's start with the fact that the very first Cobra was put together at Dean Moon's shop-a hot rodder if there ever was one.

True, it used a British sports car body courtesy of the AC Car Company, but Shelby woke up the little car's performance tremendously by swapping in a powerful-for the day, anyway-Ford V8, another hot rodding staple.

Shelby, the Cobra, and Ford are forever intertwined now, but it could have been very different. When Ray Brock introduced HRM readers to the Cobra in "Tailormade Sports Car" (Dec. '62), he noted that in the 1950s, "a few sports car enthusiasts installed Chevy V8s" in AC's sports car in place of the original 2.0-liter Bristol engines "to make a real hot package."

But the AC suspension and driveline weren't up to the small-block's torque, and "failures were common."