First, thanks to Jeffrey Nichols for the heads up on the Nov. issue of Classic
& Sports Car magazine. The article, by Tiger owner Julian Balme, about the newly
restored rally car ADU311B in the UK is super, and the photos just couldn't
be better. I picked up a copy of the magazine this afternoon.
On a similar subject, the Nov. issue of Classic Motorsports is out on newstands,
and it features chapter 11 of their Tiger project car, this time highlighting
the braking system updates.
Finally, I'm weighing in on the Shelby/Factory Five patent lawsuit. First, it
just applys to the shape of what the court for simplification purposes calls
the 'Cobra 427 S/C' design. It doesn't affect the 'Cobra'name, and it doesn't
affect the narrower Shelby Cobra 289 shape(at least, not yet).
In a press release, the Factory Five concern maintains that Shelby "ignored
the factual history of the car, which started life as an AC car with a Ford
engine...". Well, yes and no. At the point when Shelby contacted the Hurlock
brothers, the owners of AC, some standard AC roadsters were beginning to use
the Ford UK Zephyr six cylinder motor, which replaced the discontinued Bristol
units. The body, chassis, and suspension wasn't changed significantly for the
Zephyr motor. Early on during negotiations with AC, even Shelby wasn't aware
of the small block Ford V8 until weeks later. Certainly no one at AC had any
idea that Ford was coming out with this motor.
When Ford told Shelby that the SBF(small block Ford)motor was now available,
it was Shelby who had motors shipped to AC for testing, and it was Shelby's
company that began the testing which led to re-engineering and strengthening
the tube chassis, the hubs, and widening the body to accept wider tires and
double the horsepower of the standard AC Ace roadster. And this is just the
development of the 289 roadster. Image what Shelbys crew had to do to come up
with the coil spring chassis of the 427.
Factory Five also maintains that that Shelby has the replica
manufacturers(presumably
Factory Five, Superperformance, the American crew that build cars in Poland,
and more)to thank for some of the popularity of Cobra's. WHAT? Sounds like the
tail claiming credit for the dog. Take away all of the Cobra wannabe's, and
we're still left with at least two legendary sports cars, and more, if you
include
the Mustang side of the company.
I know Factory Five offers a nice kit car / rolling chassis. Now, they need
to let me know when they've passed the history test.
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