How To Build Cobra Kit Cars Buying Used

The Shelby Cobra is one of the most legendary sports cars in automotive history. Only about 1,000 of the original Cobras were ever built, and many enthusiasts wanted to own and drive one of these ultimate sports cars yet could not afford to.

"Packed with good advice - from running costs, through paperwork, vital statistics, valuation, and the Cobra replica community, to whether a Cobra replica will suit you and your lifestyle- this is The complete guide to choosing, assessing and buying the replica of your dreams"--Back cover.

Focuses on the disassembly, inspection and step-by-step rebuild of the most popular high-performance differentials. Axles and differentials are not incredibly complex components, but there are some specific steps to follow for rebuilding, upgrading, and setting them up properly, and this book demystifies the process and explains it in detail.

A timely update of the original book, published in 2003. Although the fundamentals behind the kit-car scene have changed little since the book was originally written, the hardware has evolved, mainly due to the increased availability of affordable motorcycle engines, and the reduced availability of several former favorite donor vehicles. This new edition includes more detail and advice on the use of a wide variety of motorcycle engines, and will include updated examples of new designs and developments that have become available over the last few years. The appendix detailing useful contacts has been revised and updated, as will a number of the photographs depicting example car builds.

Carroll Shelby, legendary driving ace, race team owner, and designer of Shelby Cobra, Daytona, and Mustang GT350 classics is revered by automotive enthusiasts, yet little has been written about the last quarter century of Carroll Shelby’s life. During that time Chris Theodore, VP at Chrysler and Ford, developed a close personal friendship with Carroll. The Last Shelby Cobra chronicles the development of the many vehicles they worked on together (Viper, Ford GT, Shelby Cobra Concept, Shelby GR1, Shelby GT500 and others). It is an insider’s story about how Shelby came back to the Ford family, and the intrigue behind the five-year journey to get a Shelby badge on a Ford Production Vehicle. The author provides fresh insight and new stories into Shelby’s larger-than-life personality, energy, interests and the many unpublished projects Carroll was involved with, up to his passing. Finally, the book describes their unfinished project, the Super Snake II Cobra, and the serendipitous circumstances that allowed to the author to acquire ‘Daisy,’ the last Shelby Cobra. To his many fans, Carroll Shelby was truly ‘the most interesting man in the world.’

In the new edition of this classic text, Brian Laban brings the story of the AC Cobra up to date. In the early 1960s, a flamboyant Texan, Carroll Shelby, dreamed of a special kind of sports car, a marriage of European style with lusty, affordable American V8 power. He took his dream forward and he persuaded British sports car specialist AC Cars to build his car, and US industry giant the Ford Motor Co to fund it. Its name also came to him in a dream - Cobra. The original production of the Cobra lasted just five years and encompassed barely a thousand cars built within the original framework. But it was only the beginning of a story that is still very much alive, encompassing 'continuations', spin-offs, and a massive worldwide replica industry. Shelby and AC Cobra details the man behind the cars, the story of their development and engineering, racing pedigree and owning and driving these powerful, iconic cars today.