Photo: Hollywood Wheels
Carroll Shelby was an interesting fellow. If not for his wacky take on how to make the AC Cobra a faster machine, we wouldn't have got the monstrous Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake or the jaw-droppingly gorgeous Shelby Daytone Coupe racing car.
Howbeit, before the ex-Aston Martin Formula One driver and founder of Shelby American Inc. passed in 2012 from a serious heart ailment, Carroll gave the world one last go-faster hurrah – the Shelby Series 1. This is the only model produced by Carroll Shelby from a clean sheet of paper and built from the ground up.
Only 249 copies were manufactured, each and every one special in its own right. But the Shelby Series 1 we're talking about today may be the most special of them all, having been signed by Carroll twice.
For starters, the hood hides a 4.0-liter L47 Aurora V8, which produces 320 horsepower and 290 lb-ft (390 Nm) of torque. That doesn't seem like a lot by 2015 standards (I'm looking at you, 707 horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat), but you know what? The Series 1 roadster is a light car, tipping the scales at 2,650 lbs (1,202 kilograms), which equates to a respectable 4.4-second 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) sprint.
OK, so the six-speed ZF transaxle was not that great to row through the ratios, but you know what? Who cares anyway? This bad boy can scare the living hell out of anyone that's courageous enough to give it 100 percent throttle, a similarly scary experience to what the Cobra 427 Super Snake is capable of offering you.
But then again, original Cobra vehicles don't have the reliability, air conditioning, a carbon fiber dash, power windows and a top speed of over 170 mph (273 km/h). All in all, this example of the breed is going around the auction's block at Hollywood Wheels' Amelia Island Select Motorcars & More on March 14th, so if you want to own a piece of Carroll's legacy, look no further than the rarefied bruiser in the gallery below.
Only 249 copies were manufactured, each and every one special in its own right. But the Shelby Series 1 we're talking about today may be the most special of them all, having been signed by Carroll twice.
For starters, the hood hides a 4.0-liter L47 Aurora V8, which produces 320 horsepower and 290 lb-ft (390 Nm) of torque. That doesn't seem like a lot by 2015 standards (I'm looking at you, 707 horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat), but you know what? The Series 1 roadster is a light car, tipping the scales at 2,650 lbs (1,202 kilograms), which equates to a respectable 4.4-second 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) sprint.
OK, so the six-speed ZF transaxle was not that great to row through the ratios, but you know what? Who cares anyway? This bad boy can scare the living hell out of anyone that's courageous enough to give it 100 percent throttle, a similarly scary experience to what the Cobra 427 Super Snake is capable of offering you.
But then again, original Cobra vehicles don't have the reliability, air conditioning, a carbon fiber dash, power windows and a top speed of over 170 mph (273 km/h). All in all, this example of the breed is going around the auction's block at Hollywood Wheels' Amelia Island Select Motorcars & More on March 14th, so if you want to own a piece of Carroll's legacy, look no further than the rarefied bruiser in the gallery below.
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