The legendary cobra is quite possibly one of the most famous muscle cars of all as well one of the fastest which is what makes it a definite classic car.

With its tubular steel chassis layout with that of the 6 cylinder Ace, transverse-leaf springing for the front and rear suspension, this fantastic 2-seater sports car had electrifying performance thanks to its relatively light weight body and high torque of its V8 engines.

At first the engines were 4.2 litre with their famous top loader gearbox, but it wasn’t too long before Shelby decided to put in a bigger 4727cc engine which took this classic cars bhp from 164 to 195bhp. The top speed of the 289 was 138 mph, but more impressively it managed 0 – 60 in just 5.5 seconds. It is in this form that this car first became available in England in 1964. Over the years Shelby made several changes to the car, four-wheel discs, 289 engine replacing the 260, rack-and –pinion steering as opposed to the Ace derived cam-and-peg suspension.

After all the changes that had been made to this classic car Shelby was determined to make this car better which is why in 1965, a 6989cc engine was dropped in to the car to produce the 7 litre Cobra. This car boasted 345 bhp in its standard form, tuned SC cars put out 480 bhp if not more, its acceleration of 0 – 60 mph in in 4.2 seconds put the Cobra into the record books in 1967 as the worlds fastest accelerating production car.

This 7 litre Cobra was virtually an all new Cobra, a totally redesigned stronger chassis, redesigned body and coil spring suspension meant that the only similarity with this classic car to its predecessor was the doors and bonnet.