AC Cars, originally incorporated as Auto Carriers Ltd., is a British specialist automobile manufacturer and one of the oldest independent car makers founded in Britain. As a result of bad financial conditions over the years, the company was renamed or liquidated many times until its present form. In 2022, the new corporate structure began the production of new AC Cobra models, with a slightly modified structure to adapt it to modern safety and technology requirements and obtain the European road homologation certificate.
The AC Cobra, sold in the United States as the Shelby Cobra and AC Shelby Cobra, is a sports car manufactured by British company AC Cars, with a Ford V8 engine. It was produced intermittently in both the United Kingdom and later the United States since 1962.
AC Ace is a car which was produced by AC Cars of Thames Ditton, England, from 1953 until 1963.
Carroll Hall Shelby was an American automotive designer, racing driver, and entrepreneur. Shelby is best known for his involvement with the AC Cobra and Mustang for Ford Motor Company, which he modified during the late 1960s and early 2000s. He established Shelby American in 1962 to manufacture and market performance vehicles. His autobiography, The Carroll Shelby Story, was published in 1967. As a race car driver, his highlight was as a co-driver of the winning 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans entry.
Grand Prix is a 1966 American sports drama film directed by John Frankenheimer, produced by Edward Lewis, and written by Robert Alan Aurthur with uncredited story contributions by Frankenheimer and rewrites by William Hanley. It stars an international ensemble cast, including James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford, Jessica Walter, Françoise Hardy and Antonio Sabàto. Toshiro Mifune has a supporting role as a race team owner, inspired by Soichiro Honda. The picture was photographed in Super Panavision 70 by Lionel Lindon, and presented in 70mm Cinerama in premiere engagements. Its unique racing cinematography is one of the main draws of the film.
The Shelby Mustang is a high-performance variant of the Ford Mustang built by Shelby American from 1965 to 1967 and by the Ford Motor Company from 1968 to 1970.
The Shelby Daytona Coupe is an American sports-coupé. It is related to the Shelby Cobra roadster, loosely based on its chassis and drive-train developed and built as an advanced evolution. It was engineered and purpose built for auto racing, specifically to take on Ferrari and its 250 GTO in the GT class. The original project had six Shelby Daytona Coupes built for racing purposes between 1964 and 1965, as Carroll Shelby was reassigned to the Ford GT40 project to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, again to beat Ferrari in the highest level prototype class. With the Shelby Daytona, Shelby became the first American constructor to win a title on the international scene in the FIA International Championship for GT Manufacturers in 1965. In 2014, the first Cobra Daytona Coupe became the first vehicle recorded under a U.S. federal program for documenting historically important national treasures.
Robert L. Bondurant was an American racecar driver who raced for the Shelby American, Ferrari, and Eagle teams. Bondurant was one of the most famous drivers to emerge from the Southern California road racing scene in the 1950s, and achieved success in North America and in Europe. His Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving has been responsible for training generations of American racing drivers.
David George MacDonald was an American racing driver noted for his successes driving Corvettes and Shelby Cobras in the early 1960s. He was killed in the 1964 Indianapolis 500, along with fellow driver Eddie Sachs.
Victory by Design is a series of documentary films produced in the 1990s and 2000s on the subject of famous racing automobile marques. The series began as a single film focused on Porsche, directed by award-winning film-maker Tony Maylam, executive produced by Clive Pullan and hosted by former racing driver Alain de Cadenet. Further episodes - beginning with an episode on Ferrari were commissioned by American cable channel Speedvision who brought in Martin Stockham to produce the new programs.
The Ford Shelby Cobra is a concept car that Ford unveiled at the 2004 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan. The Shelby Cobra concept is a roadster inspired by the original AC Cobra that AC Cars developed in 1961.
Kenneth Henry Jarvis Miles was a British sports car racing engineer and driver best known for his motorsport career in the US and with American teams on the international scene. He is an inductee to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.
The 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 33rd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 19 and 20 June 1965. It was also the twelfth round of the World Sportscar Championship.
The 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 32nd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 20 and 21 June 1964. It was also the ninth round of the 1964 World Sportscar Championship season.
Shelby American, Inc. is an American high performance automobile company founded by driver Carroll Shelby. The Shelby American name has been used by several legally distinct corporations founded by Shelby since his original shop in Venice, California began operation in 1962. The current iteration is a wholly owned subsidiary of Carroll Shelby International, Inc., a holding company formed in 2003. Carroll Shelby International's other wholly owned subsidiary is Carroll Shelby Licensing, which licenses the name and trademarks associated with Shelby to other companies. Shelby American was the first automobile manufacturer in the state of Nevada. Shelby American manufactures component automobiles, including replicas of the small-block and large-block AC Cobras, the Shelby GT350 and the GT500 Super Snake. Since 2005, Shelby American has released new models each year.
A cobra is any of several species of snake usually belonging to the family Elapidae.
Phil Louis Henny is a racing mechanic, driver, and author.
The Sunbeam Tiger is a high-performance V8 version of the British Rootes Group's Sunbeam Alpine roadster, designed in part by American car designer and racing driver Carroll Shelby and produced from 1964 until 1967. Shelby had carried out a similar V8 conversion on the AC Cobra, and hoped to be offered the contract to produce the Tiger at his facility in the United States. Rootes decided instead to contract the assembly work to Jensen at West Bromwich in England, and pay Shelby a royalty on every car produced.
Ford v Ferrari is a 2019 American biographical sports drama film directed by James Mangold and written by Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and Jason Keller. It stars Matt Damon and Christian Bale, with Jon Bernthal, Caitríona Balfe, Tracy Letts, Josh Lucas, Noah Jupe, Remo Girone, and Ray McKinnon in supporting roles. The plot follows a determined team of American and English engineers and designers, led by automotive designer Carroll Shelby and his British driver, Ken Miles, who are hired by Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca to build a race car to defeat the perennially dominant Italian racing team Scuderia Ferrari at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France.
The Carroll Shelby Story is a memoir by Carroll Shelby published in 1967 by Pocket Books. The book is a revised and enlarged version of The Cobra Story, covering the Cobra's successes in 1965 and 1966, as well as including technical specifications for the 289 and 427 Cobras.
