The Real Car - Shelby King Cobra (FRC's VS class)

[gordon]

We race 1/32 models of real cars, but how much do we know about the great machines upon which our slot cars are based? Well from time to time I'm going to post some details about these wonderful machines, with links to additional information. I'll call this series of posts "The Real Car", and the first in this series is a neat little racer from 1963 named the Shelby King Cobra, sometimes called the Cooper Monaco, the car upon which it was based. After you've clicked on a link and are ready to return to this, just use your browser's back button.



Carroll Shelby was an extremely competitive driver who became a race car builder, usually basing his racers on already-manufactured cars fitted with modified Ford V8 engines. The King Cobra was Shelby's first attempt at a mid-engined sports racer and, although it was not the best-handling machine on the track, in its first year it saw many successes.



Here's a link to a short but interesting write-up on the King Cobra which includes some pictures from the era:

CARROLL SHELBY GOES MID-ENGINE | THE COOPER “KING COBRA” YEARS

Click this next link to see a YouTube video of Dave MacDonald driving the King Cobra very much on the limit:

Dave MacDonald Drifting Shelby King Cobra Thru Riverside's Famed Turn 6 in 1963

If you've become intrigued by the cool little King Cobra and would like to add it to your collection for our Vintage Sports class, you can still get Revell-Monogram's neat version, complete with Dave MacDonald in his gold helmet, running a Sebring chassis:



Check it out at Electric Dreams before someone else snaps it up to race at FRC:

Monogram 85-4884 Shelby Cooper-Ford King Cobra, 1963

Gordon