The Cobra is probably the most replicated sports car ever built, since the roadster body and parts
are so readily available. Tandy’s car sports a 402 cubic inch Ford engine from Roush engineering and a
Tremic five-speed transmission. It is a beautiful royal blue which is a very close to the blue that is on his
’40 Ford street rod.
Tandy says a fun day for he and his wife is putting the top down on their Cobra and
taking a drive in the mountains, and you know what, that sounds like it would be a fun day for anyone.
I know it would be for me!
Back in the 50’s Carroll Shelby, born in 1923, was a young struggling chicken farmer/wanna-be race car driver.
In January of 1954 his career was jump started when he received help from Aston Martin and later that year
from Austin-Healey. Now he had a real chance to show what he was made of and he took full advantage.
In 1957 Dick Hall, brother of Jim Hall backed Carroll Shelby Sports Cars and Carroll was in business.
In 1960 he retired from driving and devoted all his time to his business. In 1962 Ford powered Cobra was
born to dethrone the Chevrolet Corvettes and it first appeared in pearl yellow.
At first Carroll only had one car,
but every time there was going to be a media blitz on the car he painted it a different color to give the
impression that he had a fleet of cars built. One car, many colors, pretty good marketing!
There was also a seldom-seen Cobra coupe built to compete on the high-speed tracks where aerodynamics was important.
The last new Cobra was designed in the late nineties and was actually the only Cobra ever designed from a clean slate.
It was built under contract from the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors.
Two hundred and forty-nine cars were built in 1999 before the decision was made by General Motors
to shut down the then oldest manufacturer of cars in this country, Oldsmobile. I would say if you have one of those
Oldsmobile Cobras you are indeed fortunate and have a very collectible car.
Below you will find pictures of Tandy and his car, as well as a Cobra Coupe and the last new Shelby produced,
the Shelby Oldsmobile Cobra. If you’re ever in Las Vegas, you might consider going to the Carroll Shelby facility;
it’s well worth your time.
