Ford GT40 Crazy Sound

The Ford GT40 was a sports car and winner of the 24 hours of Le Mans four times in a row, from 1966 to 1969. It was built to win long-distance sports car races against Ferrari (who won at Le Mans six times in a row from 1960 to 1965).

The car was named the GT (for Grand Tourisme) with the 40 representing its overall height of 40 inches (1.02 m, measured at the windshield) as required by the rules. Large displacement Ford V8 engines (4.7 L and 7 L) were used, compared with the Ferrari V12 which displaced 3.0 L or 4.0 L.

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[blootmens]

Ok, America IS a continent, but mostly, one makes a distinction between North- and South-America. Hope this was clear.

[scaryGTM]

@t45tube I agree; British car specials were custom sports cars... U.S. car specials - modifieds/hot rods. In Ace becoming Cobra, it did indeed become a bit of both but I think it's fair to say that the vision for Ace to become Cobra remained Shelby's - the Cobra took on the specific spirit of American hot rodding through Shelby's specific vision. There was nothing wrong with the Ace as it was, but whether it would've become a V8 hot rod without Shelby/American hot-rodding culture is doubtful.

[SuperSweetkisses11]

sounds like TRUCK

[t45tube]

@scaryGTM I see what you're getting at now. I actually made a remark to an American car journalist at a British car show a few years back about American car culture being a history of hot rodding and British car culture being a history of sports cars. I suppose the Cobra sort of brought the two together.

[scaryGTM]

@t45tube Like I said, sure it's been done and sure it wasn't great ingenuity BUT it remains a concept popularized by the American hot-rodding era and nothing will remove any of that. I'm talking about a CULTURE of hot-rodding. That culture remains an American culture.

[t45tube]

@scaryGTM Actually, the concept of shoehorning a bigger engine into a car to make it go faster pre-dates hot-rodding. Several famous race cars had their original engines replaced by massive aero engines back in the 1930s. And the concept of fitting a big American V8 into a lightweight British sports car pre-dates the Cobra by a long way too. Sydney Allard started using Cadillac V8s in his sports cars (most famously the J2) around 1950, and like the Cobra that was aimed mainly at the US market.

[scaryGTM]

@t45tube Before anyone suggests that it's not just American to change an engine and make a race car, it's important to understand that ingenuity alone doesn't makes hot-rodding a car a quintessentially American thing to do, it's simply the fact that America has a cultural history of shoehorning it's V8s into lesser-power cars & transforming those cars into competitive racing cars of their era. The Ace survived by becoming part of US hot-rodding culture, envisioned by an American hot-rodder.

[scaryGTM]

@t45tube It doesn't matter where the car was built; the AC Ace was hot-rodded like 30s Fords in the 50s. Hot Rodding is quintessentially American. Hot Rods can be built anywhere - and are, but their theme remains quintessentially American. Shelby wasn't a trailblazer with the Ace, he was just doing a 60s version of 50s American hot rodding, but his vision for the Ace made the Cobra an American vision. It is not likely that the Ace would have lived/evolved if it hadn't become an American hot rod.

[t45tube]

@OHNGAI The Cobra was developed from the Ace, but it was not built as an Ace and converted into a Cobra by Shelby. All the original development work to take the V8 was done by AC and the Cobra was built as a new model in its own right with bespoke body and chassis. And while Shelby came up with the Cobra name, be sold the rights to it to Ford in 1965. No Cobras were American. The Cobra is an Anglo-American collaboration - just like the GT40 (apart from the MkIV which was all American).

[OHNGAI]

@t45tube ac-cobra was built as an a/c ace.....shellby asked a/c to build a left hand drive chassis that could take a v8..the birth of the 'cobra'....shellby has sole 'cobra' nameing rights....which means its his name period!...all a/c cobras from 1960 on-wards were american....the 427 badged cars actualy had 428 motors!