Carrol Shelby Loses Lawsuit

GearHead_1

GearHead_1

Long Time Member
I've been watching this one closely. I'm glad to see this case end with this outcome. Carrol has been strangling the replica market for quite some time.

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Can't help it, I've wanted one of these since I was 12. I remember watching them race the Ferrari's when I was 5 or 6 years old. Ford used it to take the wind out of Ferrari's sails for a season or two and it was the forerunner to the Ford GT 40.

Daytona_Coupe.jpg
 
I was unaware of his involvement in the replica market at all. I am of course a huge fan of what he has meant to the Ford Mustangs dating back to the 60s.

If the two of ya'll need supervising during the course of the project, give me a call. I'm pretty good at pointing and look all reflective. :D
 
Mr. Clean said:
I was unaware of his involvement in the replica market at all. I am of course a huge fan of what he has meant to the Ford Mustangs dating back to the 60s.

If the two of ya'll need supervising during the course of the project, give me a call. I'm pretty good at pointing and look all reflective. :D
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Shelby hasn't really been involved with the replica market so to speak. My comment was more along the lines of he hasn't wanted anyone else to be involved either. Companies have been making fiberglass replicas for as long as I remember and he's sued most of them. This lawsuit is a pretty big deal in that he can no longer extort manufacturers or stop production of these kit cars. He's found a way to repackage his law suits and has held their feet over the coals several times. This judgment prohibits from suing again.

Shelby has his shop in Las Vegas. It's out by the race track. He uses inmates as a cheap labor source to build his vehicles. The ones that he builds aren't replicas. They are registered as an original Shelby Cobra all be it a current model year. His are much higher quality than most kit cars. They actually use a real aluminum body as opposed to fiberglass.

These bodies are manufactured by a company about 20 miles north of me. It's called TKO. The "K" stands for Kirkham but I don't know about the rest of it. They've contracted an air force contractor in Poland to build their aluminum bodies, Jaguar (clone) rear ends and a bunch of other parts. Apparently with the advent of Soviet Union break up this factory was just about ready to go under when TKO found them. They had been building MIG aircraft, a car body wasn't a big step for them. They've been in business together ever since. TKO has since purchased a part of this company and apparently it is doing well. They can build and import these cars much cheaper than doing it in the states.

TKO was one of the high end kit car companies about 15 years ago. Caroll Shelby approached them and they became an exclusive supplier to Shelby. His newly manufactured Cobras are in the 100K neighborhood give or take 20 grand depending on the options. They even make an all aluminum 427 FE Ford style block. Their work is beyond reproach but at the price it should be. I've seen these cars a bunch of times. Several owners in our area, one being TKO's owner. I've talked to him in the past. He's pretty confident in himself and his product. They don't paint the bodies, just a brushed aluminum finish. They're pretty cool. I think that Shelby will paint them once they get to Vegas.

I have a friend that has built one of the Factory Five kit car Cobra's. It is truly awesome. 514 CID with nitrous on top of it. The car weighs about 2500 lbs. and runs like a cut cat. It isn't very practical and is difficult to drive, just too light but it is extremely fast. His brother in law also a friend has an 05 Ford GT. He's run it to 215 m.p.h. He has paced the Cobra and it had to be shut down at about 185 mph. It started to float and not stable. It has much more in it but they don't know how to get it out of it.

To my knowledge the Daytona Coupe replica (the car I have pictured) is made by only two companies, Factory Five being one of them and a more expensive aluminum one made by a company out of South Africa (Superformance) and imported in to the states. I believe it also tops 100K. The Factory Five car is very nice and can be put together with all the bells and whistles for about 50K. This kit will even accommodate AC, something the original never had. Top Gear had one of the Superformance cars on their show and it was a 220 mph hour car. Anyway, I digress.
 
I agree about the type 65. I remember also about what it looked like going up against ant Ferrari. Would LOVE to build one. Would really love to have one built, since I no longer have the patience to do it. My friends took over 2.5 years to do.
 
I have heard on numerous occasions that Carrol Shelby is a hugantic douche and not just in this way...he just sounds like a miserable person.
 
I was going to buy a Cobra replica that was for sale locally until I tried to drive it.
They are made for midgets.
I know their is a company that makes what they call Big Boy it is a little longer and has a deeper foot well.

With my boot behind the pendulum clutch when I closed the door it rolled in at the top and that was on my knee. NO way to get my foot from behind the clutch without opening the door.
That is why the owner wanted to sell it far to cramped

The replicas are much better than the original when it comes to handling but that is to be expected it was 60's technology.
 
Wow the ruling is actually pretty funny. As much respect the guy gets in the ford world he really has been an SOB to everyone. He whored his name out to Chrysler in the 80's and 90's and to those and I am being nice in my description botched abortion Elinores that only overpaid moron's buy. Elinores and their owners have singlehandedly ruined the mustang restoration market.

Ol' Shelby was involved directly in the kit car market. In the 90's he "discovered" some old rusty CSX series chassis "leftover" from the first lot of chassis built in the old LAX factory. When the EPA looked at the VIN registration documents it was discovered that Shelby forged them. He had the frames built sometime in the late 80's as the popularity of cobra kit cars and the price of the original cobra's skyrocketed. Then to save a bit of face on money shelby started the whole continuation series of the cobra. He used the rusty chassis' from the 80's and then a few more and sold them for $+100k a piece.

I personally plan on buying the type 65 coupe from FF. I plan on running the new 427 crate motor from Ford that is based on a 351W. should be nice and light compared to an iron block427 BBF. On a mild came and a sensible intake and a 750 cfm carb it cranks out 500 hp. In a car that weighs 1800 lb fun will be ensured :)
 
memnuts said:
I personally plan on buying the type 65 coupe from FF. I plan on running the new 427 crate motor from Ford that is based on a 351W. should be nice and light compared to an iron block427 BBF. On a mild came and a sensible intake and a 750 cfm carb it cranks out 500 hp. In a car that weighs 1800 lb fun will be ensured :)
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I've never built a 427 Windsor but I've read about ring over wrist pin problems similar to the early piston issues on 347/302 builds. I believe I also read that DSS was making a block for the build you describe that was very nice. I have built a 408/351 years back. The kit came with MOPAR rods as I remember. It was a light weight screamer. I'm sure you realize this but your comment made me wonder. Last time I checked no FE blocks will fit in Factory Five 65 Coupes, they will obviously work in the Cobra, a Windsor is the power plant for that Coupe. I also recently read about some of the after market Windsor blocks being taken to 454 cid.

I used to follow the Factory Five Forum pretty closely until they put the Coupe on limited production. I figured they were moving it towards a phase out, replacing it with the Rod. Now that this suit has finished they may go back hot and heavy with the Coupe.
 
GearHead_1 said:
I'm sure you realize this but your comment made me wonder. Last time I checked no FE blocks will fit in Factory Five 65 Coupes, they will obviously work in the Cobra, a Windsor is the power plant for that Coupe. I also recently read about some of the after market Windsor blocks being taken to 454 cid.

I used to follow the Factory Five Forum pretty closely until they put the Coupe on limited production. I figured they were moving it towards a phase out, replacing it with the Rod. Now that this suit has finished they may go back hot and heavy with the Coupe.
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That is why I like the 427 based on the 351 block. You don't have to re-engineer the mounts to get an FE sized motor to fit. It has been done but why reinvent the wheel when you can go with a better lighter and more powerful wheel.

I think it was PAW that first came out with the 351W 427 short block kit. I remember a black 66 mustang fastback in Mustang's and Fords backed by a tremec 6 spd. It had 550hp and redlined at only 5500 rpm kinda low. The torque number was another crazy number because of the long throw of the crank. The first coupe FF built had a 351w that pumped out 400 hp and out accelerated and out lapped a 911 turbo.

I just took a look at FF's pricing they pushed the price up on everything by 5k since last year. The complete cobra roadster was 15k now it is 20k and the complete type 65 coupe went from 20k to 25k. That is a huge jump. They do have cheaper kits but they lack all the hardware and fittings that made the FF cars a bargin to begin with.
 
GearHead_1 said:
I've never built a 427 Windsor but I've read about ring over wrist pin problems similar to the early piston issues on 347/302 builds.

QUOTE]I built the current engine in my vette back in spring of 2000 and it has the top ring over the pin.
I beat on it like a rented mule no problems so far.
The pistons are custom made by Ross and they came with a piece to put in the pin hole for the ring to fit in.
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black bart said:
I built the current engine in my vette back in spring of 2000 and it has the top ring over the pin.
I beat on it like a rented mule no problems so far.
The pistons are custom made by Ross and they came with a piece to put in the pin hole for the ring to fit in.
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That's kind of what I was referring to. The first kits that were moving in to this displacement range didn't have all the bugs figured out (oil consumption and broken rings). Just as the 302/347 no longer has issues I'm sure they'll find solutions to the problem. In fact they probably have and I'm just not on top of it.
 
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