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Tesla’s Wild Ride ContinuesClassic Comparison: Shelby Cobra vs C2 Corvette
Two of the early ’60s greatest race cars go head-to-head as the Shelby Cobra takes on the C2 Chevy Corvette.
A Whole Lot of What Ifs
The early 1960s was a heady time in auto racing. The automotive arms races that sprang out of this time gave rise to some historic rivalries and some historic cars, including both the Shelby Cobra and the C2 Corvette.
These cars differed in their primary intent. The Cobra was purpose built for racing with sales to the public as a secondary consideration. The Corvette, in contrast, was a thoroughly corporate affair intended for broad appeal while die-hards behind the scenes ensured its simultaneous aptitude for racing. What they had in common was their short tenure at the top. A few brief years and Carroll Shelby moved on to the Ford’s GT40 project while Chevrolet turned the page to the C3 Corvette. This fact has only contributed to their legendary statuses, never on the circuit long enough to be outpaced by their rivals.
The question for this Classic Comparison: which was the better car, racing or otherwise?
The Cobra & the Shelby Daytona
Following his retirement from racing Carroll Shelby had turned his energies to building a new race car, one able to take on the best in Europe and North America. Ever the smooth talker, Shelby was able to broker a three-way partnership between England’s AC Motors, who’d provide the chassis, body, and suspension, Ford, who’d be supplying their 3.6L Winsor V8, and Shelby American, who’d be piecing the cars together at Shelby’s shop in California.
Thus, was born the Shelby Cobra, one-part lightweight British roadster and one-part American muscle. The car proved it’s worth quickly on the racing circuit in the US, with its first win coming at Riverside SCCA in 1963. Wins would rack up quickly that year, at the Canadian Grand Prix, the Bridgehampton 500, and back-to-back wins at the Santa Barbra Road Races.
As good a GT car as the Cobra was proving, its aerodynamics, or lack thereof, held it back from the top speeds it needed to compete in some of Europe’s premier endurance races, most specifically at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and its Mulsanne Straight.
This lead Shelby and his team to develop the Cobra Daytona in 1964, which reimagined the Cobra with a fixed top, rear spoiler, and overall improved aerodynamics. The re-engineering proved out with a win in the GT class at the 12 Hours of Sebring and most importantly, a class win at Le Mans with a fourth overall finish. Reportedly, the Cobra Daytona was proving such a threat on the European circuit that Enzo Ferrari successfully lobbied to have the final race of the 1964 season eliminated to avoid another loss to Shelby’s car.
In 1965, the Cobra Daytona went on to win the World GT Championships with a win at the 12 Hours of Reims, thus supplanting Ferrari’s hold on the GT.
C2 Corvette: Z06, Grand Sport, & L88
The second generation of the Chevrolet Corvette the first modern Corvette, as we outline here. The C2 Corvette’s goal was to be the premier American sports car in an era when such things were the province of European automakers. Engineer and “Father of the Corvette” Zora Arkus-Duntov had always kept motorsports greatness front and center during the car’s design. But in the early 1960s, that fact at odds with GM’s adherence to the AMA’s agreement that Detroit’s Big Three keep out of racing.
Undeterred, Arkus-Duntov and his engineers created the Z06 for the C2’s debut 1963 model year. The Z06 would ostensibly be sold to the public but come ready-made for the racetrack. Modifications included an upgraded suspension, a four-speed manual, a limited-slip differential, fuel-injection, a front sway bar, and an extra-large 36.5-gallon fuel tank. Sadly, the Z06 only saw 199 examples built before GM pulled the plug after that initial year.
The Z06 may have been decently equipped for racing, but Arkus-Duntov and company had already been at work on a lightweight version, dubbed the Grand Sport. The Grand Sport did not have official sanction from the GM brass, but that didn’t stop engineers from further refining the Z06. To save weight, aluminum replaced steel in all manner of parts from door handles to the differential housing. The C2’s fiberglass body paneling was thinned to trim ounces.
The Grand Sport’s first win came at Watkin’s Glen, driven by Dick Thompson. High profile placements at Nassau’s Governor’s Trophy and Nassau Trophy proved raised the eyebrows back in Detroit. When GM found out about the Grand Sport, they had the project terminated. Just five examples had been completed.
The Grand Sport wasn’t the only skunkworks Vette Arkus-Duntov came up with, either. He and Vette engineers had designs on putting a RPO L88 427 V8 in the Corvette starting in 1965. The L88, debuting the C2’s final 1967 model, would officially claim a rating of 430 horsepower, while the real number is rumored to be upwards of 550 horsepower. The extra horsepower was intended to allow the C2 to contend with the Cobra on the SCCA racing circuit, which it did, taking innumerable podium spots over the next few years. Only a handful of L88 Corvettes were ever built, just 20 cars in 1967, making them highly sought-after collector’s cars today.
Creature Comforts
The Corvette, obviously, went on to another six generations, finally attaining a long-sought conversion to mid-engine architecture in the current C8 Corvette. Carroll Shelby moved on from the Cobra to working with Ford on their GT40 project, but the Cobra has refused to fade away. Numerous replica/kit car companies produce Cobra recreations to this day, most famous (infamous?) among them being Factory Five. Both the Cobra and the C2 Corvette have ascended to the Olympian realm of automotive icons. Their racing pedigrees and the rarity of cars like the Daytona and the Grand Sport make them among the most sought after and expensive collector’s cars in the world.
But what really sets the Cobra and the C2 Corvette apart is their original purpose. The Cobra to win races. The Corvette to, well, sell Corvettes. Thusly, the C2 was given things like optional AC, a heater, and power windows. Such creature comforts were absent in the single-minded Cobra. Stripped down to essentials, the Cobra is all brute force, as visceral and immediate as any car ever built. One does not simply daily a Shelby Cobra. Whereas the C2 Corvette could pull double duty, hitting the track on Sunday and zipping you back to the office on Monday.
Does that mean the C2 Corvette prevails in this comparison? Of course not, we’re talking the Shelby Cobra for heaven’s sake.
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Interesting article, but I thought I remembered that the Corvette Grand Sports dominated the Cobras in head to head racing during the time the Grand Sports actually raced them. For that reason, I’d have to choose the Vette.