Rightly regarded as one of the all-time great classic sports cars, the muscular, fire-breathing Cobra succeeded in capturing the hearts of enthusiasts like few of its contemporaries.

Texan Carroll Shelby had gone racing in Europe in the late 1950s and realized that a combination of a lightweight American V8 engine and a proven European chassis was a winning combination.

He had a Ford V8 installed in the chassis of an AC Ace, named the result the 'Cobra', and proved his point.

Formalizing the arrangement, Shelby had AC Cars send Cobras - minus engines - from England to be finished off at his facilities in California.

The 260ci (4.2-liter) prototype first ran in January 1962, with production commencing later that year.

In 1963 the more powerful 289ci (4.7-liter) unit was standardized.

Rack-and-pinion steering was the major MkII up-date; then in 1965 a new, stronger, coil-suspended MkIII chassis was introduced to accommodate Ford's 427ci (7-liter) V8 engine, which in race trim could...