Videos needed

[weaver]

Anyone with a Unique Cobra that has some nice high quality video on their car we need it. We want to update our web site and would like to post videos taken by owners, inside, outside, engine bay and interior footage is what we need. If you want to describe your car in the video thats even better. Thanks Alan!

[davids2toys]

Any interest in my car doing donuts at this years Annual Summer Run 10 at Lake George NY?

[weaver]

Sure Dave, donuts sound good to me!

[diegokid]

Don't forget the coffee!

[davids2toys]

It is not a huge file, do you want me to send by email?

[OCC Pete]

Here's a good video the Ohio Cobra Club did on our 2007 raffle car:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDlgcbSSd7U

Pete

[weaver]

Thanks Pete, didn't Bill Parham do a great job?

[OCC Pete]

I won't claim it will be nearly as professionally done, but we're planning on making a video when we come to pick up this years car.

Pete

[pgermond]

Here's a good video the Ohio Cobra Club did on our 2007 raffle car:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDlgcbSSd7U

Pete

Great vid!!! [thumb]

[davids2toys]

Here is one video that is going to be part of an upcoming. episode of CRUISIN WITH HOTRODS AND CLASSIC CARS TV show. This is a group of guys I cruise with regularly.
All different brands of replicas represented, obviously, I am the red and white Unique.
I will also be getting interviewed, talking about the car, etc, etc...
Dave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBzE9kV0bHw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[juanone]

Great video. Pays tribute to not only Carroll Shelby but to the thousands of loyal fans, owners an great manufacturers of Cobra replicas of the last 30 years.

[davids2toys]

Great video. Pays tribute to not only Carroll Shelby but to the thousands of loyal fans, owners an great manufacturers of Cobra replicas of the last 30 years.
You're welcome...i couldn't have said it better!
Glad you enjoyed it!!!
Dave

[YerDugliness]

Pays tribute to not only Carroll Shelby but to the thousands of loyal fans, owners an great manufacturers of Cobra replicas of the last 30 years.

....and now, ready for a differing opinion?

It disgusts me when I see anything suggesting Carroll Shelby might deserve any sort of tribute.

He was a scoundrel...a Texas chicken farmer and a liar. He lied to A/C and told them he had a line of credit from Ford for engines, did the same thing with Ford by telling them A/C had given him a line of credit for chassis/bodies. Both fell for it, or we might well not have the Cobra to this day.

OK, so he had a great idea, but it wasn't an original idea by far. Want an early example of an early European sports car body with a powerful American V-8 for motivation? Look no further than the Cad-Allard. The Allard company put Cadillac V-8 engines (which had a reputation for developing the most power per pound of engine weight) into their chassis and they predated the A/C and Ford 221/260/289 combination, much less the 427/428 models.

All that might have been OK, but fast-forward a few decades and Ol' Shel's heart is giving him trouble, so he magnanamously decides to start a foundation that will promote heart-related research. Another great idea (if not original), right? It would have been if he could have raised the funding he wanted, but he couldn't find enough devotees to buy into the Ol' Shelby charm (it was SO hard to not call them lies). Brilliant idea...he'll jump on the "intellectual property" bandwagon and REQUIRE all manufacturers of his "idea" to pay a "royalty".

Well, it took a few visits to a courtroom, but Ol' Shel couldn't get the judge/jury to buy into his lies, either, so for the most part the replica manufacturers are now free from Shelby's unreasonable demands.

Shel sure made life miserable for the likes of our beloved Weavers, though, for a while, not to mention the $$$ it cost them to defend themselves against these unreasonable demands/allegations.

So, what DID Shelby do that requires we pay him "tribute"....or, more likely, I should ask why do we (almost) all overlook the historical facts (which I have paraphrased from my admittedly weak memory) and feel he's a hero?

My heroes are the manufacturers who managed to fend off the unending lawsuits filed by Shelby and his team of lawyers. Without them, we would either be driving much more expensive projects due to the forced "royalty" payments, or more likely we might not be able to buy a replica at all. Don't believe that? Try to find a company offering a Ferarri replica...if you can, you better jump all over it, b/c the legal team for Ferarri will jump on them with both feet and drive them into the ground. Shelby probably learned his tactics from them, just didn't have the financial resources of the Italian company.

No disrespect meant to you, Juan....your 289 build was the one I followed the most religiously, it's the car I still want if I can ever afford to buy a Unique product. I own an older Cobra replica right now, a 427 model, but it is in my garage ONLY because a gentleman in Dallas wanted to sell it to finance his wedding. I bouight it for $18,200 cash and drove it home to the Houston area via Austin, where I showed it to my daughter (her dream car is a Porsche 550 Spyder [thumb] ), got 24 MPG on I-35 and I-10 in the process. Someday I will flip it....hopefully for enough $$ to be able to talk with Unique about a 289 model.

I'm just thanking our good luck that Shelby didn't prevail in the courts!!!'

Cheers!

Dugly :cool:

[weaver]

I plead the 5th!!!

[arrowdriver]

A friend of mine who's in the business can vouch that CS is as you describe him though he has an even lower opinion.

[davids2toys]

Well, whatever he was or is...I personally don't know. Nobody can deny the greatness of the AC Cobra, and the the total cool factor in driving and owning one (even if it is a replica)!!!
:3g:

[arrowdriver]

I remember seeing a Bristol AC parked along the street in Edmonton in the very early 60's, probably 62 or 63, and being struck by the great stying of it. Whoever designed it got things right. Some cars have that and some don't. Shelby was a good driver till his health made him stop and clearly he had a good idea of combining a European car with an American power train though this wasn't the first time that was done. How much this car was successful is subject to a lot of argument as it's commercial success was rather limited though no one argues about the dramatic beauty of it which all of us experience any time we drive or park the car anywhere. As a race car it was fine within certain limits since it has the aerodynamics of a brick at high speed so wasn't all that good on the faster tracks such as are common in Europe which is why the Daytona and GT40 were developed. For my use of summer time street driving, you can't beat it.

[Jerry Cowing]

Here's a video for you.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/video-race-car-crash-caught-video-130mph-022928702.html

[weaver]

Hell of a ride!!!

[davids2toys]

Holy Crap!

[arrowdriver]

Kind of used up a lot of his luck on that one. I think I'll check my tie rod ends!

[Jerry Cowing]

Alan,

Didn't you have a wild ride like that?

Jer

[weaver]

Not quite that bad, the worst part of mine was never leaving the asphalt and having to rebuild the car myself!