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On Saturday afternoon, Carroll
Shelby show up with his wife. Cleo. He
spent most of the afternoon in the
track’s Media Center signing auto-
graphs, talking with members and
posing for photographs. Shelby was
driving a new silver F-150 Lightning
that had been provided by Ford’s pub-
lic relations department.
At the Saturday evening dinner,
both Peter Brock and Carroll Shelby
spoke. Brock gave a thoughtful talk
about the affect Cobra replicas have
had on the marque in general. Brock’s
point was that the preponderance of
replicas has been responsible for ele-
vating the originals in the public eye.
The basic shape is instantly recognize-
able and in the average, non-automo-
tive person’s eye, replicas
are
Cobras.
If there was no such thing as a replica,
very few people, forty years later,
would be aware of Cobras because the
original 998 cars would rarely be seen
outside of automobile enthusiast cir-
cles. Values aside, the Cobra roadster
has one of the most identifiable shapes
in the automotive world.
When Shelby took the podium it
was clear that Brock’s remarks had
raised his hackles. He was, at that
time, involved in law suits over the
Cobra’s shape being copyright pro-
tected. However, as heedless as
Brock’s comments appeared to be, they
actually helped to make Shelby’s case.
The Cobra’s silhouette was unique and
recognizable and, as such, was
Shelby’s intellectual property. Even if
the horse was already out of the barn.
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2016 79