I will be doing my Capstone on the legendary sports car the Shelby Cobra. I want to showcase my home state of Utah's involvement in creating this slices of Americana.
A little back story.
In 1962 Race car driver Carol Shelby was told by his doctors that he should not race anymore in the world sports car racing circuit (24 hours of La Mans, Grand Prix of Monaco, F-1, etc.)
Following in the foot steps of other great racing icons Carol Shelby decided that if he could not race sports cars anymore, he would build them instead. But how do you get started building cars when your day job consist of being a Chicken farmer?
Shelby devised a ludicrous plan. Using his connections, Shelby decided to play two companies against one as unknowing partners in his motorized dream.
Starting off Shelby to Detroit for a meeting at the headquarters of the Ford Motor Company to speak with Henry Ford II. Shelby told this motoring giant that a British motors company named "AC" was interested in partnering with an American motor company to place the new powerful small block V8's into the bodies of there new "Ace" sports car. Henry Ford thought it was a fantastic idea and wanted his company to be the one who AC partnered with. Shelby instructed
In actuality AC had no intentions of this deal. It was all Carol Shelby's scheme to create a lightweight high-powered sports car that could take on the heavyweights like Ferrari.
With one end of the bridge in the works, Shelby headed over to England and talked to the head of AC and told them the same but vis versa story. Now the plan was in motion. Shelby played the two ends to meet with him in the middle.
Shelby named his new creation the Cobra, and in the summer of 1962 Shelby entered his sports car into the world racing circuit and ended up getting into a head to head competition with non other than the Italian stallion himself Enzo Ferrari.
Over spring brake (2016) i took a trip to Las Vegas and visited the factory of Shelby American, where the now legendary sports cars are manufactured. I spoke with the tour guide and was given contact information to speak with there museum curator.
Jump forward to 1992, in Provo Utah Kirkham Motorsports is established by two men who had the idea to create replica Cobra's. The two men headed to a Jet plain factory in Poland with a small die cast model of a 1965 Cobra. The Polish company said that they had the resources to create replica bodies based on the small model.
Kirkham Motorsports started producing there replica Cobra's and became well known in the sports car world. At this time Carol Shelby became familiar with the company and made a deal for Kirkham to supply him with new bodies for his company to manufacture his legendary roadster.
Other ideas.
Flyin' Miata - I would like to do a documentary about the company that turns the little Japanese sports car into a fire breathing Porsche killer.
Good Omens - I am thinking of doing my favorite scene from the book by favorite author Terry Pratchett and Neil Gayman.
Pitch: Angle (Azeraphel) and Demon (Crowly) get drunk wile discussing the apocolips and the human condition. Will the Anti-Christ be born evil, or will he be a product of his human upbringing.
Character design:
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