Thread: Some days are just golden!!!

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Hey Uncle Bob, can you tell a bit more about the coupe??? Man, that sucker is drop dead gorgeous--and has got to be a strong runner!!!

I'll tell you what I know (how's that for being master of the obvious!), I don't like to eat up too much of Tony's time because he's working for a living (as you well understand), so I only get short stories.

They had this Aceca coupe and wanted to do something interesting with it. As some may know, AC built the roadster and coupe versions of this body before Shelby came along and bought chassis and body assemblies to fabricate the Cobra (with some body tweaks to differentiate them). They didn't want to make this coupe look too much like a Cobra, but with the basic lines being the foundation, it's hard not to pick up some of the ques. They flaired the front fenders (reminds me of the 289 FIA Cobra shape), and widened the rear quarters, both to fit the larger Boranni wheel/tire combo. Then stuffed that supercharged SBFin there. He tells me that the crew love any excuse to run to get parts and supplies in it because of the supercharger whine and exhaust note.

Here are a couple rear shots.

Hi Uncle Bob,thanks for the story and photos. Is your neighbour Tony Haliday by any chance?? I knew some Haliday brothers from here in Auckland that built,raced and maintained race cars of the same as that type. Another person that I had the good fortune to meet before he passed and was so knowlegdable was John Olsen who use to work for Carrol Shelby building Cobra's. He was the most amazing bodyman creating aluminium bodied Cobra's
which when he returned home to NZ he continued to do with permission and exported genuine ali bodies to the USA. One of his last projects was a Coupe just like the one in the photo I believe. I saw the bucks he was making to form the body panels on on my last visit and some of the front panels he had already formed. I am also aquainted to Charlie Wallace whose brother lives and works in the US somewhere who is a engine buider of some fame I believe.