AC Cobra to star in Revival

The 50th anniversary of the AC Cobra will be marked at the 2012 Goodwood Revival with a race dedicated to 30 examples of the Anglo-American sports car.

Goodwood organisers are promising the finest collection of significant and authentic racing Cobras ever assembled in the UK next September.

The special all-Cobra race, the first such event ever run in Britain, will be a 45-minute two-driver contest, with driver changes between 15 and 30 minutes.

It is expected that this one-off race will feature an array of historically significant competition Cobras , including some of the special-bodied aerodynamic Cobra-based coupés. It is hoped that the man behind the Cobra, Carroll Shelby, will be able to attend the Revival.

In September 1961, Shelby asked AC in Britain to supply a chassis modified to accept a V8 engine, and by early 1962 the first Ford-powered Cobra was being road-tested.