Did any one catch "Rides" last night hosted by Jason Priestly? I think I had it on TLC. It showed the new Shelby Cobra Concept that will be @ the IAS curcuit this week. Pretty cool! I think they are planning a release of it as well.
New 2004 Shelby Ford Cobra Concept
- Thread starter RP-Motorsports
- Start date
I saw it and great show. For those who missed it you saw the redesign of the Ford Cobra (originally released in 1962), and how they brought the car from the design process, engineering, and drivetrain. They even brought in Carroll Shelby to give his "stamp of approval."
Tip of the hat to Ford for bringing back 3 of the best cars they ever made... Cobra, GT40, and original style Mustang.
Tip of the hat to Ford for bringing back 3 of the best cars they ever made... Cobra, GT40, and original style Mustang.
I do not like it! I find the orioginal Cobra one of the sexiest car ever...
...this looks like the lovechild of the Audi TT and the new Viper!
meh!!!! 
Doesn't suit my tastes at all.
Doesn't suit my tastes at all.
thats an incredibly average design, the original had that nice power-bulge effect, this just looks overweight. The car even 'looks' bored.
The "Rides" show about the Cobra was great. They consulted Carol Shelby from Start To begining.
It was quite touching to see that he was the first one to see it after it was done and the first one to drive it.
The show was awesome.
It was quite touching to see that he was the first one to see it after it was done and the first one to drive it.
The show was awesome.
I got this email form an engineer that is working on the Shelby project and thought I would share it. It is a little long.
January 2003 - The powers that be at Ford start looking for something to wow
the crowds at the 2004 North American International Auto Show, more commonly
referred as the Detroit Auto Show. Chevrolet will be debuting their C6
Corvette. And they need to follow up on the previous show-stopper, the Ford
GT40 Concept. What better than to reintroduce another legend, the Shelby
Cobra? A small design studio in Valencia, California is tasked to create
the body. They begin preliminary design of the body. It is decided that
this will be a fully functional car, not stationary display car.
Enter the engineers. Ford has recently created a new organization within
it's vast development community. Advanced Product Creation has the
responsibility to define and create new products, particularly in new or
under-served market segments ("White space"). In addition, the small
engineering team within APC is to provide engineering support to the show
car studios. In April, we were given the task of creating a rolling chassis
for the car. The catch? There's a photo shoot in October, the car has to
be done by then. The small group consists of 6 engineers and 8 designers.
One of the engineers is straight out of college. The up side? They're all
car nuts. Two of the engineers race with SCCA...one autocross, one
road racing. One did extensive development work on the Lincoln LS chassis.
One is an ex-Goodyear engineer. It's an international group as well...one
Russian, one Englishman, one Canadian, and one Californian.
We don't have much time, and little time for making and proving out new
parts. So we start raiding the Ford's parts bin, starting with the GT
program. Control Arms? Check! Brakes? Check! Hubs? Shocks? Check!
Check! If we can't find it on the GT, we go elsewhere Parking brake
caliper? Jaguar. Electric Parking Brake actuator? Lincoln LS. Shift
lever? Focus.
The first thing that has to be completed is the frame. To buy us some time,
we agree to build 2 frames...the first one will be sent straight to Valencia
so they can figure out how to put the body on it. The second one will be
come the rolling chassis...a complete drivable car, sans body. We can get
the suspension and drive-train installed and sorted out while Valencia gets
the body finished, then swap the body onto the rolling chassis.
All open-top cars have a common problem - Chassis Stiffness. Without a
supporting roof, the car tends to flex. With many show cars, and even some
production cars, the car bends enough with 2 people in the car that the
doors don't close properly. And since this car will be drivable, we need
the chassis stiff enough to perform like the sports car it's supposed to be.
In other words, we have to build a frame as stiff as a production car. And
we only get one shot at it. This is where I come in...I get the job of
designing the frame. We can't afford new tooling or dies, so the car has to
be constructed out of existing aluminum extrusions, mostly from the GT
program, and they have to be straight...tooling to bend them is too
expensive. Frame construction will be similar to the GT's. The extrusions
used on the rockers and the tunnel supports will come from GT. So will the
bumpers and bumper supports. The huge aluminum castings ("Nodes") that
support the GT's suspension will be used as well. The design studio decides
the GT front casting is too ugly for the show car. The rear casting will be
hidden, but the front will be exposed by the flip-forward hood and fenders.
Using the same mounting locations as GT, we design a new front suspension
node to serve the same purpose. It starts as a 500lb block of solid
aluminum, and is machined away to a final weight of about 80lbs. Heavy, but
it does look nice.
The GT's rocker bends in behind the passengers to meet the casting that
holds the rear suspension. But the GT has a whole engine behind the
passengers, and we don't. But we DO have alot of space between the front
suspension and the footwell. Since the tooling already exists to form the
bend we decide to use the rocker...backwards. The left rocker turns around
and becomes the right rocker, and vice-versa. 2 Rails come straight back
from the front suspension nodes and are supported by structure hidden under
the dash. The rocker now curves to meet the lower rail.
I built up a Finite-Element model of the frame as the designers were doing
the CAD work. As they finish designing the part, I add it to the FE model.
Not only did we have to make sure the frame was strong enough, but we had to
have the bending and torsional stiffness numbers to present when the press
asks. With the complete frame modeled, and after 2.5 hours of computer
time, we find the frame not only meets our targets, but the frame is as
stiff as a production C5 Corvette convertible...and much stiffer than the
Viper roadster! With the frame design complete, we ship the CAD data off to
Metro Technologies in Troy, Michigan. They built the prototypes for the GT
program, and they'll do ours as well.
The car, of course, has to go as fast as it looks. The Advanced Powertrain
group has the perfect engine - A 6.4L V10 sporting over 600hp. It's
slightly larger than the V8 from the GT, about the same horsepower, and
without a supercharger, it has a much lower profile to fit under our hood.
To further reduce the profile of the engine, they develop a sliding throttle
plate...each of the ten cylinders has it's own short intake runner and horn,
and a large sliding plate with holes in it opens an closes the throttle.
One of the design cues that the studio wanted was for the passengers to sit
almost shoulder to shoulder. That means the tunnel must be pretty narrow.
It also means that the transmission will wipe out most of the foot well...a
problem the Viper already has, despite it's width. A Corvette-style
transmission, with the transmission mounted to the differential, forward of
the rear axle is considered, but discarded...the passengers sit just barely
forward of the rear wheels, and the transmission would have to sit between
the seats. But wait...the GT's transaxle sits BEHIND the axle. Ford has
never done a torque-tube, connection the front-mounted engine to the
rear-mounted transaxle. But Porsche has...and our boss is an ex-Porsche
engineer. A Porsche 928 torque-tube is ordered and torn apart to see how
they did it. The original suppliers for the 928 are contacted and are able
to supply the proper bearings. A steel torque-tube is built from scratch,
with aluminum bell-housings to attach it to the engine and trans-axle. A
small dual-disc clutch keeps the front housing small, and minimizes
intrusion into the foot-well.
Suspension parts come straight off GT. Using a software package known as
ADAMS/Car, the shock, spring, and sway-bar rates are engineered based on the
weight estimates and handling performance can be estimated. September rolls
around, and the body is not nearly complete. The Chassis might make it for
an October photo shoot, but the body won't. It's rescheduled for December.
The assembly of the rolling chassis is done at Roush Industries in Allen
Park. Working feverishly, they turn a pile of parts into a working, running
chassis, and we're 2 days ahead of schedule. The engine runs. The
transmission shifts. There was much rejoicing. With no time to trailer the
car up to the open area of the Michigan Proving Grounds, we decide to run
the car at the smaller Dearborn Proving Grounds. For 3 days, we attempt to
finalize engine and chassis tuning. The sliding throttle plate proves
problematic. The suction of the engine is so great, that the plate is
firmly sucked down on the lower pin-bearings. Opening the throttle requires
overcoming the friction, resulting in a throttle that opens suddenly and
abruptly. Good for burnouts...it's impossible to get moving without
lighting up either tires or the clutch. At one point, the engine actually
sucks the air filter's metal mesh support into the throttle opening,
resulting in a stuck throttle and near accident. But the chassis turns out
to be race-car precise. The rolling chassis is loaded up on a truck and
shipped to California.
The body is finally finished and the car is assembled. Just in time for the
real test. A limited number of journalists are invited to see what Ford's
been up to. And Carroll Shelby will be on-hand to approve of the car that
will bear his name. The engineers back at Dearborn are a bit nervous...Will
everything work? The team in Valencia assure us that they don't want to
damage the paint with rock chips, and they'll sweep a small section of
track, and keep it under 50mph. Riiiight. Shelby is not a man you tell to
keep it under 50. Or even 100. At over 120mph, Shelby whips this
one-of-a-kind prototype around the oval at Irwindale Raceway. Yea, he likes
it. He likes the way the car handles: "It takes a professional race team 3
months to get a car to this level", he says.
Back in Detroit, Ford prepares to unveil its 'Power Trilogy'. The
now-production GT, the new Mustang, and the surprise guest...the Ford Shelby
Cobra. They schedule the unveiling deliberately to conflict with Chevy's
unveiling of the C6 Corvette. The Ford event is packed. As one journalist
put it "GM's got some actor dressed up as Harvey Earl...Ford's got the real
Carroll Shelby". And, so we're told, the car has been awarded 'Best in
Show' for the 2004 North American International Auto Show.
Mac
January 2003 - The powers that be at Ford start looking for something to wow
the crowds at the 2004 North American International Auto Show, more commonly
referred as the Detroit Auto Show. Chevrolet will be debuting their C6
Corvette. And they need to follow up on the previous show-stopper, the Ford
GT40 Concept. What better than to reintroduce another legend, the Shelby
Cobra? A small design studio in Valencia, California is tasked to create
the body. They begin preliminary design of the body. It is decided that
this will be a fully functional car, not stationary display car.
Enter the engineers. Ford has recently created a new organization within
it's vast development community. Advanced Product Creation has the
responsibility to define and create new products, particularly in new or
under-served market segments ("White space"). In addition, the small
engineering team within APC is to provide engineering support to the show
car studios. In April, we were given the task of creating a rolling chassis
for the car. The catch? There's a photo shoot in October, the car has to
be done by then. The small group consists of 6 engineers and 8 designers.
One of the engineers is straight out of college. The up side? They're all
car nuts. Two of the engineers race with SCCA...one autocross, one
road racing. One did extensive development work on the Lincoln LS chassis.
One is an ex-Goodyear engineer. It's an international group as well...one
Russian, one Englishman, one Canadian, and one Californian.
We don't have much time, and little time for making and proving out new
parts. So we start raiding the Ford's parts bin, starting with the GT
program. Control Arms? Check! Brakes? Check! Hubs? Shocks? Check!
Check! If we can't find it on the GT, we go elsewhere Parking brake
caliper? Jaguar. Electric Parking Brake actuator? Lincoln LS. Shift
lever? Focus.
The first thing that has to be completed is the frame. To buy us some time,
we agree to build 2 frames...the first one will be sent straight to Valencia
so they can figure out how to put the body on it. The second one will be
come the rolling chassis...a complete drivable car, sans body. We can get
the suspension and drive-train installed and sorted out while Valencia gets
the body finished, then swap the body onto the rolling chassis.
All open-top cars have a common problem - Chassis Stiffness. Without a
supporting roof, the car tends to flex. With many show cars, and even some
production cars, the car bends enough with 2 people in the car that the
doors don't close properly. And since this car will be drivable, we need
the chassis stiff enough to perform like the sports car it's supposed to be.
In other words, we have to build a frame as stiff as a production car. And
we only get one shot at it. This is where I come in...I get the job of
designing the frame. We can't afford new tooling or dies, so the car has to
be constructed out of existing aluminum extrusions, mostly from the GT
program, and they have to be straight...tooling to bend them is too
expensive. Frame construction will be similar to the GT's. The extrusions
used on the rockers and the tunnel supports will come from GT. So will the
bumpers and bumper supports. The huge aluminum castings ("Nodes") that
support the GT's suspension will be used as well. The design studio decides
the GT front casting is too ugly for the show car. The rear casting will be
hidden, but the front will be exposed by the flip-forward hood and fenders.
Using the same mounting locations as GT, we design a new front suspension
node to serve the same purpose. It starts as a 500lb block of solid
aluminum, and is machined away to a final weight of about 80lbs. Heavy, but
it does look nice.
The GT's rocker bends in behind the passengers to meet the casting that
holds the rear suspension. But the GT has a whole engine behind the
passengers, and we don't. But we DO have alot of space between the front
suspension and the footwell. Since the tooling already exists to form the
bend we decide to use the rocker...backwards. The left rocker turns around
and becomes the right rocker, and vice-versa. 2 Rails come straight back
from the front suspension nodes and are supported by structure hidden under
the dash. The rocker now curves to meet the lower rail.
I built up a Finite-Element model of the frame as the designers were doing
the CAD work. As they finish designing the part, I add it to the FE model.
Not only did we have to make sure the frame was strong enough, but we had to
have the bending and torsional stiffness numbers to present when the press
asks. With the complete frame modeled, and after 2.5 hours of computer
time, we find the frame not only meets our targets, but the frame is as
stiff as a production C5 Corvette convertible...and much stiffer than the
Viper roadster! With the frame design complete, we ship the CAD data off to
Metro Technologies in Troy, Michigan. They built the prototypes for the GT
program, and they'll do ours as well.
The car, of course, has to go as fast as it looks. The Advanced Powertrain
group has the perfect engine - A 6.4L V10 sporting over 600hp. It's
slightly larger than the V8 from the GT, about the same horsepower, and
without a supercharger, it has a much lower profile to fit under our hood.
To further reduce the profile of the engine, they develop a sliding throttle
plate...each of the ten cylinders has it's own short intake runner and horn,
and a large sliding plate with holes in it opens an closes the throttle.
One of the design cues that the studio wanted was for the passengers to sit
almost shoulder to shoulder. That means the tunnel must be pretty narrow.
It also means that the transmission will wipe out most of the foot well...a
problem the Viper already has, despite it's width. A Corvette-style
transmission, with the transmission mounted to the differential, forward of
the rear axle is considered, but discarded...the passengers sit just barely
forward of the rear wheels, and the transmission would have to sit between
the seats. But wait...the GT's transaxle sits BEHIND the axle. Ford has
never done a torque-tube, connection the front-mounted engine to the
rear-mounted transaxle. But Porsche has...and our boss is an ex-Porsche
engineer. A Porsche 928 torque-tube is ordered and torn apart to see how
they did it. The original suppliers for the 928 are contacted and are able
to supply the proper bearings. A steel torque-tube is built from scratch,
with aluminum bell-housings to attach it to the engine and trans-axle. A
small dual-disc clutch keeps the front housing small, and minimizes
intrusion into the foot-well.
Suspension parts come straight off GT. Using a software package known as
ADAMS/Car, the shock, spring, and sway-bar rates are engineered based on the
weight estimates and handling performance can be estimated. September rolls
around, and the body is not nearly complete. The Chassis might make it for
an October photo shoot, but the body won't. It's rescheduled for December.
The assembly of the rolling chassis is done at Roush Industries in Allen
Park. Working feverishly, they turn a pile of parts into a working, running
chassis, and we're 2 days ahead of schedule. The engine runs. The
transmission shifts. There was much rejoicing. With no time to trailer the
car up to the open area of the Michigan Proving Grounds, we decide to run
the car at the smaller Dearborn Proving Grounds. For 3 days, we attempt to
finalize engine and chassis tuning. The sliding throttle plate proves
problematic. The suction of the engine is so great, that the plate is
firmly sucked down on the lower pin-bearings. Opening the throttle requires
overcoming the friction, resulting in a throttle that opens suddenly and
abruptly. Good for burnouts...it's impossible to get moving without
lighting up either tires or the clutch. At one point, the engine actually
sucks the air filter's metal mesh support into the throttle opening,
resulting in a stuck throttle and near accident. But the chassis turns out
to be race-car precise. The rolling chassis is loaded up on a truck and
shipped to California.
The body is finally finished and the car is assembled. Just in time for the
real test. A limited number of journalists are invited to see what Ford's
been up to. And Carroll Shelby will be on-hand to approve of the car that
will bear his name. The engineers back at Dearborn are a bit nervous...Will
everything work? The team in Valencia assure us that they don't want to
damage the paint with rock chips, and they'll sweep a small section of
track, and keep it under 50mph. Riiiight. Shelby is not a man you tell to
keep it under 50. Or even 100. At over 120mph, Shelby whips this
one-of-a-kind prototype around the oval at Irwindale Raceway. Yea, he likes
it. He likes the way the car handles: "It takes a professional race team 3
months to get a car to this level", he says.
Back in Detroit, Ford prepares to unveil its 'Power Trilogy'. The
now-production GT, the new Mustang, and the surprise guest...the Ford Shelby
Cobra. They schedule the unveiling deliberately to conflict with Chevy's
unveiling of the C6 Corvette. The Ford event is packed. As one journalist
put it "GM's got some actor dressed up as Harvey Earl...Ford's got the real
Carroll Shelby". And, so we're told, the car has been awarded 'Best in
Show' for the 2004 North American International Auto Show.
Mac
FuryNSX said:meh!!!!
Yes, I agree. I think it needs to be more organic. The design is too simplistic.
I'm not very fond of their 'comeback' cars. Ford's three newer concept/halo production cars are the GT(40), this Shelby Cobra, and the new 60's style retro Mustang. All of these vehicles are old glory. Eventhough I'm sure they are nice cars, a lot of people will probably dismiss them because of the lack of originality. Didn't they just flop on a retro Thunderbird too? What is going on over there?
