Alex Unleashed on Cars: Shelby Series One (The Second Coming of the Cobra)
If the Dodge Viper was a spiritual successor to the Shelby Cobra, then the Shelby Series One was the successor to the 60s classic. Styling wise it's a cross between a Lotus Elise at the front and a Marcos at the back. The engine is a tuned 4 litre Oldsmobile Aurora V8 producing the same power as a 5 litre TVR Griffith/Chimaera.
Elsewhere, despite Shelby's claims development was all in house, a lot of parts are from General Motors. including the instruments and stereo. Which brings us on to the interior, not a strong point for American cars, and it's the same here. You'd have thought a car made independently rather than by a big corporation would be able to make a bespoke interior in the same way TVR did. But no, the interior is dark and plastic, no wood or carbon fibre to be found in this car. The only toys you got were air-conditioning (naturally) CD player, electric windows and ABS. You also don't get a boot either, though that's not too surprising, Carroll Shelby doesn't strike me as a golfer. You do get a soft top roof though, but you have to manually put it up, and if you so happened to be one of the first 60 customers, someone had to come and fit it for you as the cars weren't shipped with it.
Whilst the interior might have been bargain basement, underneath, effort was clearly put in. The chassis is aluminium, there's a 50:50 weight distribution, 6-speed manual gearbox and the body is a mix of carbon fibre and fiberglass panels. There are nice details elsewhere, for example, the fuel filler flap is where the boot should be. There's also 2 different badge designs on the car for some reason.
Back to the engine, if 320 BHP for a car that cost the equivalent of over £100,000 in '99 sounds weedy, then Shelby offered an X50 package that could boost power to over 400 BHP, and if even that wasn't enough, you could even have a supercharger fitted, to give over 540 BHP and 530 Ib/ft, when combined with the X50 pack, whilst figures are scarce, considering a base car could do 60 in 4.4 seconds, logic would dictate 0-60 in less than 4 seconds and a top speed north of 190 for the supercharged version.
Despite plans to launch a Series Two in 2002, production wrapped up of the Series One with just 249 sold, the low rent interior and high price being mainly to blame for the lack of sales. Whilst a finance company did buy the assets to the Series One, they went under so Shelby bought them back, plans were to launch the Series Two in 2006 but following regulation changes, the project was shelved until 2024 when 10 cars would be made with a choice of 7 or 7.3 litre V8 or all-electric power.
It's hard to determine the Series One as a success or failure, on the one hand it sold just over 40 cars a year, and when you consider the cost put it in Porsche Turbo & Ferrari 360 territory, it's a hard sell to make with that interior and the sort of performance specs that belong to a much cheaper car. But, you have to doff your caps to Shelby and his team, whilst the GM influence is noticeable, in terms of engineering, the Series One is way ahead of the Dodge Viper. So, it depends on your philosophy, you can either see it as an over-priced American TVR, or a car that may look unimpressive from the drivers seat, but thoroughly impresses when the time is right, what do you think?
Year Produced: 1999-2005
Engine: 4.0 Litre V8
Top Speed: 170 - 185+ MPH
0-60: 4.4 - 3.7 Seconds
Power: 320 - 540 BHP
Torque: 290 - 530 Ib/ft
Weight: 1202 KG
Rivals: Chevrolet Corvette C5, Dodge Viper, TVR Tuscan 3.6
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