the Anti-Cobra

Tom Meade's Anti-Cobra

An Answer to Carroll Shelby

“Started in 1963, the basic idea was begun over a frustrated Baron: In the town of Laussan, near Lake Geneva, Switzerland, Baron de Bloney had a Corvette. Being an automotive enthusiast, he raced it regularly but had been complaining that he was getting his ‘doors blown off by the Cobras.’ Thus began the Anti-Cobra project.

“As he hung out in Italy and we knew each other, one day the Baron came with a proposal and cash deposit, commissioning me to build a special car. This weapon for the street and track would rival the legendary Shelby AC Cobras. By this time, in the early 1960s, Carroll Shelby himself was already retired as a winning racecar driver for manufacturers including Scarab, Aston Martin, Ferrari and Maserati (in 1956 and ‘57 Sports Illustrated named Shelby sports car driver of the year, and in 1959 he and co-driver Ray Salvadori won 24 Hours of LeMans).

“To more clearly understand the impetus for the Anti-Cobra, it is important to put the rival car, the Cobra, into proper historical context:

“Lighter and faster than the Corvette Stingray, by 1963, Shelby’s Cobra arrived at 3 Hours of Daytona for its first international competition. Although it did well, the Ferrari GTOs won, taking 1st and 2nd, while Corvette finished 3rd, leaving the Cobra in 4th place.

“Thereafter, Shelby-American entered four cars at 12 Hours of Sebring, Florida, an FIA race. Two of the four Cobras had the new rack-and-pinion steering setup, driven by Dan Gurney and Phil Hill. Although Hill set the fastest GT lap, the Ferraris won again (dominating the field). The leading Cobra finished 11th but ahead of the Corvettes.

“Later that same year, 1963, Shelby-American completed its first 125 Cobras. Because Ford refused to finance a Cobra Le Mans effort, Shelby put together a deal with AC Cars and Ed Hugus, who prepared one car each. The top Cobra finished 7th. After Le Mans, Shelby began the Daytona Coupe project, as the LeMans experience revealed that AC Cobra roadster body lacked the aerodynamics necessary for the desired 190(+) mph for the Mulsanne Straight. Pete Brock was the Daytona body designer.

“By year’s end, December 1963, the Cobra won the USRRC (United States Road Racing Championship). This foreshadowed things to come. And although Ferrari continued to dominate 1963 and ’64, by the end of the 1964 season, Shelby’s Daytona Cobras had come into maturity and for the first time Ferrari’s GTOs were beaten around Le Mans and Sebring. The rest is history.

excerpt from:
Chad Glass: Tom Meade's Anti-Cobra
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Jeremy, thanks for those links. The only thread started by me on that list is for Tom's Thomassima IIII "Thomassima-supercar_update." There isn't a thread yet devoted solely to the Anti-Cobra

 

It's Tom Meade's name for the car he built for the Baron who wanted to destroy the Cobra that kept beating his a$$

You make a good point about the lack of interest for a works car. I'm assuming you mean the Daytona not being backed by Ford. As you know the Ford Daytona Coupe' is a Cobra and was under the direct purview of Carroll Shelby. Ford obviously didn't back the roadster Cobra for 1963 LeMans as it was aerodynamically incapable of beating the Ferraris as Shelby discovered--hence his focusing on development of the Daytona for 1963. But again it wasn't backed by the factory and failed to overtake the Ferrari 275P and the two 330Ps that finished 1-2-3 while the Daytona took 4th for 1964 LeMans. Ironically, however, the works backed GT 40s of that race/year didn't finish but Shelby's Cobra took 4th--pretty damned impressive--so much so that Ford put him on the GT 40 project thereafter.

That bit about the Scaglietti bodied Vettes and the Shelby connection is pretty crazy

 

You may like this bit of backstory, albeit circuitous and long. It culminates with some information about LeMans and Tom's brief involvement there. LeMans 1966 is renown as the retaliation year for Ford and its GT 40s, sent finishing in dramatic 1-2-3 formation--a direct and deliberate retaliation against Ferrari:

Chad Glass: Tom Meade Update: February 2012 -Part 3