King Cobra: Why didn't Ford just adopt it instead of making the Ford GT?

At the Shelby Tribute at the old race tire shop in Gardena CA last weekend, Dave McDonald's son gave a slide show on his father's career (his father died at Indy in an experime nal Mickey Thompson car). Much of his father's fast rising career centered on the so-called King Cobra, a Cooper that was ordered by Shelby in a batch of three and fitted with a small block Ford instead of the small English engine. They were beating Ferraris all over the place in the U.S. So now I am wondering, why didn't Ford just buy that design, (maybe rebodying it--maybe it could have benefitted from some wind tunnel testing) and they could have saved all the money they spent on the Ford GT40? Or was the GT40 design already too far along to drop it? In the end of the presentation, he said it was after Shelby-American did so well with the King Cobra that Ford called Shelby up and asked that he come in on the Ford GT program for the '65 season.

 

I agree but haven't found an article yet that says how insistent he was that the chassis of whatever car they ran
had to be from Ford. I think starting Ford Advanced Vehicles was the right move.

 

I read it but don't recall him mentioning Cooper Bros or Chapman. Interestingly, 20th Centiry Fox was going to base their film on that book, then sold it off.