Camaro Coupe

Make
Chevrolet
Segment
Coupe

Next year Carroll Shelby will celebrate his 90th birthday, and at this year's New York Auto Show Shelby celebrated its half century as a car producer, of sorts. In 1961 he built the first AC Cobra, based on the British sports car manufacturer AC's chassis and propelled by a Ford V8 engine. That model became a legend and an object of imitation; it also drove the mainstream American car industry into the sports car era, with models such as the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro.

In his first creation Shelby, a competent racing driver before he became constructor, team owner and tuner, used a 221 cubic-inch eight-cylinder Ford engine before switching to a 260 CID engine and 260 hp. He improved the chassis and the suspension in order to efficiently handle the higher-than-expected loads. The car on display now at the New York Auto Show is not for sale, but if it was it would easily fetch many millions of dollars.