Ice Cube and the Ford Shelby Cobra Concept

If it's good enough for Ice Cube, then it's probably good enough for the rest of us. That's right.....It was actually Ice Cube who drove this car in the movie “xXx: State of the Union.”  Well, you have to give the original some credit; The Shelby Cobra sure knows how to reinvent itself.  Now they’ve got a little car that packs an enormous punch and everybody wants to drive it.

The new “Concept” is a brand new version of the Shelby Cobra that was unveiled just at the 2004 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. It’s a Ford roadster that is based on the original car that Carroll Shelby first developed in 1964.  Still, Ford designed and built it in only five months with some interesting changes.  To put it simply, it’s smaller than normal with a giant engine.  That’s the new twist on the old idea. Just like the many other Ford vehicles developed in recent years, the Shelby Cobra Concept has a modern twist.

As many people know, the first Cobra featured a large, high-performance Ford Windsor engine.  It was set inside a small roadster that was designed specifically for Shelby's dream. In the same way, the Ford Shelby Cobra Concept is small car that isn’t concerned with conveniences as much as road performance.  According to the design team, "That's the formula.  It's a massive motor in a tiny, lightweight car."

That pretty much sums it up but the numbers might drive that statement home a bit more. The Shelby Cobra Concept car has an all-aluminum, V10 engine which displaces 6.4 liters. The engine is actually one of the most powerful engines that are built by Ford. It red-lines at 10,000 rpm and is capable of reaching 260 miles per hour! The double-overhead-cam cylinder heads and cylinders are fed by port fuel injection and racing-derived velocity stacks. The chassis is based on an aluminum chassis used on the Ford GT and modified to suit the new front-mid engine placement. As for the lightweight aspects, the Concept is almost 2 feet shorter than the GT, with a wheelbase that is 7 inches shorter. Now you can see how Ice Cube might have wanted this for his own.  It’s a small car that packs a big punch.