2024 Shelby Cobra CSX1000 | UK Review

They don't make 'em like they used to - except when they do

By Matt Bird / Wednesday, 17 July 2024 / Loading comments

Everybody’s doing something in the world of classic cars. Be it restomods, recreations, evocations, replicas, backdates or homages, the popularity of every flavour of old car and every stripe of internal combustion seems to be on the way up as the future looks more than a little uncertain for those who enjoy driving. This isn’t any of those. This is a Shelby Cobra, a continuation model built by Superformance under license with a CSX chassis number by Ford Motor Company and Carroll Shelby Licensing. It’s imported and distributed by Clive Sutton, with new right-hand drive Shelby Cobras available now in the UK for the first time in almost 60 years. Buy one of these and the car is on the Shelby American Registry as an official product, which you don’t get with anything else. It’s a brand new Shelby Cobra on 24-plates, which it’s hard not to smile about.

I mean look at it. Even after every man and their dog has had a go at it, there’s nothing that’s quite so evocative as a proper Shelby Cobra. Perhaps this one could do with little less chrome and slightly smaller wheels, though the sense of occasion from the shape, the curves and the details - those lovely little rear lights look like wine gums - is unrivalled. It’s small yet bursting with presence. Those wanting a beautifully trimmed restomod style interior might be left a tad disappointed, though once more the fundamentals are so recognisable - a big three-spoke wheel, dials scattered across the dash, what used to pass for bucket seats - that’s it’s easy to fall into the Ken Miles tribute act immediately. This isn’t trying to be a Cobra, it is a Cobra. And it’s all too easy to get very swept up in it all.

The engine will do absolutely nothing to dampen that enthusiasm. Not only is the Ford Coyote V8 a very appropriate power unit given the original Blue Oval Windsor V8 that was used in the 60s, the 5.0-litre Mustang lump is probably the best sounding V8 on sale today. One of the best sounding engines full stop, Cosworth built unobtanium included. From wubba-wubba idle to V8 Supercar cut out, the Cobra is a medley of the configuration’s greatest hits played at 11. And absolutely flippin glorious.

It rumbles and it hollers and it thunders and it bellows and it snorts and it snarls all the time. Every tweak of the throttle elicits something else wonderful from under the bonnet scoop or out of the side-mounted drainpipe. You don’t play the Cobra like an instrument so much as conduct it like an orchestra, such is the quality and the quantity of the sounds it creates. Never has a car brought so much joy shredding through the air before even breaching 3,000rpm.

This is properly fast, too, with the same 450hp as the Mustang but considerably less mass to haul around. Instinct becomes to short shift, surf the torque and avoid some kind of cease and desist; let the thing rip to 7,000rpm, however, and it feels like there’s no stopping you, ready to chew up E-Types and spit them out. Get the launch and the shifts right - pretty easily done with a positive Getrag manual as well as monster 335-section rear tyres - and this must be comfortably under 10 seconds to 100mph. If not less than nine. While feeling like you’re in a Revival racer, hemmed into a tiny car and hunkered down behind the screen, it’s a pretty intoxicating experience.

Going fast, looking cool and making a sublime sound are definitely the Cobra’s strongest suits, however. As a very faithful, authentic continuation of the original, it’s not much cop to drive. Indeed it’s a miracle they were ever raced at all, even with a roof. Obviously there’s not a great deal of stiffness to the chassis, so it’ll wibble and wobble at the first hint of a bump, a feeling exacerbated by being perched a little too high. Having assisted steering is a boon for getting to grips with such an old school sports car, but there feels to be a bit too much assistance, all of which conspires to make what must be inherently a light and nimble two-seater feel quite vague. The monster tyres provide a lot of grip, albeit unsympathetically; the rest of the chassis isn’t up to their level, and there’s never the trust to push them anyway. Similarly, the big Wilwood brakes have good feel for the most brilliant downshifts ever heard (once the tiny pedal box is negotiated) as well as monster power, without the stability in the car to take full advantage. Consider the Cobra like an old Morgan, with a bit too much engine for the car but a very likeable attitude, and you wouldn’t be far off.

Just don’t try to drive fast, basically. Romp away like the bad guy in a car chase to your heart’s content, but don’t expect to carry that speed in corners. Or be prepared for very white knuckles if you do. Far better to burble around, arm resting on the door, embracing a great manual change and being reminded of the simple pleasures. With the sun shining and the roads clear, there really can’t be many better places to sit. Especially when almost every passer-by is so pleased to see a Cobra out and about, which must count for a lot.

All that being said, it remains difficult to level that experience with the price of entry. Even allowing for Shelby kudos and Superformance expertise, £195,000 opens up all manner of emotional, evocative, engaging driving experiences. There are gorgeous classic roadsters, V8 hot rods, beautifully crafted restomods, nearly new supercars and more. Dare it be said in this context, but there will be plenty of things out there that look a lot like Cobras and have a monstrous engine under the bonnet for a lot less money. On the other hand, a Shelby Cobra from the 60s is currently for sale on PH at £849,995, so perhaps a Shelby Cobra from 2024 for less than a quarter of that isn’t as much as it seems. Not everything that looks like a Cobra is an officially registered Shelby Cobra, of course, and that’ll be what the premium is paid for. Whether that status is worth it will be up to the owners; rest assured, however, that nothing else on a 24 plate will offer up such a raw, authentic, exhilarating (and sometimes a little bit scary) trip back in time. Just as any Cobra should.

SPECIFICATION | SHELBY COBRA CSX1000

Engine: 5,038cc, V8
Transmission: 6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 450@7,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 391@4,600rpm
0-62mph: c. 4.0 seconds
Top speed: c. 150mph
Weight: Not a lot
MPG: 22 in the Mustang!
CO2: 277g/km in the Mustang!
Price: £195,000