A 2004 Ford Shelby Cobra concept in Jay Leno's garage.
After decades of separation, Ford and Carroll Shelby reunited in the early 2000s, and one of the first projects of the re-established partnership was a 21st century Cobra. The Shelby Cobra Concept debuted at the 2004 Detroit Auto Show and is currently owned by Chris Theodore, one of the designers who worked on the car. The car, Chris Theodore, and auto appraiser Donald Osborne recently rode into Jay Leno's garage to tell the story of the last Cobra.
The concept was a product of the retro boom that swept the auto industry in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Its styling was based on the original Shelby Cobra, which combined a Ford V-8 engine with an AC Ace chassis. Although the reborn Cobra never went into production, Ford later introduced versions of the GT and Mustang with styling inspired by its 1960s predecessors.
Unlike many concept cars, this Cobra is fully roadworthy. Behind the huge oval air intakes is a 6.4-liter V10 engine. Other components were sourced from the Ford GT the company was designing at the time. Shelby likely did not have much input on the engineering side of things, but he gave his seal of approval to the project and drove the concept prior to its motor show debut.
The designer did not want to make a carbon copy of the original Cobra, so the concept's exterior is blocky, according to Theodore. To this day, people still mistake this 16-year-old design for a new car, he added.
Theodore, who was Ford's vice president of senior products at the time the Cobra Concept was built, bought the car at auction in 2017 for $825,000, which Osborne said is currently worth $1.5 million. Because it is a one-off concept, the Cobra is not registered for street use. If that were possible, Osborn says the car could be worth up to $3 million.
If the Cobra had been produced, Theodore noted, it would have sold for around $99,000. Ford ultimately shelved the concept, leaving the demand for the new Cobra to the replica industry.
Watch Jay drive the car in Southern California through the end of this five-minute video.
