20 of the Fastest Muscle Cars Ever Built

November 30, 2016

1966 Shelby Cobra 427

Quarter Mile Time: 12.20 Seconds

Barretjackson

The Cobra. Widely regarded as everyones favorite”muscle car”, this gorgeous creation from the legendary Carroll Shelby has found a place at the top of the collectable car world. Shelby created the iconic design after he was badly beaten by the Corvettes during more than one race. Shelby wanted to create a small car that could handle a V-8 and worked with AC Cars to fabricate what would soon become the Cobra. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing at first, when Shelby went to Chevy to look for engines he was turned down over fear of competition with its Corvette.

Pintrest

Thats when Shelby went to Ford and were more than receptive to the idea of building a small, powerful, and lightweight car that can defeat their competition and their successful Corvette line-up. Shelby ended up with Ford’s 520 bhp, 427 V-8 engine and when all was said and done, Shelby started to take down Corvettes with ease.

The Cobra 427 was 500 pounds lighter than the Corvette, more agile because of its wider stance and more than anything, the car was incredibly fast. It completed the quarter mile dash in 12.20 seconds at an average speed of 118 miles per hour.

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