The day was cold. Not the pleasant, crisp cold that fills your lungs with a slight sting as you draw in a deep breath, but the type of cold that comes heavily laden with its own howling wind, always seeming to find the weak point in your armour of hooded jumpers and woolly socks, in an apparent effort to make your day as miserable as possible. In any other situation, I would have been an exceptionally displeased man. But this wasn’t any other situation. Today was a good day.

Big motor, no roof, small car and Carroll Shelby’s endorsement. What could be better?

I tried to get comfortable as I took in my surroundings, the biting wind long forgotten. Deserted industrial street, soft leather underneath and a thin, almost comical wooden steering wheel in my hands. “The keys are in the ignition, mate, fire it up,” said a voice from somewhere off to the side. I could only let out a grunt as I reached under the wheel. I twisted the key to the right, one click, two clicks and then a third. The 2009 Superformance AC Cobra I was sitting in burst into life as the body shook with in menacing side-to-side motion. Seven-and-a-half litres of Cobra Super Jet motor growled angrily mere inches ahead, exhausts bellowing either side.

In my head, I was looking pretty damn cool right about then. Photographic evidence suggests I was looking nothing of the sort, but I don’t care. Because ever since I had first become interested in cars, I’d always wondered what it would be like to ride in a Shelby Cobra, a car with so much motor and yet so little body. In a few seconds I wouldn’t just be riding in one, I’d be driving it.

Reach For The Stars

For his entire life, Rowan Tonkin had wondered that very same thing. When he was a just a child, a poster of a Shelby AC Cobra 427S/C took pride of place on his bedroom wall. “I loved that car. I wanted it so badly, and told myself that one day, I’d own one, and nothing else,” Rowan remembers. A fair few years on, and he has kept that promise to himself, never once straying from the dream. “This is the first V8-powered car I’ve ever owned, and only the second V8 I’ve ever driven. I didn’t want to touch anything that wasn’t my town dream car, so I didn’t. I just waited.” That’s patience.

A couple of years ago, Rowan was finally in the position to fulfil his dream, and after a very long time spent meticulously researching the subject, he came to the decision that the Superformance MkIII, the only replica to be officially endorsed by Carroll Shelby himself, was the way to go. “There are plenty of replicas out there, but in the end the Superformance cars suited me the best,” Rowan explains. “They come as a complete car, tailored to your exact specifications rather than a kit that needs assembly, plus they most closely resemble my 427 S/C dream car, whereas many others are based on the earlier 289 models.”

Just Add Power

The only part of the car that needed installing was the engine. Rowan decided that bigger is better, and went with a massive 460 cubic inch Super Cobra Jet big block. The crate motor, which Stu from Aero Automotive installed, came direct from the States, and runs fully forged internals, high-flowing Ford Performance alloy heads, polished valves and a hydraulic flat tappet cam. Fed by a K&N filter and Holley fuel system, the Holley 850cfm carb provides gas and air for combustion by a complete MSD ignition system. Once the big block has made its 550hp, the resulting waste gases are extracted via two-inch ceramic-coated headers, and in turn a pair of barking 3.5-inch side-pipes built to exact factory Shelby specifications.

Tremec was the way to go when it came to backing up the motor with a reliable driveline. At first, Rowan purchased a TKO600 five-speed box from eBay, but it all went horribly wrong.

“It’s a bit of a cautionary tale, really,” he warns. “I sent the money and never received the box. Even getting the FBI involved didn’t help, so that was a fair few thousand dollars down the drain.”

Gutted but undeterred, Rowan turned to local merchant Fast Parts, which found him another, somewhat more tangible, TKO600. This was mated to a Ford Racing flywheel and McLeod clutch plate, and spins a custom driveshaft bolted to a BTR Dana limited slip differential out the rear.

The indestructible diff spins a very special set of wheels — genuine 17x12.5-inch Halibrand knock-off rims, complete with fat 315/45R17 Goodyear Eagle F1 treads. Although the big feet provide excellent traction, it still gets very slippery on the drag strip, although that hasn’t stopped Rowan powering over the line in a very respectable 12.4 at 120mph at the Fathers’ Day Drags, especially noteworthy considering it was his very first time. To slow the car down to a reasonable pace after the finish line there are some very nice four-pot callipers and discs from Wilwood.