There are few cars as recognisable as an AC Cobra: when confronted with one, grown men turn into young boys, and women get all irrational. Maybe it’s the curvaceous body that’s so affecting; perhaps it’s the animal acceleration that stirs the synapses; or maybe even it’s the thundering soundtrack. Whatever the reason, in this age of political correctness and the glorification of sensibility, an AC Cobra is a two-fingered salute to ‘the man’.

Despite the chequered history of AC and Shelby, it’s been variously possible to buy a new ‘Cobra’ off the shelf, from various sources, from 1962 right through until today. Of course things are never quite so simple: arguably there’s lineage between the original Cobra and today’s MkVI, but the cars you could buy to race back then and the latest version are considerably different.

Here we’ve gathered together just about all of the important cars produced between 1962 and today, in order to tell the long and sometimes intricate story of the AC Cobra.

To follow 'All the Cobras' story click HERE