Shelby celebrates with Cobra 427 50th Anniversary special edition

They don't build 'em like they used to, you say? Well you're right. They don't. Not exactly, anyway, but there are more companies making replicas of the original Shelby Cobra than we'd care to count. But only one of them still comes from The House That Carroll Built. That, of course, would be Shelby American, which is now celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original with this special edition.

The 50th Anniversary Shelby Cobra 427 is built around the design we know and love: a tiny British-designed roadster packed with American muscle. Only this one comes as a rolling chassis without a powertrain. And for the privilege of owning one, you'll have to shell out at least $120k – and that's just for the fiberglass version. The aluminum-bodied model will set you back $180k (again, sans motivation).

For all that scratch, you get a whole bunch of special badges placed all over the handmade bodywork (in either polished finish or white-striped-blue livery), laid over a steel frame with four-wheel independent suspension, coil-over shocks, 11-inch brakes with two-pot calipers at all four corners and 15-inch wheels. Only 50 examples of this anniversary edition Cobra will be offered, bearing the chassis numbers CSX4550-4599.