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The Cobra is one of the biggest names in industry, and the 427 version is one of the most copied. During the production, it was the most fierce car available.

Up to 1965, all Cobras had complete cars minus engines sourced from AC in England. Once Carol Shelby decided to fit the Ford's big block 427, a new chassis and suspension and body was necessary. These were all updated to Mark III specification which had larger and wider spaced chassis rails, coil springs suspension and flared wheel arches.

One of the biggest engines available to Shelby was the 427 which was similar to Ford's NASCAR unit. These much different than the 428 units from the Galaxie that had a different bore and stoke as well as a much lower power output. In any state of the tune the 427 Cobra had staggering performance. For racing, 480 bhp was available.

In 1967, Shelby had finished 31 427 competition cars. These were strictly race spec cars that were tuned to have somewhere between 400 and 500 horsepower. Unfortunately, the 31 examples was not enough to homologate the car for production endurance racing. Shelby's only choice was to throw windscreens on the unsold cars and sell one of the most radical road-going machines. In 1967 the 427 S/C was the fastest accelerating production vehicle in America. In truth. it was probably too fast for the chassis.

Only around 30 Cobras were made to S/C specification, while almost 500 came with the 390 bhp 427 or 355 bhp 428.

Desipte this fact, the Cobra remains as one of the most replicated cars and sometimes with even cruder and less refined chassis. Due to the very limited production for orginal cars, Cobras have fetched anywhere from $200 000 to $1 000 000 USD for a 427.

Called the Super Snake, two very twin turbocharged versions were made, one for Bill Cosby, and the the other for Shelby himself. Bill sold his car after he found it to have too much power and its next owner tragically retired with the car after crashing into a lake. Shelby's car still survives and sold at the 2007 Barrett-Jackson auction for $5.5 million USD.

Called a 1966 AC Cobra 427 Roadster, RM Auctions sold this car for $766 800 USD at their Ameila Island Auction. It is the only 427 S/C that doesn't have sidepipes.