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The car is Aurora, chassis #151;
one of about 163 Cobra variants made
in Richmond, Ontario, Canada in
1984. I bought it in 1987 with 24,000
miles on it. During the first years of
ownership, encountering a “real” AC
Cobra made me wish I had one of
those, but over the years that feeling
passed as I found this car is appreci-
ated for what it is, an easy-to-drive,
comfortable, street car and a well-
made one. It now has 119,500 miles on
it and is ready for another 100,000. I
would have bought an original 289
Cobra if I could have afforded one at
the time, but I’m not sure I would have
enjoyed it more. Certainly I could not
now because 289 Cobras have become
so valuable and are not so robust or
easy – or inexpensive – to repair.
Aurora Cars used new compo-
nents available in the 1980s that were
required by the U.S. EPA and DOT to
legally manufacture and import new
cars into the United States and sell
them both direct and through new car
dealerships. The car resembles a 289
Cobra, but is different underneath
where a dual-plane space frame is sus-
pended independently by adjustable
coil overs. Possibly the world’s shortest
drivetrain ends with a Salisbury rear,
as used in Jaguars and Corvettes of
the era, with inboard rear brakes sim-
ilar to an E-Type Jag. The body is
hand-laid fiberglass epoxied to the
frame. It makes a robust package that
doesn’t flex as much as you might ex-
pect, and has held up well to stress
over use and time.
I replaced the original Mustang
302 GT HO, with a 5.0 motor I built up
from a stock, junkyard bottom end, a
set of aluminum heads, custom made
Tri-Y headers and a Holley carburetor.
It is no longer one of the fastest cars
on the road as it was when I installed
this motor in 1993, at an honest 2,300
lbs. with 290 horsepower to the rear
wheels on a chassis dyno. It’s fast
enough to be fun. Since the front end
weighs only 1,025 lbs. it turns in like
the light front end car that it is.
Aurora fabricated wishbones for
the rear with Mustang II upper arms
and Mustang lower control arms in
the front. The advantage of this com-
bination of unequal length control
arms is an excellent camber curve that
makes for great road-holding. Bits and
pieces that wear out, like bushings,
bearings, and ball joints were replaced
a few years ago, whether they needed
replacing or not. It’s a sweet-handling
little car that accelerates and corners
fast enough to get you in trouble or
just have fun.
I enjoyed more than 15 years of
track driving the car. It wouldn’t win
any vintage races, even though I can
be entered now that so many valuable
original cars no longer come to the
tracks, but I suppose I could enter it
as a “tribute car.” Now 32 years old, it
is vintage. I drive to the track, run it
there and drive home, just like they
did in the old days. I go on all-day
tours like this one and on several day
tours with no drama. That’s more than
I think I deserve from a car that cost
so little to buy and drive. I remember
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Summer 2016 84