Quote:
Originally Posted by strat61caster
The Sunbeam Tiger was successful, same concept, but does it qualify as a "collaboration" when it's buying someone else's car and (essentially) tuning it? Does RUF or Brabus or (old) Abarth count as a collaboration? That's basically all Shelby is, a factory supported tuner. If GM had given him the money I'm sure we could all go out and buy Shelby Camaros today.
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I would consider it so because AC dropped the Ace right when they started working with Shelby to produce the Cobra in 1962. Neither could have produced such a car without help from the other. Just because the initial design of the Ace was developed before doesn't make Shelby's contribution any less significant.
Also, regarding Ruf (from wiki): Because the labor is so thorough, including the installation of Ruf-made parts instead of Bade Engineering, the company is recognized as a manufacturer by the German government.
While they are very closely tied to another manufacturer's base model, they are too different at heart to be classified simply as a "tuned" version. I would classify them as being a collaboration (albeit not a simultaneous one). It's a close call though, and you do bring up a valid point about what truly constitutes a "collaboration".
Also, what about the Callaway C16? Technically speaking, it's a Corvette, but is it
really a Corvette?