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The AC Cobra (known in the USA as the Shelby Cobra and the Ford Cobra) was a British sports car built between 1962 and 1968. The AC Cobra resulted after the Texan racer, Carroll Shelby, approached AC Cars with an idea for fitting a 4.2 litre Ford V-eight engine into the light AC Ace sports car to make a competition racing car. The AC Cobra was produced with various engines between 4261 and 6997 cc capacity with power between 164 and 490 bhp providing a top speed of between 218 and 290 kmh. In 1967 the AC Cobra with seven-litre engine, won the record as the fastest accelerating production car, reaching 0-60 mph in 4.2 seconds.
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The black snake (Coluber constrictor) is a common non-venomous snake found in the USA. It is about five feet long and is so agile it was nicknamed the Racer. It feeds on small animals and birds and was used for catching rats. In Australia the black snake is a popular name for Pseudechis porphyriacus, a highly poisonous species allied to the cobra.
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Crab is a popular name for crustacea of the sub-order Brachyura and to many of the Anomura of the order Decapoda. The true crabs (Brachyura) are characterised by having a small abdomen and the head and breast are united, forming the cephalothorax, and the whole is covered with a strong carapace.
The mouth has several pairs of strong jaws, in addition to which the stomach has its internal surface studded with hard projections for the purpose of grinding the food. The stomach is popularly called the 'sand-bag'; a little behind it is the heart, which propels a colourless lymph (the blood) to the gills (' dead man's fingers'). The liver is the soft, rich yellow substance, usually called the fat of the crab. They 'moult' or throw off their calcareous covering periodically.
They have ten legs, of which the first pair are modified as claws, and the remaining pairs are used for locomotion. There are many genera, distinguished from the lobster and other macrurous or long-tailed decapods by the shortness of their tail, which is folded under the body. Their eyes are compound, with hexagonal facets, and are pedunculated, elongated, and movable. Like most individuals of the class, they easily lose their claws, which are as readily renewed. They are generally scavengers, living on decaying animal matter, though others live on vegetable substances, as the racer-crabs of the West Indies, which suck the juice of the sugar-cane.
Most crabs inhabit the sea, others fresh water, some the land, only going to the sea to spawn. Of the crabs several species are highly esteemed as an article of food, and the fishery constitutes an important trade on many coasts. The large edible crab (Cancer pagurus) is common on the British shores, and is much sought after.
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The Southern Black Racer (Coluber constrictor priapus) also known as the Southern Racer, Black Racer, Black Snake and Pilot Snake is a typical snake of the subfamily Colubrinae, family Colubridae found in North America that feeds on small mammals and reptiles and grows to an average length of 150 centimetres.
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Barry Sheene was an English motorcycle racer. He was born in 1950 at London and died in 2003 of throat cancer. He was 500cc world champion in 1976 and 1977, riding for Suzuki, though he was perhaps best loved for his natural good looks, charm and survivability, enduring horrendous crashes during his career. In 1978 he was awarded the MBE . After suffering a terrible crash in 1982 (he smashed into a bike lying across the Silverstone track during a British Grand Prix practice) in which both his legs were rebuilt with metal pins and plates, he retired from motorcycle racing in 1984 and moved to Australia where he became a television star - though he returned to win the Jester International Classic race on a Molnar FWD Manx at Donnington park, England in July 2001.
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Donald Campbell was a British soldier. He was born in 1735 and died in 1763. While he was stationed at Detroit he met with Pontiac, who was then besieging the city, in conference. Donald Campbell was treacherously not permitted to return, and was tortured to death by the Indians.
Donald Campbell was a British speed racer. He was born in 1921 and died in 1967. The son of Malcolm Campbell. He broke the world water speed record on Ullswater in 1955.
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Jean-Claude Killy was a French ski racer. He was born in 1944. He dominated ski racing from 1966 to 1968, winning the downhill and the combined gold medals at the 1966 world championship at Portillo, Chile and later three gold medals at the Grenoble Olympic Games in 1968 after which he turned professional.
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Billy Gray is an American motorcycle racer and former actor. He was born in 1938.
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In military terminology, a racer is one of the circular iron or steel rails on which the chassis of a heavy gun is turned.
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The Corby Starlet was an Australian, amateur-built single-seater ultra-light monoplane designed and built by John Corby and entered into the 1964 Midget Racer Design Contest at Croydon, England, where it was placed eighth. The Corby Starlet was a low-wing cantilever monoplane of wooden construction powered by an Agusta MV GA 40 two-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine providing a top speed of 176 kmh.
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The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia
Southampton, United Kingdom
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