Quote:
Originally Posted by deckofficer
I'm sure you meant an AC Cobra, rare as they are. Since I'm not well versed (yet) with identifying a Cobra from the many fine replicas, I'm not sure if this one is the real deal. I saw it in Portsmouth, England around 1998. The dash makes me think replica.
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You are correct. That car is a Dax - a popular and enduring British Cobra replica that, interestingly, was designed by and named after the very man who designed the original AC Ace that spawned the Cobra. His Name was John Tojeiro.
My first actual sighting was in the summer of 1983 (I think) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was a beautiful black 289 roadster, top up, with a red interior and wire wheels. I was driving an '82 Trans Am at the time and it came up fast from behind and hung alongside briefly before exiting gracefully up an offramp and disappearing from view. I was used to seeing exotics in Edmonton (Alberta was booming with
oil money) but that Cobra really unsettled me. I saw the same car again around 1985 and found out that it was an original CSX2XXX car owned by a local businessman.
My first close encounter came a couple of years later in Orange County, California. I was attendind a convention with an engineer colleague and we spotted a yellow and black 427 sitting on an exotic car lot as we drove by. I was into Vettes by then and had an '86 coupe. My buddy Steve had a 944 and was a hardcore Porschephile and we had a real bantering rivalry going on. We swung into the lot and got out, and we both walked around and around the Cobra in silence. It was a great looking fiberglass replica with a 427, yellow paint with black stripes and a black leather interior. Neither one of us spoke much for the next few blocks after finally driving away. I had this feeling somewhere in the pit of my stomach that I would definitely end up owning a Cobra.