Quote:
Originally Posted by strictlypersonl
I wouldn't be surprised if the change of overall width was associated with the change from rectangular to round tail-lights.
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Maybe, I have no idea when anybody was aware that a tail lamp change was coming. If the idea was to create more clearance for round tail lamps and separate reflectors, they failed as clearance to the lenses got worse based on pictures of cars that have not been damaged in the rear.
The details that are visible looking at cars that haven't been bashed in the rear is that the shapes of Cobras and 427 Cobras bodies around the tail lamps are different. The apparent change in front to back dimensions is to get back bumper guard hoop to aluminum body clearance lost when the 427 Cobra shape became more stylized and extended the tail lamp area rearward a little.
Disclaimer. These slides below try to show as close as easy practical three chassis from approximately the same view point. The alignments aren’t perfect but they are good enough to illustrate the three versions for affect. I tried to get the relative scales between pairs close. I made a yellow line trace of the contour of the Cobra skin between bumper mount and tail lamp and copied it over the 427 Cobra pictures to further point out the general difference in shapes of the two type bodies.
