[What'saCobra?]

289 Sports
Well, Trevor thinks, and he is far from alone on this, that the availability of a Kirkham 289 Sports would be a seller in Europe and i think it would be superfine here. Light weight, SB engine, upgraded engineering from your wonderful parts bin, handling champion, ...well, you get the idea. We have been yaking about it on another thread.

427 Cobra FIA homologation
i should have been more precise. The 427 was never homologated in the GT category, because not enough cars were proved manufactured to the FIA's satisfaction, to qualify for the 100 minimum limit, in 1965 or 1966.

(Very long story here about not only the Cobra 427, but also the Ferrari LM, which they tried to palm off to the FIA as a "re-engined" 250GT, both of which had too few copies at the time. Although by 1967 there certainly were enough 427/8 cars made, but FORD had withdrawn their money from the Cobras in 1965, so CS wasn't going to pay for it and no euroweenie stepped up to the plate to pay for the FIA homologation of an uncompeditive car either.)

So, if FORD were going to run the 427 Cobra at Le Mans as a back up in 1965 or 1966, they would have had to run in Sports Car (sort of like prototype or modified) category, which allowed almost unlimited mods and upgrades to cars, where in larger engines were not a problem. For instance, this is were the Chapparal's ran.

The 427 Cobra in Europe would have had to run against McLarens, Chapparal's, Porche 904's, and of course the far better aerodynamic GT40's. After all, even here in the USA, the SCCA homologation was not complete in 1965, so they also had to run in Sports Car in USRRC, rather than GT.

But, i could see that the team might want to fill an entry, if enough cars crashed in practice, just to baby one for 24 hours and finish, even in the Sports Car class. Sort of a back up to the back up sort of thing. The le Mans Club de l'Ouest has always been pretty unpredictable, perhaps it might have floated.

So, it may be that papers exist for the 427's in FIA's Sports Car class...but, the cars would have had no chance at winning, since they would have been completely outclassed.

i have never heard of anyone that claimed such papers existed...but that isn't exact proof they aren't around somewhere is it?

Good luck on your search, i hope they exist somewhere and please post them if you find them.