Well, I must admit I am a tad bit embarassed to have lost out to the Superformance in this comparision. Now for "the Rest of the Story"......
This Superformance is owned by a friend of mine. We got together at an all-Ford drag strip event a few years ago and he casually challenged me to a drag race. I had the 289 with the street Michelin XWX's on it, hardly good traction.
Well, the fact is that I romped his ass big time. You should have heard the excuses, which changed every few minutes. "missed a shift", "tires were cold", "wind shear"(hot air maybe!), and then, he really got hot when I told him that my Weber equipped "289" was really a 347 stroker. "Well, that's why I lost!"
OK.
It was all in good fun and I think he did miss a shift.
However, he was quite perturbed that he had lost to a 289, so he went home, yanked out the engine and proceeded to build an engine that would "beat you next time!".
Well, we haven't met at the drag strip since, but he beat me in this comparison and I wasn't even there! I had to work, so my friend and fellow Cobra owner, Tom Cotter, drove up and picked up CSX 3288 and took it home for the comparison. That's him in all the photos with my car. It was very nice of him to arrange the comparison and go to the trouble of spending a day getting my car and handling all the details.
Factory Five was the first consideration and if we had done the comparison at VIR as first planned, that is probably is what would have been used. But that didn't work out so it was going to be at Road Atlanta before the Walter Mitty races, but that didn't work either, then Daytona,(or the other way around), so we ended up in Davidson, NC and Mike's Superformance is a wonderful car and was readily available and he was lying in wait for me all these years, the rascal!
So, there you have it. By the way, shortly after this photo shoot, I drove the car to a great auto event in Roanoke Va where George Barris was the honored guest. Friday night was a street cruise modeled after Woodward Ave in Detroit, and on Saturday they closed off the center of Downtown Roanoke and had a wonderful display of cars and thousands of spectators.
I drove up to see George Barris, who painted my car when it was new, according to the Shelby Registry and the early owners. I wasn't sure how I would get to meet him but I thought I'd give it a try. It was only a 2 hr drive and the car ran great.
As I pulled in to the registration area on Main St. I heard a voice say, "Jim Maxwell, what are you doing here?" It was a good friend of mine whose daughter was best friends with my daughter as kids, but they had moved away to Roanoke. She offered to sell me a ticket to see George Barris at the end of the day, so I bought one. Then I asked her if there was any way I could get a personal "audience" with George. Well, it turns out the entire event was organized by her brother, a major car collector, and her job was to drive Mr. Barris around all day. Amazing!
She had George Barris at my car almost before I had finished parking it. He said he remembered the car and he admired the pearl white paint and began to describe how he did it but then got interrupted. I got him to sign the glovebox on the inside, he signed the Shelby Registry section that mentions him painting the car and then he signed a document saying that Barris Kustom painted the car in early 1967. He told some great stories and was as gracious as he could be.
As you will read in the article, I have great admiration for replica Cobras. Some of my quotes may not be popular with the owners of originals, but I just said what I think. I have to say that my 428 powered Cobra is not nearly as powerful as some of the original 427 cars that have had their motors rebuilt to modern standards, and even an original real 427 engined car should outrun me by a little.
I was glad that Mike won the comparison. He has a wonderful car, and it seems he didn't miss any shifts this time!
