My Velocity blog on how a ride in a cobra changed my life

[lamaluv]

It's 1965 in Sun Valley, Idaho and two high school seniors are watching a 289 Cobra beating the sox of of Jags, Corvettes and everything else at a sports car event. It's all we can talk about for the whole weekend. My friends mom says "so you think the Cobra was cool" and we respond with it was the coolest car we had ever seen. About an hour later a 427 Cobra rumbles up the driveway of their summer cabin. It seems that his mom just happened to know a guy that had just got a new Cobra and he was here to give a couple of very excited high schoolers rides. A weekend that I will never forget. The seed had been planted and it only took me 40 years to get my Cobra replica.

[Skuzzy]

In 1967 my Dad owned an auto parts store. At the end of the block was an A&W drive-in. Back in those days those drive-ins were where all the cruisers would hang on Friday and Saturday nights.

We always went there on Fridays as Dad had a chopped/channeled 54 Ford with hopped up flathead V-8. Tha car was pretty awesome, in if itself.

One night in 67 a Cobra pulls up beside us and I was hooked. Been dreaming of owning one since that night. Finally picked up my kit last week. It will be a while before I can drive it, but it is happening and I cannot stop smiling about it.

[86Sebring]

I first read about cobras in a Hot rod magazine and was totally hooked, reading the cobra story back and forth almost every day, I was still a teenager, buying one was not an option back then, so I started looking in bookstores newsstands for cobra articles and just devoured them. Took a good 20 years to finally afford one.
btw: the first encounter with a muscle car that blew me away was a Dodge Challenger. I saw it pulled over to the side of the road with the driver working on it under the hood. I was on my bicycle and the shape of that car just totally lit something in me, I must have just stood there like a statue for a long time just staring at that incredible automobile. Then a neighbor with a 340 Duster gave me a ride in his car and that was it, I was hooked on screaming V8's.

[brandx]

I saw my first cobra in 1967 at an autocross event in the parking lot of the local shopping center. It was a 289 slabside. I didn,t know exactly what it was until I saw an article in a car magazine. Always wanted one but no money. Got a 67 gt500 wnen I was 19. Finally got my cobra 35 years later. That was 2 years ago. Was most likley better off that way. I might not have survived a cobra any sooner in life.

[kvisser]

Originally Posted by brandx

I saw my first cobra in 1967 at an autocross event in the parking lot of the local shopping center. It was a 289 slabside. I didn,t know exactly what it was until I saw an article in a car magazine. Always wanted one but no money. Got a 67 gt500 wnen I was 19. Finally got my cobra 35 years later. That was 2 years ago. Was most likley better off that way. I might not have survived a cobra any sooner in life.

Well said. What was the percentage of Cobra owners that didn't make their second payment?

A 67 GT500 at the age of 19 must have made it difficult to stay on the right side of the law.

great stories, keep 'em coming.

regards

ken

[Got the Bug]

The first Cobra that I saw was owned by professional golfer Ken Venturi. He lived around the corner from me when I was growing up in Menlo Park, CA. We also had a neighbor who lived a couple of houses away that had a 289 Cobra.

Here's a post I made back in 2006 with some of the details.

Carroll Shelby Tribute thread. Be a part of it.

I did a Google search and found a page from a 1997 Christie's auction where the car sold for $222.5K

1965 A.C. SHELBY COBRA 427