SAAC-28 Pictures

[RICK LAKE]

Jim Maxwell Jim the cars are beautiful. It's nice to see someone drive these cars, however a 200,000$ car of this caliper would make me too jerky and nervous to enjoy driving on the street. Tool kit, where's the safety wire, big brass hammer, and bubblegum? I think only Linn Park has more cars than you. Where did the mistery car come from? Thats a first. Take care of the collection and your family. The cars are great too. Rick Lake ps Any racing history with your cars??

[computerworks]

...just got a few rolls of film back.
(...film? remember that stuff?)

They staged a group photo of the original Cobras in the Victory Lane area of the track on Sunday; here are a few views:











Worth noting, CSX2367, this green 289, was purchased in 1964 by the guy who brought the car... one owner since new.



This is CSX3049, an original S/C... it is now one of the prototypes donating details to KMP178.
..purchased by the current owner in 1970.

[RACERAL]

Now the mission is to get Jim to come to the SPRING FLING.. I'm gonna start working on him..

[Jim Maxwell]

Rick, My cars are all street versions, none with any race history. 2149 was originally owned by Dr. Bryan Molloy, one of the brilliant chemists who invented Prozac for Eli Lilly company. He won many illustrious awards for his research.
2401 and 3288 each had several owners prior to me. Two prior owners of 3288 have or did have original GT40's in their stables, and the man I bought it from at one time had THREE GT350 R models, all original!!!!
2401 was once owned by J J Rodman, a very early Cobra fanatic and collector who had numerous Cobras years ago.
I have heard that Lynn Park has ~ 11 original Cobras, so I have some catching up to do. There are several other collectors that have multiple Cobras, but I suspect that I drive mine more than most others do. Of course, that may say something bad about my sanity and judgment.
Ron, thanks for posting the pictures. The world of original 289 Cobras is small indeed! I used to own the red Cobra (of which you can only see a portion, with the number "2" showing), CSX 2492, my very first purchase. I bought it from Chic Ford, who had the metallic blue car "Real Cobra" CSX 2497, which I tried to buy instead of 2492. Chic also had 2260,. an original FIA car, which was recently sold for $810,000 !!!! The history of that car in the Registry has been documented by two separate automotive historians to be incorrect. The Registry suggests it was made of the remains of two race cars, but the accidents mentioned in the "history" were actually a year apart rather than weeks, and examination of the car shows no evidence of being pieced together, as suggested. Extensive documentation and photographs have been found to refute the prior "history". We'll see what the next edition of the Registry has to say.

[Nedsel]

Jim:

I have been enjoying your convention pictures and hope you got the chance at SAAC-28 to meet/ talk with Joe Angeleri, who bought 2367 new in '66. We used to get together in the early '70's for a variety of then "Cobra Club" activities when we both lived in NJ. This was shortly after I had conned your brother Ed out of his 289!

I also noted you got the chance to talk with Chic Ford, who recently sold CSX 2260. He is correct in stating the Registry incorrectly listed 2260 as the crashed remains of two cars, but he apparently neglected to mention a few related details. The genesis of the history of his car came from Radford Racing, who bought the car as a former Shelby American team car in '65. When they sold it two years later, following several crashes, the buyer here in the U.S. wrote to Radford and asked why the car didn't have the ususal FIA features like cutback doors and large, rounded rear flares. Their chief mechanic, Pip Preece, replied that they had rebuilt the car with a modified street rear clip (including doors) after having given it a new chassis in '66! No one doubted his story, and successive owners relied on this information, including Chic. When the car was finally brought to a restoration facility in West Virginia several years ago, lots of accident-related repairs and remaining damage was evident once the body and inner panels were removed. This caught the attention of a friend of the restorer, who recognized that what might have made the car more valuable in '67 - i.e. claims it had a new chassis - made it less so today, but that if it retained its original chassis, its value would be greatly enhanced. The result of his efforts led to the car's being inspected in West Virginia by a mumber of people, including Bill Murray, Geoff Howard, Stewart Hall, and myself. We each concluded the chassis was the original rather than a replacement. A buyer materialized quickly and has consigned the car to a new shop for a complete restoration. All of this information will be included in the next SAAC Cobra Registry.

[computerworks]

Hello Ned... great to see you posting here!
..please check in now and then.

(Ned manages the Cobra section of the Registry for SAAC)

[Specialk]

Thanks for the info Ned. That always sounded a little strange to hear how they rebuilt 2260.

It is good to see you posting here.

[ToyCollector]

Great contribution Ned. I am sure you hold many more precious tidbits like that.

[Jim Maxwell]

Ned, I'm glad to hear that you and the others have inspected 2260. I got my information from Rinsey Mills (about the history of the car) and from Shaun Lowry (about the sale), not from Chic. Chic had never indicated to me that he had concerns about the Registry history. In fact, when I last talked to him about 2260, last month, he downplayed the significance of the car, saying that "it had never won anything important". I am sure he is thrilled that the history as currently known shows that his wife had a non-re-chassised car. I know the new owner is thrilled to have it. I wish I could have found a way to buy it, but its hard to sleep a family of 5 in a Cobra comfortably!
Thanks for the information. Ed and Tom Cotter and I missed seeing you at SAAC-28. Maybe next year. I hope graduation went well.
Joe Angeleri and his brother were great to speak with at SAAC-28. One of them told me of an encounter between 2306 and a Pantera in the parking lot at one of these get togethers. Something about the poor visibility out of the back of a Pantera, and how you were not particularly happy about the backing skills of the Pantera driver!!!

[mrmustang]

Hey Ned,

Ok, I'm behind the times....When did you move out of NJ??? Then again, why didn't Alec G. or Vinny L. let me know that the last time I saw them...............


Bill S.

[Nedsel]

Jim: My daughter's graduation went well, thanks. I'm still not sure I agree with my wife's insistence that this was more important than getting to SAAc-28, but this was a good argument to lose. (It'll pay dividends down the road...) I am sorry to have missed you, Ed, & Tom, not to mention Joe, who is clearly beginning to show the strains of his age (ha ha, Joe) when he suggests it was 2306 that the Pantera backed into. Uh uh - it was Ed Rosenblum's maroon CSX2581, remember? 2306 was parked well away from this debacle!

And Bill: Sorry to have missed the goodbyes. It was 6 years ago that I abandoned the so-called Garden State. Too much down-time for the cars during the winter!

[map]

Ned The post you made on the History of CSX-2260 is not correct.

the buyer here in the U.S. wrote to Radford and asked why the car didn't have the ususal FIA features like cutback doors

The original cut back doors were always on 2260 even w/ the street rear clip there was a body section added to the doors to fit the the street body. ( I have pics from 1973 w/ the cut back doors w/ the street rear clip w/ extra section added ) And you looked at 2260 did it have the correct 2260 stamped on the door hinge mount ? Vic claimed the # were stamped on the door frames w/ the added section of skin.
This will add another interesting fact to a clouded past!


Mike/Map

[mr bruce]

Wasn't 2260 run with the "squared off" rollbar,Targo-Florio?

[map]

Hey Bruce you mean this one !

Mike/Map

[Nedsel]

Actually, the quote on 2260 was precisely correct. The point is that the buyer of the car had to ask Radford Racing why the car didn't have the reverse angle cut into the rear of the doors to match an FIA rear fender opening, which the car also lacked. From the buyer's perspective (in '67), how the doors were built wasn't the issue - to him, they looked like street doors, as he didn't realize they were modified from the original ones. And, looking at them from the exterior, he was right: they had a rounded rear section just like a standard door. Having examined them since, I can verify that the correct number stampings were still on the hinges of both doors, as were the holes for the lights to illuminate the numbers in its earlier racing days which seemed to correspond to the placement of the lights in photographs from the '64 season. So, if we get beyond the issue of semantics, we have no new facts here: the doors looked like street doors even though you could see they had been modified from the cutback design. The buyer's question was simply "Why?"