Club Cobra - 1965 Mercer Cobra

Club Cobra (http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/)

- ALL COBRA TALK (http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/all-cobra-talk/)

- - 1965 Mercer Cobra (http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/all-cobra-talk/83355-1965-mercer-cobra.html)

1965 Mercer Cobra

In 1965 the American Copper Development Association decided to produce a show car.
The design of Virgil Exner Sr was chosen, and a chassis (VIN: CSX 2451) of a Shelby Cobra was lengthened 18 inches, and coachbuilder Sibona-Basano from Torino, Italy built the body.
General William Lyon is the owner today and he lives in Orange County, CA on 160 acres. In 1987 he spent 26 million dollars to buy the last 80 cars from the Bill Harrah's Collection in Las Vegas. He owns 12 Duesenbergs. Has about 40 cars in a 'museum' near his house and another 80 or so in a barn nearby. He is 84 years old and flies his own Gulfstream IV, his own B-17 and B-26. His family owns a large 'estate' construction business(homes for rich folks). He was a Major General in the Air Force Reserve after ferrying bombers in WWII.

Below you will find some recent pictures of the Mercer Cobra taken by a friend at a recent book signing for Virgil Exner Sr, in these pictures you will see the extensive use of copper and brass. I hope you enjoy the pictures of this really rare Cobra the Mercer Cobra. In the third picture you will see the three gauges above the steering wheel that never did work but if you look to the right at the small grille, behind this grille you will see the gauges that actually monitored the 289 in the engine compartment.

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...MADLE15451.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...MADLE15453.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...MADLE15391.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...MADLE15450.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...MADLE15389.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...MADLE15456.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...MADLE15463.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...MADLE15461.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...MADLE15466.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...MADLE15468.jpg

Great pictures of an interesting car :)

Dan -

GREAT pictures! Thanks for sharing!

Jeff

I’m glad you enjoy the pictures of a very unusual car.
I have to credit the pictures taken to a friend from Switzerland Peter Madle who runs the Stutz Blackhawk web site. Another local friend who I first met because he owns a West Coast Cobra who also owns now 5 different model years of the Stutz revival cars also designed by Exner Sr. sponsored Peter’s trip to the states and if you follow the link below you can follow Peter & Jim’s trip.

http://www.madle.org/stutzian07.htm

No perky butt on this car.

jack

I always enjoyed Virgil Exner's exercises during the 50s and 60s ( he probably goes back further than that), although I never thought this car improved on the Cobra. I think it wasn't too long after this that he presented a car of similar lines to Motor Trend, as a car he intended to produce for the exclusive market. I remember it had 2 unique "flyswatter" type spoilers on the rear.They were at opposite sides and were activated when the car went over a certain speed and also worked in conjunction with the steering, similar to flaps on a plane. They were an open "waffle" pattern, that he explained didn't become functional until the air molecules were flowing fast enough to cause it to act as a solid. I don't recall the name of the car, but it graced the Motor Trend cover in late '65/early'66. I think it may have had disc brakes similar in construction to aircraft ones as well, lots of neat stuff on it. I don't ever recall seeing the prototype, so it may have never gotten off the drawing board. Very interesting person.

The American Copper Development Association chose the Exner design and it was Virgil’s attempt at showing what a Mercer would look like if it was still making cars in 1965 and its only reference to the name Mercer Cobra was that they purchased a CSX frame and 289 engine from Shelby to build on. Check out the pictures of other CSX framed cars that Ron posted at FFCOBRA

http://www.ffcobra.com/ubb/ultimateb.../t/097687.html