What old Cobra did I drive?

[ElderCobra]

Hi,

A fading memory that I was thinking about with some Cobra replica guys today.

In 1966 I was with the Air Force at Travis AFB. I drove a 1965 Corvette Fuelie. Looking at the paper I saw an add for a "street/race Cobra for sale" in the SFO paper. I drove to the Ford dealer, on Market near Van Ness. The Cobra was owned by the dealers son and was in a garage near the dealership.

When I opened the door, I found a blue 427 Cobra with white stripes, Halibrand knock off wheels with Stock Car Special tires. The car had only one drivers seat and a canvas seat on thin wires for the passenger. The engine had DCOE Weber carbs with strung tennis balls in them to keep the dirt out. The dash had flip switches labeled with a Dymo label maker. The engine was dry sump and required flipping the oil pump and gas pump switches on before starting. The trunk had a gas tank in it. The exhaust was not chromed and looked like rusted sewer pipes.

When I started the car and backed out of the garage, the idle was about 2000 rpm and shaking. On Market at Van Ness, the car stalled at a light and a street car came up beside me and people got off into the safety area. When the light changed, I punched the starter and 4 feet of flames shot out of the exhaust toward the people who had just gotten off the street car. Whoa!

I drove the car for a full day, thinking of trading the 'Vette for it. It was balls of fun, but totally useless on the street. I thought I was told it was part of the homologation group of cars for Nassau speed week and that it had around 650 HP.

At my age, the memory is no longer clear. Can anybody tell me what that car might have been? I think I could have bought it for $8300!