What old Cobra did I drive?
 

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!

I am no historian but your question puzzled me so I did some searching and found this car:

http://www.rmauctions.com/CarDetails...Z10&CarID=r202

Read the story, it says that the car was raced in Nassau and then came back into the ownership of S&C Motors (which a search says was S&C Ford) in SFO. Maybe the same car? If so, definitely one-of-a-kind.

EDIT>> The RM article says the car went unsold for $1.45M this past January. You shoulda maybe traded that Vette sir.

Good work... I believe he did indeed take a drive in CSX2196. :p
(the big Webers seem to cinch that)

...does this bring back a memory image? ;)

Thanks guys for the info.

I had already checked out the info on the "flip-to", but I don't think this was the car. For one thing, the car I drove had huge Weber carbs with vertical stacks on them. The flip was a 4 barrel car. I also vaguely remember opening a stock sized hood to check out the engine before starting. Good thing I did, because the car would never have started with the tennis balls in the stacks. Except for the red fire handle, the dash looks right, with only the tach in front of the driver. But I remember the car I drove had a fire extinguisher in the cockpit. I did not remember the name, but now definitely believe that S&C Ford was where I drove the car. I got the keys from a salesman in the dealership. He then took me to a row of garages behind the dealership, where the car was. I remember that he said the car belonged to the son of owner of the dealership.

As far as what the car is worth now, that doesn't bother me. I have owned a 1955 Mercedes Gullwing (paid $5500 for it in New York City!), a 1963 Fiat Abarth Bialbero and my wife's 1964 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso (paid $7000 for it in Westchester, NY). All of them were sold at a profit, althought they are now worth much, much more. I raced two Corvette's, a 1963 and 1965, a Volvo P544 and an Alfa Romeo Giullieta Sprint Zagato.

I flew aerobatics in a Citabria in the 1960's, drag raced boats on the Sacramento river, sky dived for a while, turned to motorcycles in my mid-50's (no cruisers, just hot sport bikes), until my wife made me stop my knee dragger runs on weekends. Now, when I have time, I fly my helicopter for fun.

Life has been real good for this old guy!

Thanks for your help and research.