Dragonsnakes now??

[Art Hughes]

Interesting reading the whole thread. Didn't do that last time here.
I had posted earlier that I was trying to establish the exact year that Bob Johnson ran his Cobra road racer at a drag strip.
I will go with summer of 1961. If I am wrong, only option is 1962.
Fresh out of High School, Jan, 1960, went to work at a British car dealer. The head Tech/Service manager, Bernie Decker, was a long time friend of Johnson, and wrenched on his road race cars, which I believe was only on Bob's Formula BMC Junior. ( saw it on my first visit to Johnson'd shop, hanging on the wall) Don't remember if Decker wrenched on Johnson's Corvette.
Tom Gratoex (sp) was Johnsons Cobra wench, and also friends with my boss. I was young and dumb, and thought only drag racing was a real auto sport, and whined about it so often to Decker, that a Cobra at the drags would be a real hoot, so Decker made it happen. They put MG TC wire wheels and top on the Cobra. We went to West Salem, Ohio, Draway 42.
Can't remember any details about the races, why I don't know.
I tried several emails to the strip, and finally they answered that no records exsist from that time frame.
The day it was at the drag strip, still had the road race #33 on it's doors. That can be seen in the only picture I have of it, taken that day. Berine Decker died several years ago, so no help there, and Bob Johnson suffered a stroke, and is in a nursing home. Don't know his condition, except was told he is paralyzed on one sode.

[bbrown]

Right you are Hal.

The blue Dragonsnake picture posted by Tony is currently owned by Drew Serb. He did the restoration over a period of several years. The vandals left the car in pretty rough shape (but I wouldn't call it destroyed) and Drew had to replace/rebuild some of the frame and superstructure. Drew did a very careful restoration, only replacing bits and pieces when the original truly couldn't be salvaged. I've known other "restorers" who would replace entire frames, etc. simply because it's faster and cheaper.

I have had the privilege of watching the car take shape these last few years and I must say that, all in all, the true history of the car remains. Drew did a wonderful job and a piece of history has returned to be shown in public.

Bert Brown
Danville CA

[computerworks]

Ed Hedrick was kind enough to share this trophy shot of CSX2093 in 1967.

[Cal Metal]

Special thanks to Ed Hedrick for being so kind to share his story and pictures. What a treat to have someone of Ed's stature on Club Cobra. What a great narrative and we will lean on him for some more stories, as I am sure there are many. Thanks again, Ed.

[PDHse]

I,ll second that. Excellelent picture Ed.

[computerworks]

Ed Hedrick has submitted a few more vintage images of CSX2093.

Here is CSX2093 at Niagra...



...a page from a magazine covering 1967 results. A nice shot of a "young" Ed and his Street Eliminator title.



Ed and CSX2093 at the Kendall Refinery...



Thanks, Ed!

[mrmustang]

Great shots..............


Bill S.

[Cal Metal]

Wonderful shots, Ron. Love those old PR photos. Really takes me back to the 60s. Thanks, too, Ed, for letting us post those. What a great looking car.

[PDHse]

Wow, great pictures Ed. Did you ever come up against other Cobras on the dragstrip? Also can you tell me was the Car the same colour as when Costillo/Larsen owned it.

[PDHse]

This is from Hot Rod December 1964.

[weston24]

To all in the group, I had the opportunity to watch Gus Zuydemia run both of the Harr Ford Cobras many times. I went to a Regional school in Orange Mass, we had a hot rod club one of the first in the country called the "Carbs" on the first Sunday of every Month they held drag races at the Orange airport. Gus would match race a guy from Worcester called Fred Cain with a Dodge hemi with the 289 Gus used to get a spot, at that time I also raced and we used flags no lights. When he got the 427 they raced even. As I look back it was one of the most exciting times of my life. I have a Shelby GT350 that was purchased by a friend, from Harr Ford that I am in the process of restoring. when I am done it will be on to some sort of Dragonsnake Cobra.

[bulletbrown]

To the history buffs, I hear a story about a east coast Ford dealer who had Ford cast some aluminum FE,s , is this true ? was it Harr Ford ? where they tried in a Cobra ?

[jsdonofrio]

I have Cobra csx 3196. How can I find out if my car came with a side oiler engine, or a center oiler?

[hurricaneharold]

Originally Posted by jsdonofrio

I have Cobra csx 3196. How can I find out if my car came with a side oiler engine, or a center oiler?

How about posting some pics of the car on here....

[computerworks]

Originally Posted by jsdonofrio

I have Cobra csx 3196. How can I find out if my car came with a side oiler engine, or a center oiler?

Nothing in the Registry to that effect.

We probably need to look at other cars bracketing the original ship date of 02/66.

It does note that by the early 70's it had an engine swap for a Boss 429.

[Power Surge]

Originally Posted by jsdonofrio

I have Cobra csx 3196. How can I find out if my car came with a side oiler engine, or a center oiler?

Being a late 65 car, I would think it should have a 427 side oiler.

Definitely an interesting history to this car. A former owner even claims at one point it had a Boss 429 in it.

EDIT: looks like Ron and I were typing at the same time

[DMXF]

Originally Posted by jsdonofrio

I have Cobra csx 3196. How can I find out if my car came with a side oiler engine, or a center oiler?

Jim, unless you have convincing evidence to the contrary, overwhelming odds are your car came with a 427 center oiler with 2x4 induction. With only maybe a couple of exceptions, virtually all 31XX cars were delivered with these engines. At about chassis number 3200 Shelby American switched to the 428 PI engines with 1x4 induction (a couple of 31XX cars were delivered with 428 engines as prototypes, which I recall were earlier 31XX chassis numbers). SA was building the cars in batches of 100, so parts contracts/orders were placed based on this plan and major changes tended to occur at the breakpoints 31XX to 32XX and 32XX to 33XX.

[rokndad]

saw a beat up Cobra today that was rumored to be a Dragonsnake

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Coincidence! I was at the Cars & Coffee meet in Irvine this Saturday and I saw a ratty Cobra
black , lots of dings, that somebody said was a Dragonsnake once. It was a small block.
It was owned by a Costa Mesa guy whose name is the same as a car dealer but I don't know if he is the car dealer since he seems to have aged from the guy I knew with the same name back in the day.
I took one picture , front 3/4, so let me know if you want to trade it for
a pic of a genuine AC Cobra from the UK. I don't know if it came out yet so contact me in a couple weeks (yes, I still shoot film and want to finish the roll...) to see if the picture came out. Be prepared to see a ratty car.

I was there as well. The car is CSX 2075 (although I couldn't confirm since he had the bonnet closed). But he did have some pics which I perused through which showed the car in several states of dress, always black. He said it was the first 2000 series to get a 289. There were pictures of the car at various dragstrips, most of which were in the Oregon area. The car had a 1960's-ish Oregon license plate purported to be original according to the owner. It had a Hurst Shifter with a vintage (haven't seen one of these orginals in years) Hurst line lock button strapped to the shifter. Magnesium wheels, and big street tires. Interior appeared to be original well worn leather, with carpeting that had badly torn exposing the aluminum floorboards. Black rollbar, bumperettes front and back, with a grille. Early Cobra badge (not AC) on the front end. Said he bought it about a year ago. Claimed it was a "barn find", but research apparently showed it up for some kind of sale around 2005. The owner said it went through a complete body work/paint overhaul in around 1974.

[computerworks]

Originally Posted by rokndad

I was there as well. The car is CSX 2075

Car was never a "Dragonsnake," in the literal sense. It was, however a "snake that did some draggin' "

Sold as a street car and seriously drag-raced in its early life, according to the SAAC Registry.

[Richard8971]

I have a couple recent pics of the CSX 3198. One was right before my boss at the time sold it (that's me sitting next to it) and the other is of Shelby himself next to the car. I believe Sam Pat owned (and still does) the car when the pic was taken.

Cool car, lots of cool stories and I'm glad I was able to contribute a small part to it's history.

Don