This could have been the 1965 Ford Cobra...

[computerworks]

This could have been the 1965 Ford Cobra...

While looking at the neat video clip that was posted recently of the 2005 Mustang, Ford GT and the new Kinda-Cobra-Concept car, I thought it was interesting that these new developments seem to come in "three's"

I remembered reading something a while ago about the rash of early concept cars that came from Ford in the early 60's and led up to the 1964 1/2 Mustang. So, I hit the books and did some research and turned up a fantastic bit of Cobra history mixed up in there.

When Iacocca took over, he commissioned the styling teams at the Ford and Lincoln-Mercury divisions to come up with 2-seater concepts. In addition, Iacocca formed the Fairlane Group (composed of eight to ten Ford managers and representatives from, surprisingly, the J. Walter Thompson, Ford's ad agency) to set overall corporate design policy. The Fairlane Group met weekly at the Fairlane Inn Motel to explore the existing and developing markets for youthful sports/personal cars. Within just a few months, 13 "in-house" dream cars (all initially code-named the Allegro) were designed and mocked up in several configurations -- including two-passenger, four-passenger and 2+2 arrangements.

This group produced the Mustang I



Following that, in 1962, came THREE concept cars called the second-generation "X-cars".

They were the Allegro, the Mustang II and the Cougar II

The Allegro...



The Mustang II...



..and, finally, the Cougar II...



So...where's the Cobra connection, you ask?

"The Cougar II, the third of the X-Car group, was named after the full-wing Cougar I which preceded it by a scant 18 months. It was the most radical of the first three show cars and was not based upon an established Ford platform. Instead, the iridescent candy red car was constructed on AC-Cobra tube frame (Chassis #CSX2004) obtained from the newly-created Carroll Shelby Enterprises in California. However, the chassis set up had to be modified: To clear the hood, the high-performance Ford engine was moved rearward in the chassis. Intended as a response to the powerful and lithe Ferrari, it was the most competition-oriented of the first three X-Cars."

Ford grabbed one of the first CSX2000 cars (CSX2004) and used the chassis as the platform for this very stylized "Vette-killer".

More views...









The design effort was done under the scrutiny of Eugene Bordinat, VP and head of design at Ford.
A remarkable postscript is that Gene Bordinat did one more car based on the Cobra... only this one was a roadster.
Known as the Bordinat Cobra, it is said that he drove this around for a year or so after it was completed.

Today, it's whereabouts is unknown.

Many sources say it was done on CSX2005, but that has been refuted by the SAAC Registry, indicating that CSX2005 was and stayed an AC-bodied Cobra. So what CSX car was it based on??

Not many pics exist of the roadster...but this cover sheet shows a very handsome car...



"Gene Bordinat directed the styling studio to create a second version of the Cougar II for him....
...He wanted a dream car of his own, much as Bill Mitchell was then doing over at General Motors and what Harley Earl had done earlier. Always interested in innovation and good styling, Bordinat’s customized X-Car was a stunning statement of the kind of nimble, drop-top Ford sports car that could be created. Called alternatively the XD Cobra or, more authentically, the Bordinat Cobra, this iridescent honey gold iteration of the Cougar II was a beautiful roadster with a body fashioned from Royalex -- a miracle "memory" material that recovered from minor dents. The Bordinat Cobra was also built on a Cobra chassis, #CSX2005, and, like the coupe, required the Ford small block motor to be set back in the frame to clear the low hood line. Although it was in many ways a "dream car," the Bordinat/XD Cobra was never a part Ford's second-generation X-Car program, and its whereabouts today is unknown. Apocryphal evidence and urban legends suggest that Bordinat used the car regularly -- at least for a year or so. Regardless, the Bordinat Cobra was an important part of the Ford Division’s wonderfully creative explosion of practical but still dramatically-styled concept cars that directly precipitated the production Ford Mustang. "

(Thanks to the Lynx Project, a cause dedicated to early Mercury concept vehicles, for most of the data herein.)