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.)

[RedBarchetta]

Cool history....thanks for sharing!!

-Deano

[bmalone]

That's interesting Ron. Knew about most of the stuff (concept cars), meetings, and design competitions, but the last piece is a new one on me. Thanks.

[CSX 4027]

I think Kirkham should make the coupe

[Excaliber]

That Mustang II looks familiar.....

Very cool piece of history you presented Ron, thanks!

Ernie

[Aussie Mike]

Hey, I think I saw a car like that last one sitting in a barn a while back. It was covered in dust and had flat tires but the farmer said I could have it for $200. I only had $150 on me at the time, I wonder if it's still there...

Cheers

[G.R.]

From the side view the Cougar II looks like a Corvette with Ford badging---but "real" ugly from the front and rear---good thing they didn't produce that "'Vette killer"---of Course today they'd be worth $xxxxtimes they sold for new for a year or so if they were produced before they were canned for lack of sales

[Turk]

Seems like everyone of the above designs are related to Corvette. Wonder which came first.

TURK

Good info ROn. Thanks.

[Aussie Mike]

I was reading an article on the Mustang 1 prototype a while back. From memory it was a very un-american style car for it's time. I think it had a tubular space frame chassis and a mid mounted V4 from the english Ford Corsair. There must have been a Ford europe connection in there some where. It looks like a neat light weight racy sports car, pitty they didn't make them.

Cheers

[Aussie Mike]

Great info Ron and a cool thread you've started.

Just did a search on the Mustang I and found this web page: Mustang Prototypes Interesting reading.

Cheers

[cobrajeff]

Ron -

Boy, you sure do know how to steal a guy's thunder! I have located the Bordinat Cobra and Cougar II, and am trying to make arrangements to have them on display at SAAC 29.

There is still a lot of confusion about which AC Cobra chassis are the basis for these cars. Earlier thoughts that they might be CSX 2004 and CSX2005 are in doubt. One is an early (transverse-leaf spring) chassis, and the other is a late (coil-spring) chassis.





During my thirty years at Ford, I was able to see both of these cars in the flesh. They have always been especially dear to me. When I was a teenager in high school, I sent a letter to Gene Bordinat (VP of Styling at Ford) requesting information on what colleges might be good for a guy who aspired to work at Ford as an automotive stylist. Accompanying the letter Mr. Bordinat sent back to me were press photos of the Bordinat Cobra and Cougar II. I was already a Cobra nut, and I thought (and STILL do) that the Bordinat Cobra was the prettiest Cobra I'd ever seen. Imagine my surprise when one day, ten years later, I find the car parked on the grass outside the building I was working in at Ford.

I'm collecting parts right now to fix-up the cars, and, if all goes well, you will be able to see both of them this summer at SAAC 29.

regards,
cobrajeff

[computerworks]

WOW! ...wow! ...wow, wow!

...and i wasn't peeking either!

If you can swing these for SAAC....fantastic!

Try and get some as-is pictures for this thread!.

The registry has another car "on the hoof" for 2004... ...built back up from a "crash"

The coil-spring roadster is really intriguing... with respect to which chassis it was based on.... can you look for stampings?

[computerworks]

More good stuff about the Cougar II Coupe...



In the Styling X-Cars brochure (shown above), the Cougar II was described as, "A two passenger GT car designed for ultra fast highway travel." The brochure continues its description, saying, "The Cougar II, powered by a 260 cu. in. high performance V-8 engine, could be engineered to attain speeds in the 170 miles-an-hour range."
The Cougar II sat on a 90 inch wheelbase, with an overall length of 167.8 inches. It was 47.8 inches in height and 66.6 inches wide. Front and rear tread widths were 50.5" and 52", respectively.

The Cougar II dream car made its debut during the 1963/64 show season and was a Cat of an entirely different breed. During this period the big news at Ford was the company's corporate backing of Carroll Shelby's AC Bristol-bodied, Ford-powered Cobra, so it was only natural that Ford's design folks--then under the direction of Eugene Bordinat--would commandeer a couple of Cobra chassis to play with. Among the body designs they came up with was a sleek fastback that became known as the Cougar II.

Among the futuristic features of the Cougar II were a brushed metal top (similar to the 1957/58 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham), "pop-up" headlights and an "air pressure relief panel" located between the tail lights. The purpose of this panel was to relieve pressure build up inside the car at high speed, thus preventing the rear window from blowing out--a problem Chrysler encountered in their early testing of the Barracuda design.



A photo (above) from the Styling X-Cars brochure gives us a better perspective on the scale of the Cougar II. Compare the size of the passengers to the overall size of the car. This Cobra-based Cat was not intended for drivers of large stature.

The styling brochure describes the interior of the Cougar II as having "an all black color scheme with two individually adjustable bucket seats, a console-mounted four-speed gear shift lever and a straight-line array of gauges on the instrument panel. The wood and aluminum steering wheel telescopes for and aft with three inches of adjustment.



This brochure diagram (above) shows the unique window lift mechanism, by which occupants of the Cougar II could instantly raise or lower the curved side glass to any position. A single handle with a spring loaded tab could be moved up or down a ratcheted track in the door panel. When the tab was released, the window was locked in place.



The Cougar II's pop-up headlights were each driven by a small electric motor, so that, "At the push of a button, cover plates pivot forward and down, and the headlamps swing into place. Raising or lowering the headlamps takes less than three seconds."



"When interior air pressure exceeds fifteen pounds per square inch, a relief panel across the rear of the passenger compartment opens automatically. This device is necessary because of extreme pressure against the backlight (rear window) at high speeds."

(Thanks to the Classic Cougar Network (http://www.theclassiccougarnetwork.com) for this additional brochure info.)

[PDHse]

Interesting thread guys, fantastic photos Jeff. It is amazing the amount of spin off cars there are from the history of the Cobra. It all makes for great reading.

[Bill Wells]

computerworks/ ron..you have private mail. bill.

[Chaplin]

Ron-
Great info!

Cobrajeff- Do you own these cars or are they still owned by Ford? Either way, I hope you get them to SAAC- very cool.

Does anyone else think the Cougar II looks like an Avanti?

[speed220mph]

There are a lot of "What Ifs" at Ford. I remember when Roy Lunn's group at experimental engineering did the Mustang I. Fortunately, it fathered the Mustang as we now know it. The Bordinat Cobra was a typical styling excercise . . . slap a high style body on an existing car. There were a lot of them.

I have stories from the innards of Ford styling about still born projects that would make you cry. But here's one that really tore me up. And it was an original out of Larry Shinoda's studio. A mid-engine car that was built for the Corvette market and then some. We designed and built an original chassis at KarKraft for the car and developed it on the Dearborn Proving Grounds. Small-block power and ZF transaxle mounted in rear. With Alan Moffatt at the wheel, it was very fast on the handling course; even had quicker times than the MkIV GT40. That would undoubtedly not have been the case on faster courses. Here it is:

[Excaliber]

It's some what surprising any of these cars still exist today. I understand it is common for the manufacturers to crush them when there finished?

Ernie

[speed220mph]

That's another thing that tore me up. How about an Lamborghini Muira, Maserati Ghibli, Lotus Elan and a GT40 getting crushed, to name a few? It's a miracle that some survived.

[Tom Kirkham]

Wow!!!!!

Keep the pictures coming.

CSX2004 is owned by Dave Dralle. When I looked at the bare frame I could see no evidence of any other body other than a Cobra having been on the car. The car currently has an FIA body on it.

I have also seen CSX2005 it is (at least when I saw it) owned by Don Bell in Washington. It also has a Cobra body on it.

So with Jeff pics, that rules out CSX2004 and CSX2005 being the frames under the show car.

Jeff, does the car have a coil spring or leaf spring chassis?