Thanks, Steve and Petersen Automotive! Very interesting history of the car and an awesome presentation. I loved the smile on Steve's face when he fired it up! :)
RIP Bob Bondurant and thank you for the great achievements and memories. Being a Ford fan, I was delighted to have Shelby woo you away from racing Corvettes to become a famous Cobra driver and winner.
We looked at buying Dan Gurney's Targa Floria FIA car in about 1973 in New England--for $10,000. The underside was scraped up from his off, and it would have cost a lot to convert to street legal. Despite my desperate pleading, my buddy walked away and bought a street 427 instead. But, what a ride the guy gave us! The tires spun freely at the slightest provocation. I still have a fading polaroid snapshot of Gurney's FIA car--and a seared memory of it's brutal quickness.
Meh.. The "Original" look of this car is gone. What you see is "original" decay. When something is "restored", it means to the "original" condition, and or look/appearance. Here is a good example of what I'm talking about: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1hyA-0pJ9d0.html
You have to appreciate the raw state of these cars and the men that drove them to victory. This was a simpler time when pioneers like Shelby along with mechanics , designers and drivers paved the way in road racing . They provided a lot of information to the big auto manufacturers in improving their own development of future cars for both the street and road racing . It’s a bygone era never to be repeated.
When you fired her up you can tell by the smile on your face how much you genuinely enjoy these trophies of years gone by. There is nothing these days that overshadow those cars that were designed with a pencil and paper, the only apple at those times is something you ate, and the skilled men who build them. Sad that those days are gone forever but thanks to you we can still see and hear them.
I recall an episode of Get Smart, where I think I saw this car last. It had the hood open with Webers displayed. It also had those white magnesium wheels.
Man I was waiting with baited breath to hear the story of how that thing stayed in its 1965 configuration all these years,,, how did that happen and why somebody just parked it and never touched it,,,, what's the story ???
Lot of tumes, these guys knew exactly how important these cars were. They put em away for us to see later. Same thing as with the Mary Stuart 911s. They knew
I had entered a raffle to win a replica and was reading all about those. Not mentioned was the fact that the rear fenders were bigger to accommodate the wider wheels and it was an FIA regulation that the fenders had to cover the wheels. The other one is owned by a guy named “Mr. cobra” Who had the foresight to buy a wrecked one and rebuild it. Can you imagine what those are worth today? They were just old worn out race cars then. My favorite story though involves the cobra Daytona coupe at the end of the 65 season. They had just won the FIA championship but Ford was telling Shelby to forget his cobras and concentrate on making the GT 40 a winner. And Allen Mann was running the cobra team in the 65 season and at the end he had five or six cobra Daytona coops sitting in England and Shelby had no interest in spending the money to bring them back. And since they would be taxed by UK law shall be told Allen to simply put them on a barge with the taxman and dump them in the ocean. And Allen did not have the heart to do that so at his own expense he put them on a ship to send back to California. They just rode on the top of the ship exposed to the elements. And of course that’s another legendary car but the subject of another story
Oh if that car could talk, what stories it would tell? but it was good with letting you tell the story about it's incredible life. and it said thank you in it's own voice by firing right up. I had no doubt it would after all it's a Ford, and a very special one at that.
Ive heard that since the rear tires are bigger than the front , the white color was to prevent a front tire from accidentally being installed at the rear during a pit stop.
if only there were no ropes, like the Lane Motor Museum. Or at least a bigger building so the ropes can be farther away (better picture taking ability)
