How did you come to love the Cobra?

[ggunter]

I often think about how and why some people will collect certain items, or love certain cars, and my passion for this car goes back to the age of 12. I'm an old guy now and in 1964 I remember watching Wide World of Sports, (at least I think it was) and the Sebring race was on our 19" black and white tv. As I watched I saw what I thought at the time, was the sexiest car I'd ever seen, (at least for a 12 year old boy) and I heard the announcer calling them Cobras. Well, the name alone hooked me and from that point on that's all I thought and talked about. A short time after that I bought a Cobra slot car that was Candy Apple Red, at the local Dept. store from my grass cutting money. I think it was 1/18 scale. In those days, there were slot car tracks all around town you could rent time on and run your cars. I spent all my money renting time and running my car. Fast forward to 1969 and I cruising in my 57 Chevy and come to a stop light, and I hear this car pull up next to me pounding the ground and I look over and it was a real Cobra. Well, I almost peed myself because I had never seen a real Cobra anywhere up to that time. The light turns green, and we took off together, (didn't dare try to race him) and I followed him for about 11 miles, and he turned into a gas station, and I followed him in to get a better look at the car. He jumped out and ran back to me and screamed in my face, WHAT DO YOU WANT!!! Almost peed myself again. Sheepishly I said, "I just want to look at your car". His look of wanting to kick my tail immediately went away and he said OK. So, he showed me his car, it was a 427 SC. He had only had for 6 months, and after looking at it and asking a thousand questions for 15 minutes he asked me if I wanted a ride. Which he promptly almost made me pee again. He scared the crap out of me. This 17 year old never knew cars could go that fast. So, from that point on life happens, and the Cobra gets put out of my mind until 2015 I see this ad for a company called Factory Five Racing. So, I emailed for their brochure. I looked at it from time to time and in 2020 told myself "you ain't getting any younger" so the rest is history and I'm enjoying a car I wanted all my life. What are your stories on how and why you got a Cobra? By the way I never really peed myself.:cool:

[kgkeys]

I first saw a Cobra in my brother's Boy's Life magazine. I'm pretty sure it was this article from the October 1988 issue.
Incidentally, the P-38 is also my favorite WW2 plane :D
-Kyle

194325

[Mike.Bray]

Always loved cars of all kinds. The movie Gumball Rally got me interested in Cobras and then I saw The Hollywood Knights which sealed the deal.

[Hellion]

As a young child, I remember the Cobra being one of the cars from my Hot Wheels set that was a favorite of mine. When I became a dangerously irresponsible teenager with a driver's license, I was hooked when I saw one in person at a car show - the look, the sound, the smell...it was purely unaffordable automotive heaven that dreams are made of. Fast forward to a few years ago, I saw our "Rosie" listed on eBay and asked my wife what she thought of her. At first she was hesitant, but then I convinced her that the asking price was a steal that was just too good to pass up. We told our adult children that we bought her by sending them a video of me going into the garage and asking my wife where the "snake" was - that's when my wife started her up, and I moved my phone over to the car and I did a walk around. They all thought she was a bad-*** acquisition, and truly one of the most unique driving experiences all of us have ever had. :cool: The only question my wife and I ask ourselves is why did it take us so long to get one? ;)

[BEAR-AvHistory]

Saw the original with my wife to be at the New York International Auto Show in 1962. Was painted Yellow at the time. I understand Shelby repainted that car a number of times for different shows so it looked like there were a lot of them.

I was daily driving a 409 Chevy & also had some English Sports cars during that time period. Thought would be really nice to get one & replace them. Then real life happened, Draft, Marriage, Children. In 1967 I was getting back to automotive fantasy land & was again looking at one. Wife said I don't think that is a good plan. Rough, semi-finished, Spartan, loud, loud, no roof etc.

Wound up with a 67 Stingray Coupe instead that she could also drive. Turned out to be a good deal as I kept it for about 28 years & the wife for 59 so far. Still looked at Cobra pictures now & then. Was reading a November 2013 Car & Driver looking at an FFR add. Same wife noticed the add, said Happy Birthday & Merry Christmas. I put a deposit in and the rest is History.

Triangle Cobra Club at the local premier & Ford VS Ferrari. Inspiring another generation?

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazine.com-vbulletin/580x435/80-fvf_623d3c6972d581cca46c4e1bed763672e9de9d9a.jpg

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazine.com-vbulletin/580x435/80-fvf2_d54c1840b4cad0eaf0f5c23409cdd5a072e30676.jpg

[EZ$]

I was 15 in 1965 and riding my bike home from a friend's house. I was on the El Camino in Sunnyvale, CA, and went by the Ford dealership. They had a display platform out at the street, and they had a two year old 289 slabside sitting there. BRG with brown leather interior and wire wheels. I think I stood there for almost an hour going over every detail of the car. I'm sure the salespeople were laughing their a**es off. One of them finally came out to talk to me, and I found out they wanted $6,800. He might as well have said $680,000! Anyhow, the idea got put on hold until around 2008. Started checking into different kits, ERA, Factory Five were the front runners. Finally pulled the trigger in 2012. Because of my limited skills it took until 2 years ago to get it finished and registered. Absolutely no regrets.

[jrcuz]

In 1964 I was a junior in high school in Fairfax, Va. and the Ford dealer about a block from school had a red slabside in the showroom. Needless to say the word spread through the school and when school let out at 2:30 it seemed like every guy at school was at the dealer. We also would go on weekends to Upper Marlborough, Md. when the SCCA track there had racing. I remember seeing my first 427 there. The track is still there but hasn't seen racing in many years.
JR

[toadster]

Gumball Rally!

194332

[Alan_C]

I was fortunate enough to live in the West L.A./ Culver City area when I was in high school. As a matter of fact, I went to Venice HS, just up Venice Blvd. from the shop where the original Cobra was born. I saw the cars on the road occasionally and the looks and sound were forever burned into my memory. So, as with most of us, it is a memory of a car from our HS years that I could never let go of. So I built my MK4 some 10 years ago now, and sold it back in 2018. Now I am working on another iconic vehicle I remember from my HS days, a 70 Boss 302. As with the Cobra, not an original but a tribute. My Boss 302 will be little original and mostly a modern take on the Boss formula. My tribute will be 302 powered, but not a pushrod engine but rather a 2nd Gen Coyote for power. The car is a pro-touring restomod within what was a 70 Mach 1 body.
It is amazing how those memories from HS stay in our minds until we find a way to get the real thing or at least something close.
I need to add here what and rather who got me into a Factory Five. I had ordered the CD on the MK3 and looked at it occasionally, usually just after seeing a Factory Five ad in a car magazine. About 2009 I said to my wife that I wanted to build one once I retired, she responded why wait? When that response started my Factory Five journey. Not long after I attended a local kit car gathering at the NHRA Museum in Pomona CA. The show used to be at Knotts Berry Farm but had moved. Factory Five was there and I had a chance to talk with them. I met Mike, Mikey Like It here on the Forum, with his newly finished MK4. I started talking with Mike and found he had also attended Venice HS graduating a few years before me. Mike was very supportive and encouraging of me to listen to my wife and start the build. I would see Mike every year or two at one of the local shows or the Huntington Beach Factory Five show. Not long after meeting Mike, I signed up for build school, bought a donor 2004 Mach 1 at a Copart Auction, and then bought my kit with delivery in December 2011. So it was not just the memory of the Cobras from HS, I also have to thank my wife, Mike, the build school and Factory Five for making my Cobra dreams come to reality.

[JeffP]

I must be of a bit younger generation, never had the opportunity to get exposed to a real one... but when the Original Bad Boys came out, I knew one day I'd own one. https://youtu.be/wLw-_LKRt60?si=Pfv5WlaSMUB7UB4W&t=107

[GoDadGo]

Gumball Rally!

194332

Double, Double Ditto With The Toadster!
I was 13 years old and sat through the movie twice.
My 16 year old brother was not happy because I wasted his day.
We had to hide in the bathroom to sneak back in for the 2nd viewing.

[John Ibele]

I was a youngster in the '60's but had older brothers who were Bond fans, which transferred into a love of British sports cars for them and me. If they had been Mannix fans I probably would have fallen for very different cars. There were plenty of such cars around when my brothers were thinking of buying their first sets of wheels, and used ones were available at prices they could afford. My oldest brother in particular was just in love with cars, period, and loved talking about both the mechanical and the industrial design pieces and how they came together. He ended up buying a red Triumph TR-4 in 1967 or so, and I still remember the day he agreed to drop me off at grade school. That was a great car, but a little boxy for my taste. My other brother bought a used Sunbeam Alpine III, which always looked to me like a Cadillac DeVille that had been shoved in a trash compactor and shrunk, with its funky little tail fins.

I always liked the longer hoods and fender lines of cars like the MGA and Austin Healy 3000. When I drew my car sketch I think I was in 7th grade, and I don't think I was even consciously trying to draw a specific car. But I had to have seen a Cobra in one of my brother's Road&Track magazines, and it defined how I thought the ultimate sports car should look. Fast forward several decades, and the idea of building a car took root. Knowing more about the history of the Cobra at that time, including the combination of British sports car heritage and American muscle under the hood, it as a quick, straight line to buying the MK4 FFR kit in 2012.

[cc2Arider]

My experiences somewhat mirror the other posts here about seeing it in movies, but one additional thing that swayed me was that Road & Track used it as "the benchmark" for performance testing other cars for many years:cool: This helped to cement it as "legendary" to me...

In the 1980s in the Houston area, my Brother & I went to an impromptu shopping-center parking lot car show (kinda like the precursor to Cars-n-coffee). We walked right up to a real-deal 427SC and drooled...

One of the 1st things out of the owners mouth was, "don't lean on it, it'll dent the Aluminum". We weren't touching it, but I could appreciate the pre-emptive concern he had :)

Craig C

[Mike.Bray]

My experiences somewhat mirror the other posts here about seeing it in movies, but one additional thing that swayed me was that Road & Track used it as "the benchmark" for performance testing other cars for many years:cool:

I think it was Road & Track that took a 427 Cobra to the drag strip and went 0 to 100 and back to 0 in something like 13 seconds. Now that's a benchmark!

[Busamike]

My dad was a big Nascar fan. Every month in the mid to late 60s here would come the Nascar monthly magazine. I would sit as a 5/6 year old kid flipping through that mag with my dad, looking at the Ford race cars, we were ford guys, and dream. Because every mag had an article on these beauties of wonder called the Cobras and this rock star god named Carrol Shelby. The Cobra along with the GT350,GT500, Gt40s and the Datonas were my favorites. But the Cobra, alas it has always been the Cobra that as far as Cars went, was my unicorn. Lots of Mustangs came and went over the years but I always needed a Cobra. So three years ago, I sold my Hayabusas and found a FFR Cobra a couple hours away. Made a deal with the owner and took her home. Pulled it up in the bay beside the 68 c-10, another long crazy story there, and began to take it apart and study what makes this girl go. I got the build manual from here, thank you all very much, and I Checked every nut and bolt I could get to and added a lot of go fast stuff, and here we are. By far the Hayabusa was the most exhilarating ride I had ever been on until the Cobra. This little red car is not far off the mark from the scooter in smiles per mile though. It will also pucker the butt as much as the Busa if you take her for granted. I truly love it and have made it my own with a lot of help from the guys here through advice and just reading others troubles. I thank you all and have a great day.

[Al_C]

I guess my path was a bit different as Cobras never really figured into my thinking until 2013.

Growing up, my favorite cars were Pontiac GTOs or any other traditional muscle car. In high school in the 1960’s all I could afford to drive were old Chevys and when it was time to buy my first new car after college my favorites were but a shell of their former selves so I ended up with a V6 Capri. By the late 70’s I switched focus to trucks and had a 4-wheel drive Chevy that could go absolutely anywhere – and did. In the 1990’s I started thinking in terms of an open car and became rather fond of Triumphs, especially the TR6. Those cars tended to rust out pretty easily (from what I saw), so that idea never went anywhere.

I have a good friend who raced Acura’s and we talked about cars a lot. He introduced me to the idea of Factory Five and building my own. I sent away for a brochure and I was hooked. That was really my first exposure to Cobras.

Since I started my build journey, I have learned so much about the history and legends. It’s been a blast and I’m really glad I went down this road.

[john42]

As a young child, I remember the Cobra being one of the cars from my Hot Wheels set that was a favorite of mine.

I've had the black one since early childhood. The red one my wife got me a few years ago:

194345

[k-roy]

For me it was a calendar. Was around 10, and it had two cars in it that I just loved. A cobra and the other was a De Tomaso Pantera. Flash forward to when I was 23, freshly married, and went to my first car show (my father-in-law loves those things). I saw my first Pantera (earlier model, no ground effects/spoiler) and wasn't impressed (although was impressed with the sign in front -- "I am often asked how fast it goes, and I don't know. But it will do almost 60 in first gear). At the same car show, was a Kirkham Cobra and I was instantly in love. The cobra was polished aluminum, with a 427, 0 miles on the odometer, and it was for sale. Only $125,0000 (the price of my first house). Told my father in law I was in love, but I doubt I would ever own on. Later that evening, he brought me over a Car and Driver Magazine and introduced me to factory five. I spent the next 20 years clicking on the "configure your kit" and going through every option. Finally, I saw inflation rearing its head, and said its now or never, and clicked "buy"0.

And I have never looked back.

[TBull]

I saw one as a kid and thought it was a cool car. Very distinctive and raw power, but I was too young back then to drive. I forgot about in later years and then like many others I saw Gumball Rally and I was hooked. One day I saw one parked in a driveway on an outer road while I was driving my daughter home. I cut across traffic and 2 lights later I was parking off the street. The owner was there and I asked if I could look at his car. He was nice enough to let me sit in it and my hopes were dashed. I'm 6'2" and stocky and I didn't fit. I didn't know what the make was, but it was very tight. I was so disappointed, but I started looking at other cars. I was at a car show when I saw another one that was a FFR roadster. I looked and salivated over the car, but didn't ask about fitting into it. The owner explained how he built it himself and during the build process that there were multiple ways to expand it to make larger people fit. I was hooked again. I saved and we refinanced the house and I had the FFR brochure and I was getting ready to order the car when the door bell rang. My wife said "the pool guy is here". I said "What pool guy?" She had asked a pool company to give us a bid for a pool that the WHOLE family could enjoy. Needless to say he left with a check. Life was busy, but on our 15 Anniversary my wife took me to a dealership in St. Louis and said pick any Cobra but that one. I ended up passing on all of them and found my first one in Arizona. Loved that car. I'm on my second Cobra now with Milano and I couldn't be happier. Some of those childhood dreams really stick with us.

[tonywy]

Giants Despair Hill Climb late sixties early seventies, one pulled up to the line out of the pits. Dad Dad what kind of car is that?!! "That's a Cobra", the fuse was lit.

[Wayne r mckee]

In 1965 I was five years old , my dad was a electrician he’d do side jobs on the weekends and he’d drag me along probably just to get me out of my moms hair , we drove out Route 66 from Covina ca where we lived to Barstow took forever compared to today , we stopped at a road side cafe for breakfast in Barstow , in the parking lot was a car transport loaded with 5 cobra’s .I was hooked at first sight,I wanted a cobra . my dad being on the cutting edge of technology got his Polaroid camera out of his truck , he asked a passerby to take our picture standing next to the truck loaded with cobra’s . I had that picture pinned to my bulletin board in my room until I grew up , at that time I put the picture in the top of my craftsman tool chest where it stayed until the picture got cloudy and eventually faded away completely. Factory five helped me live the dream .

[jgray]

I grew up in England in a car crazy family. My dad had Jags, S-Types, E-Types. We went to F1 and other races when I was young. I liked the roar of the old American cars I saw including a cobra that I saw at a hill climb. He died when I was still young and without him around we didn’t own the cool cars, and life became tougher for a while but I got fascinated by classic cars and got the classic car magazine, which had the AC Ace in it, which led me to the cobra. I was also fascinated by italian cars but especially the De Tomaso and a few other cars that put American V8s into them, Jensen Interceptors, some obscure brands including Monterverdis, Isos, Bristols, Monica, Facel Vegas but the Cobra was the pinnacle for me because of their Le Mans success. I was also fascinated by kit cars, and the emergence of high quality kits (not based on VWs!) really caught my attention in the late 90s.

[John Ibele]

Nice thread started by the OP. Fun to read about the spark that drove each of us builders and owners forward. I love the history of the car, I'm proud of what I built and the connection to all the other builders on the forum is priceless. For me, the best surprise was at the end of the whole adventure of building the car: how much I enjoyed driving it. There's just nothing better than heading out on the open road in this beautiful thing, with no specific destination in mind.

[GoDadGo]

By the way, this is one of the best forum threads ever.

[Chainsaw]

Great thread to read. As a kid growing up in KY, I had not really heard of Carroll Shelby and the Cobras, but I loved the GT40s from the LeMans wins. In the mid-70s, I started buying Road & Track magazine regularly as a 15 or 16-yr old. Somewhere in there, R&T had an article on the 427 Cobras and how they still had the best 0-100-0 times. I was hooked from then on. Glad I the opportunity and ability to have a sort-of copy of the Cobra now.

[Nigel Allen]

I grew up in a small railway town. It had a large locomotive workshop and overhaul centre, which is where I did my apprenticeship as an electrical fitter. Locomotives were an EMD product, from General Motors, Illinois. Many of the electrical spare parts came wrapped in newspaper, and as apprentices we were often envious the range of vehicles advertised on these pages. My dad on the other hand was terribly British and only had appreciation for British cars.

Then one day around the lunch table at work, my supervisor was reading a car magazine with a Shelby 427 on the front. I was totally wowed by it and my supervisor gave me a good history lesson on the car. He explained to me that the cars were very rare and expensive and that I would be unlikely to ever own an original. He proceeded to tell me how you could build one as a replica. I was completely sold on that idea at eighteen years of age and it never left me. Now at last my dad and I will have a car to agree on; British style, American grunt and reliability. Fast forward another 20 some years and the dream came to reality when a massive crate from FFR arrived. It took me another seven years to put it together and get it through our stringent registration process. It was worth it though!

Dad only got to see it once after it was completed, as cancer swept him away. He was too fragile to take a ride in it, but was able to lean on the fender while I fired it up and gave it a few revs.

I try to get out in it as often as possible. Our weather is especially good for evening drives at the moment.

194582

[ggunter]

It's pretty amazing that the memories of our childhoods hang on, and are engrained in our minds, so that today and many of us being "mature now", have resources we never had when we were young so now, we can fulfill some of those dreams. As crazy as I was with an automobile when I was young, it's a good thing I didn't have the resources, I wouldn't be able to write about it today.

[cob427sc]

It was 1969 and I was a freshmen living in the dorm at the University of Utah. A "rich Texas kid" had an original. You could only buy 3.2 beer in Utah so we decided to drive across the Salt Flats to Nevada and buy some real beer. I was into cars but really wasn't familiar with Cobras. At that time the interstate was being built accross the flats but the main road was a black 2-lane straight as an arrow for about 80 miles to Wendover. We went lumpity-lump down through Salt Lake to a stoplight. He grinned at me and punched it when it turned green! One of my most memorable days of my life. In 1997 I finally got my wish and ordered my first FFR cobra.

[DIBaledo]

In 1978 I worked with a friend who had an original 427SC which he raced and crashed. It took a while to rebuild, but when he was almost finished he brought it to the office and we went for a ride. The boot around the shift lever wasn't in place and you could literally see the pavement below the transmission. Driving down the 405 at 100mph was beyond exhilarating and felt like it was actually double that speed. I don't think I've ever been so scared in a car in my life. My father worked for a time at David Brown Motors before we came to the States and my car dreams have always been about Astons. Almost 30 years after that ride in the Cobra, I finally purchased an Aston, but I couldn't get the thought and visceral feeling of driving in that Cobra out of my mind. After many German and British sports cars, I still have the Aston, but longed for the thrill of the original Cobra. Finally, with retirement pending, I was looking for a project. My wife thought restoring an e type roadster or bathtub Porsche would be a great project. The more I read, the more I figured that "restoring" one of these cars was really just finding the proper person to do the actual work. My mind kept going back to 1978 and the Cobra and one of my internet searches brought me to this forum. After a time reading some of the build threads, I was hooked. I'm now a year into my slowly progressing build with another couple of years in front of me before completion. I recently dropped the engine in and am looking forward to a first start in a few months. The experience of actually building my car has sometimes gotten me as scared as I was during that first drive in 1978. But, I keep coming back for more and wouldn't trade this experience for anything. A big thank you to those of you on the Forum who have knowingly or unknowingly helped me with my build and realizing this dream. It's truly special!!!

David.....

[Hellion]

I've had the black one since early childhood. The red one my wife got me a few years ago:

194345

How cool you kept it! :cool: Now it looks like I'll be on a quest to find the one I had which was blue with white stripes, although a red one that matches Rosie would suffice - ha!

[john42]

How cool you kept it! :cool: Now it looks like I'll be on a quest to find the one I had which was blue with white stripes, although a red one that matches Rosie would suffice - ha!

Ya my wife got me the red one as it matches my car almost perfectly.

[jrcuz]

Ya my wife got me the red one as it matches my car almost perfectly.

I bought a model kit and assembled it and painted it black with gold stripes 2 years before I had my MK4 painted the same. I took a pic of the model and sent it to my brother to show him I had finished building my MK4. He fell for it for about 5 seconds
JR