My first race car was a Cobra. At the age of 14, I got excited about slot car racing, and got a Revell slot car set with a metallic blue 289 Cobra. This started me on a lifelong hobby of racing - and passion for Cobras.
For Christmas 1999, I got a book of Cobra factory and racing photographs by Dave Friedman, the official Shelby American factory photographer from 1962 to 1965. I had always especially loved the 427, believing it to be the pinnacle of Cobra beauty and performance.
However, in his book, Dave said that the people at the factory preferred the 289, feeling it to be better balanced and much more enjoyable to drive on the street than the heavy, monstrously powerful 427. At the factory, whenever a 427 went out the door, the employees would take bets as to how long it would be before the car was back for crash repairs!
Also, the 289 scored virutally all Cobra racing successes including the 1965 World Championship; by the time the 427 had arrived, racing technology had moved on to mid-engined sports prototypes.
Over the years, my love for Cobras never died, but it was overshadowed by my various racing activities and then by flying. In the mid-eighties I considered building an ERA Cobra replica and even visited their factory, which was only a few miles from where I worked in Connecticut. But then I decided to build my airplane, and the Cobra dream faded back into the shadows.
In the winter of 2000, I was reading a copy of Grassroots Motorsports magazine, and came across an article about a new spec racing series for a Cobra replica made by Factory Five Racing (aka FFR). The cars are based on FFR's 427 Cobra replica, which uses engine and other parts from a Mustang 5.0.
The kit uses a chassis with beefy 4-inch frame tubes, as used in the 427 series (as opposed to the 3-inch tubes used in the original 289's). The chassis is very similar in design and construciton to the original, but uses thicker walled material. The steel is also a high-strength alloy that hadn't been invented in 1966.
In addition, the kit uses coil-over suspension (including an optional IRS which uses parts from a Thunderbird), unlike the leaf springs used in the original 289.
The result is a chassis that is very light and very stiff and strong, with excellent suspension and the well-balanced handling possible with a small block engine. The use of a modern engine and drivetrain results in a car which is very streetable and reliable.
With modern engine, brakes, chassis, wheels, and performance tires under a faithful reproduction of that fabulous 427 body, the FFR Cobra replica is a beautiful, exciting, and almost practical car - a car that will outperform production cars costing far more. For me, it seems like the perfect Cobra.
After bubbling with Cobra fever for a few days, I called my brother Nate and told him about my discovery. He hit the FFR Web site and after a bit of discussion we decided to investigate further.
We visited the FFR factory in Wareham, Massachusetts, and liked what we saw. We visited two FFR customers, and talked with several more over the phone. Every one of them was ecstatic with their car and very happy with FFR. John Bachhuber, who fired up his immaculate yellow and black 351 Windsor-powered FFR for us one fine spring day, even gave us several parts catalogs to get us going.
Then, FFR Cobra racer Gary Cheney - who lives only 10 minutes from me - gave me a ride in his 500 hp supercharged 302-powered FFR. For a moment, as we rolled down his driveway, I felt like I was in an Austin-Healey or something like that. The view from the cockpit, the ride, the vibration and feel were all vintage British sports car.
Then Gary opened the throttle. The engine bellowed in my ear, a giant hand squashed me back into the seat, and the scenery became a blur! The feeling of vintage British sports car vanished, and in its place was nothing but raw adrenaline and sensory overload.
The wonderful crackle and roar of a small block Ford through side pipes are sounds I will love forever!
We ordered the kit from FFR in early April and started looking for a donor car. More phone calls and a suggestion from Gary Cheney led us to Mark Reynolds of Breeze Automotive, who got us a 1991 Mustang 5.0 from Arizona that was in unbelievably good shape. The parts had absolutely no rust on them and looked almost brand new, with only a light coating of dust. The engine even had a polished aluminum intake and looked fantastic sitting in the crate from Arizona.
Mark installed a new Ford Motorsports competition clutch, stripped the wiring harness, found a Thunderbird Supercoupe for the rear suspension, reworked the rear hubs for 5-lug Mustang 4.5 inch bolt centers, and did assorted other preparation tasks for us. He also supplied a number of additional parts, giving us the benefit of his own experience as an FFR kit builder.
A big decision involved the wheels, because they have a large impact on the look of the car. I preferred the authentic look of the original Halibrand 15 inch wheels, but the only street tires available in the correct size for the huge 10 inch wide rear wheels are Goodrich Radial T/A's. These are ok tires, but I wanted something with higher performance.
Also, it made me nervous to commit to wheels for which there was only one tire available; what if that tire went out of production? Many high performance tires are available for 17 inch wheels, but Nate balked at the nearly $2000 that FFR charged for their 17 inch Halibrand replicas.
Eventually, after a lot of research (during which the Web and the Cobra Forum proved invaluable) we settled on 17 inch Halibrand-style replicas made by Team III.
In my mind's eye, my dream Cobra was always blue with white stripes. I even have a framed photo of a blue and white 427 Cobra in my home office, something I bought years ago. But Nate says all kit Cobras are blue and white, and he wants something different.
Nate prefers green, because the original Cobras were built by AC, an English company, so something approximating British Racing Green would be appropriate. Since I got to choose the wheels, Nate gets to choose the color, so our Cobra will be green.
Our scheduled pickup date to get the Mustang and Thunderbird parts from Mark is June 3, and FFR gave us a delivery date of June 19 for the Cobra kit.
We're on our way!