Recently, Debbie and I celebrated the twelfth anniversary of our first date by having dinner at a local restaurant overlooking a golf club (fancier trappings than our usual haunt, but a much more limited choice of draft beers).
Returning to the Miata (which was also our conveyance on that first date) we spotted a blue Cobra (no stripe) replica parked across the way. Naturally we wandered over to take a look.
How did we know it was a replica?
The keys were in it.
Wanting to impress Debbie with my car-nerd-ness, I mentioned that the originals of these Cobras are usually priced at over a million dollars, so people are reluctant to drive them under most conditions. But there are many Cobra replicas on the road that cost less (some times a lot less) than a new F-150 King Ranch, so using one to go to dinner is no more unreasonable than using the King Ranch to take brush to the dump.
There was not a spec of dust on this vehicle.
Impeccable logic and thinking on my part.
But of course, I would not knowingly leave the keys in a King Ranch, or in a Tacoma, or even in a 19 year old Miata.
“I gotta take some pictures of this for CC” I said, and snapped a few.
Then a worried looking guy came fast-walking towards me and said “… think I left the keys in it.”
I smiled, said “yes”, and then pointing to the Miata added “I see we both have the same type of car.”
His amiable (and relieved) reply: “A convertible is a convertible”.
Indeed.
A fun thing to come across on a nice evening, for sure.
Not knowing much about Cobra replicas, I would guess that this has a semi-modern Ford 5.0? One of these would certainly be fun but I’m not sure I am quite ready for something so attention-grabbing. I think I would get tired of saying “Oh, it’s not a genuine Cobra, just a replica” everywhere I went.
As you well know, the Miata is all of the fun but with almost the anonymity of a Jeep Wrangler. I am fine with answering “it is!” to the many who say “That looks like fun!”
Hi JPC, The owner showed me the engine which looked small in the surprisingly large bay (wish I had taken a picture of it) and told me it was a bored out 351. It has beautiful finned Ford valve covers. One of the two electric engine fans kept coming on. He told me he got it used and it cost “way less” than 50K”.
As you wrote “… the Miata is all of the fun but with almost the anonymity of a Jeep Wrangler. I am fine with answering “it is!” to the many who say “That looks like fun!” .”
Me too. And I get kind-of odd looks from some of Debbie’s Audi S4 and BMW 5 and 7 series driving neighbors when we wave to them from the top down Miata. In my mind, they seem to be thinking: “that looks like fun”.
JPC, I have a Cobra t-shirt that draws more comments in Target and Home Depot than any other attire I own. I can’t imagine what having an actual car would be like.
A fellow at my previous workplace had a 5.0-powered Cobra replica. As if it wasn’t attention-grabbing enough on its own merits, it was painted a bright orange with a black stripe. A “can’t miss it” kind of car.
The workplace before that also featured a Cobra replica, owned by a professor and equine veterinarian. His was a much more traditional blue with a white stripe. It was powered by a legit 1960’s vintage 427. Accuracy level: high.
(The Cobra showed up on nice days. Sometimes he also drove his Ferrari 308. His daily was surprisingly practical though–a MINI Cooper S.)
Living in the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the first signs of spring is to see Miata’s out on the road. These adorable iconic little cars have become a harbinger of spring. Thanks for the story on the Faux Cobra.
I live in the Toronto area and see ppl in miatas during the depths if winter. Its that reliable.
I remember seeing a real Cobra in the late 60s. My family was visiting relatives in the Triple Cities are of southeastern New York and while riding around with two (slightly) older cousins…also “car guys”, we saw a green 289 Cobra a few lanes over on a very busy street.
Since then, any Cobra I’ve been that close to in traffic has been a replica.
BTW, in my car guy “dictionary”, a convertible MUST be capable of seating at least 4 people….each in their own seat. A Cobra and a Miata are NOT convertibles….they are roadsters. A 70s Chevy Caprice that has a folding roof is a convertible.
Where did you get that dictionary? Maybe you wrote it? 🙂
“Convertible” applies to any car that can have its top lowered. A roadster is a variation of a convertible, one that does not have retractable windows (they have to be mounted/removed manually). So the Cobra is a roadster; the Miata is not.
After consulting various dictionaries…. The Miata is a convertible since it has a top you can put up (you can convert it from an open car to a closed car). So is the Caprice, but not the Cobra. A roadster is any two-seat open car, so both the Miata and the Cobra are roadsters, but a Caprice is not.
All the same I agree with the spirit of “A convertible is a convertible”. That’s a very nice car.
Once the smoky air around here clears I’ll be back in my Miata, top down.
So an MGB roadster is not actually a roadster.
Sorry, I edited my comment after reading more definitions. An MGB Roadster is a roadster.
My roadster definition is a bit narrow. Realistically, it has come to encompass the typical sports car. But once upon the time, it meant a very spartan car with little or no weather protection. When roll-up windows first appeared on sports cars, purists insisted they were no longer true roadster. What would they say about air conditioning?
I’m not pedantic about these semantic issues. Common usage ultimately trumps anachronistic ones.
Of course. But it is fun to dig down and find clear definitions. I just learned a roadster originally meant a horse suitable for the road (Wikipedia). No weather protection there.
” “Convertible” applies to any car that can have its top lowered. A roadster is a variation of a convertible, one that does not have retractable windows (they have to be mounted/removed manually)…..once upon the time, [roadster] meant a very spartan car with little or no weather protection”
The way the terms were used in the 1920s or 1930s, a roadster was an “open bodied” car, while a convertible, at least when its top and windows were up, was supposed to be the equivalent of a “closed body” car. The term “convertible coupe” was also used, because a convertible was conceptually a coupe whose roof could be folded down. A roadster was not a coupe in any way, shape or form – it was something entirely different. The roadster was usually the cheapest, most basic body style in the lineup.
Then there were cabriolets. I’m honestly not sure if cabriolet was just another name for “convertible”, or if it was supposed to be a specific type of convertible.
Because roadsters were typically (always?) two-seaters, over time the term seems to have come to mean “any two-seat car with a roof that can be folded down or removed”. (Early convertibles/cabriolets were often two-seaters as well, or at best had a rumble seat. But over time they evolved into 4- or 5-passenger vehicles with an enclosed back seat, so people didn’t think of a convertible or cabriolet as necessarily being a two-seater.) Since the vast majority of cars in that category since World War II have been sports cars, it has come to be associated with sports cars in particular. I bet that if you showed most people today a 1920s roadster, they’d call it a “convertible”, because it’s not a sports car. But if you showed them a postwar/modern-day two-seat sports car that is technically a convertible according to the original definitions, they’d call it a “roadster”.
…
Perhaps we have the Sunbeam Alpine to blame for blurring the definition of a roadster; MG couldn’t really have made a new model of sports car three years later without them.
The little Sprite/Midget remained true to the old definition a couple more years after that before ‘going soft’.
Youre right there, Mike. What needs clarification is that in a true ‘convertible’, the top’s folding framework is integrated into the car, just like the rolldown windows PN mentioned. In a ‘true roadster’ the top would be a removeable add-on, just like the manually inserted door curtains. I’m pretty sure this Cobra cant fold its top ( the snaps on the decklid give that away) and is most likely in the garage, and hopefully not wadded up in the trunk.
I do know that a ‘top’ was an option on true roadsters…at most, you might get a cockpit tonneau cover with a snap out insert for the driver. Seen them on various British roadsters and the LR Defender 90 could be had that way, even.
As a 5 time Jeep CJ/Wrangler owner (all with soft tops) I became painfully aware of why a ‘convertible’ is worlds away from a ‘removable top’. A cloudburst is a quick jog out to the parking lot to unfold the top on a convertible. But when your softop is neatly folded away in the garage at home (which is why my Jeeps’ tops lasted well beyond usual service life) and thunderheads come rolling in, you realize you do NOT have a convertible!
From the beginning of the Scout until the first couple of years of the Scout II IH had a Roadster version on the standard order form. Of course being IH I’m sure you could have special ordered a Roadster version until the end. On the II the ID for a true Roadster version strip that fits on top of where the rear inner and outer body panels meet. On the Cab Top there are only top mounting holes at the very front. The Traveltop, Panel top and soft top trucks have holes the entire length while the Roadster version has no holes. The earliest Scout 80’s did not have roll up windows instead they had a removable sliding window that fit into the door the were not included with the Roadster.
Ford also offered a top less version of the early Bronco and I believe that it was also marketed as the Roadster version.
That fits my definition of a Roadster a vehicle that is not equipped with a top so I don’t consider the Miata a Roadster while I do consider the Cobra and its replicas a Roadster
I’ve seen only eight authentic Cobra roadsters in 40 years of going to car shows. My favorite has to be this grimy, barn find, small block beater I saw in 2010…
It sported 47 years of authentic grime on the interior, a bad red die job on the seats….
…and an accessory Cobra logo all transistor AM radio!
Jazz muscian Herbie Hancock owns a 260 Cobra, I believe with a 2v carb.
I believe he’s the original owner too, if memory serves.
Love everything about this car. I wish the hood was up to see the gorgeous finned COBRA valve covers with some well earned patina. Maybe it’s the burnout of so may 427 replicas but these 289(and even 260) models capture my attention way more as an adult.
Here ya go, Matt, looking every bit “just another used car”. Owner is Jim Taylor of J.C. Taylor Insurance, collector car insurance specialists. He had just driven the car in the Copperstate 1000, a thousand mile banzai run through Colorado.
Ask anyone who has ever driven one and they’ll tell you: the small block cars are much more user friendly than the 427’s and are still a “balls-to-the-wall” driving experience.
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Thanks! Looks exactly how I hoped it would!
Some say a convertible is any car whose roof, whole or partial can be removed.
In a bigger contrast, some folks refer to a T-top and targa top cars, as convertibles.
To me, it is a car with a fully folding or removable hardtop or softop.
That’s a nicer (and more authentic-looking) replica than average.
+1 that was exactly my first thought. No side pipes, no stripe, no hood scoop, rollbar or chromed fire extinguisher. Really nicely done.
Looks like a good candidate to recreate Peter Egan’s cross country journey in a 289 Cobra. This is one of my favorite stories of his:
http://www.erareplicas.com/history/r_and_t_289cruise/cruise1.htm
I totally agree. I don’t know as much about real Cobras to the extent I do real Shelby Mustangs, but the vast majority of those were not equipped with Lemans stripes, just the rocker ones. Most of the 350/500s with them had them added on at some point, likely during restoration, and most replicating them do so as well – such as the fastback featured a while back – When I see an example without them like this, even if fake, my first inclination is to actually assume it’s authentic and unrestored. I’ve actually seen a real deal 427 Cobra in person, and I didn’t even know it until someone at the event confirmed it being so, the stripes made me think “factory five”, not “Carroll Shelby”.
Not knowing where this was found, but being familiar with the area that you live in, rlplaut, seeing the keys in the ignition reminded me of an exchange a few months ago.
I’d left my car unlocked in my mother’s driveway in her very manicured, suburbanesque neighborhood in Central Florida and came out the next morning to find that the car had been gone through and a few miscellaneous items like cell phone chargers and a pair of leather gloves had been stolen. My mother’s response, “You have to lock your car here, we’re not in New Jersey anymore.”
To anyone not familiar with NJ other than as the butt of jokes and the view from the Turnpike this would have been a totally bizarre comment. Of course I wouldn’t leave my car unlocked pretty much anywhere in NJ anymore either, but I quite often did up until 2004 when I last lived in the area.
That’s hilarious! I’m originally from NJ (family moved to TN when I was 5) and between Dad growing up in Bayonne, Mom working in Newark, and my Grampa having been a Newark police officer, one of the signs of culture shock in SmallTown, TN is that it seemed like EVERYONE just left their keys in the ignition, windows down all la dee da. Anytime we’d see that, my dad would go on a 10 minute rant about how he better not catch us doing that because if someone pinches your car and kills someone, insurance will hold you liable, etc etc.
Probably ok to leave the keys in it as is a stick shift because most folks can’t even drive a stick shift now…
I once saw a nice BMW motorcycle parked with keys still in it and no owner around so I only could move the keys to the seat lock position as a safe alternative.
+1. That’s the upside to the decline in manuals, the coolest cars are no longer theft bait! 🙂
Those of us who grew up in the US surely know a Convertible.
Then, there’s the Roadster, as Paul noted above, which seems to be a car whose basic design & best form is that of an open-top conveyance. Ex: MG-TD or early Austin-Healey Sprite whose top & entire frame are removed.
What about a Drophead Coupe? Besides being a spectacular-sounding term, Wiktionary calls it:
“a four-seated sports car with two doors, a folding roof, a sloping rear, and soft top (Britain).” (i.e., a convertible to us Yanks)
Now, lets let the Phaetons duke it out with the Fixed Head coupes …… while the hardtops debate sedans, down the hall ….
Interior sported 47 years of authentic grime, a bad red dye job on the seats….
….and even an all transistor “Cobra” logo accessory AM radio!
You forgot the Cab-ree-o-lay. Which is a convertible with $5000 added to the price.
And don’t overlook the coupe vs. two-door sedan debate.
Then there is the Spider, which is a roadster for going to get an espresso.
Ha! Different kind of spiders there.
Where it becomes a Spyder and the price goes up.
“The Phaetons” would be a cool name for a rock band! 😉
(I was mildly surprised that my smartphone knew how to spell “phaeton.”)
At the end of the day, the Cobra guy was right on the money. A convertible is a convertible. Semantics aside, if the top comes down, the fun factor usually goes up (as does the price). I guess you either are bitten by the bug or not; my uncle, now 85, had to go out and buy the new Buick Cascada after a friend drove him in one. He has had some sort of open top car for some time, and was a proud stand in for my late dad when I showed him my then just purchased Miata. Now, the Cascada may not be everyone’s cup of tea, nor is a Miata, or a Cobra, but that is one of the joys we can share. Vive la difference! Enjoy what you love, and drive what makes you happy.
My only experience with leaving the keys in the ignition was a million years ago when I was young and wild and living in The Big Yellow Apple, aka Tokyo. I rode a Kawasaki KZ750 dressed as a cafe racer in those days, and affected the Black-Leather-Jacket Racer Look©. Anyhow, the inescapable crowds of Tokyo made me restless, and I had taken to making midnight rides around the city in search of a little peace. Anyhow, on this particular night, I stumbled across Shangri-La: a beautiful golf course. It’s hard to explain I guess, but bathed in moonlight the vast lush green emptiness was enchanting…and soothing. I lay down on the grass, looked up at the stars, and rested. I was alone in a beautiful cool green place. I’d escaped the city. Finally hours (?) later, soul refreshed, I got up and walked back to my bike. I was jumped by three Japanese policemen. I had left the keys in my bike and they had been waiting for someone to steal it. It took a few hours at the police station to straighten things out. I was back in the city. Oh, and no, I never could find my way back to that place again.
The only “real” Cobra I’m sure of, seen on the street, was a ratty 427 in winter of 1971, the owner was a student at UW in Madison, and met him at an ice race on a lake in Wisconsin. It was pretty beat, but sounded great. It was his daily driver. Living in L.A., I’ve seen a lot of ‘Cobras’, but never got close enough to tell if they’re real or replica.
I’ve had the fantasy since I was a kid to build one of these like the real Cobra in gumball rally and daily drive the hell out of it. This one comes close, blue, no stripes or rollbar. Just needs some rectangular fog lights in the grille and it’d be perfect!
This ’64 289 Cobra periodically makes the rounds at So Cal Ford events. I caught it a couple of years ago. Unrestored, original owner.
And a shot of the interior, complete with Carroll Shelby autograph.
Gorgeous. Love the color.
This one got rained on….
An aluminum-bodied Kirkham Cobra replica would be hard to tell from the real thing, esp. if debadged and suitably “weathered.” But it’s rather expensive.
http://www.kirkhammotorsports.com/
Compared to the prices the original examples go for, it’s a bloody bargain! 😉
All the Cobra replicas made the car more of a legend than it otherwise would have been. Likewise, the same applies to Shelby, himself, with the irony being he had tried to sue all of the replica makers and lost.
Had he won, it’s quite possible the same fate would have befallen him (and the Cobra) as what happened to Apple computers when Steve Jobs made a point of suing anyone that tried to use Apple’s OS. Unlike Shelby, he was successful, and the competing IBM PC quickly becoming the default computer OS, nearly running Apple out of business. It didn’t help matters any that Jobs supposedly shunned Bill Gates when Gates was developing his software, either. It was only Jobs skill and ingenuity that that would eventually bring Apple back from the brink.
It’s a tricky history. IBM couldn’t stop replicas, lost control of the PC in the early 1990s and their profits crashed. IBM and Microsoft copied Apple, which nearly itself died in the late 1990s. And originally Apple copied the Xerox Alto, the first computer with a mouse, desktop and network. Xerox never got rich on personal computers.
All things considered, Carroll Shelby did very well on the Cobra innovation, compared with most innovators.
+1 That and Shelby’s well known involvement with the GT40 racing program and it’s Ferrari killing successes displayed for the world, certainly fed into the legend. On top of that the Mustangs had their own separate following. The thing with Carroll Shelby is that his legend is well rounded on so many levels it’s difficult to simply pigeon hole it into one thing like the Cobra Roadster. I don’t mean to sound like a fanboy, I’m honestly repulsed by how litigious he became in his final years, but I don’t think the name would simply fade away if not for the replica market. I’d actually suspect any continued exposure he garnered from them was equally undone by the lawsuits he brought upon them. Had he simply disappeared from the industry for good in 1970, and no enterprising companies created Cobra kit cars, I suspect Carroll Shelby and his cars would still be a cross generational legend in the car world, just like Colin Chapman or Enzo Ferrari
I don’t think Shelby makes it to Ferrari’s level of celebrity, but he’s probably as close as anyone will ever get in the US. Colin Chapman is a better analogy.
I might even go so far as to suggest that, without the Cobra replica cottage industry, Shelby would be merely remembered as Ford’s answer to Zora Arkus-Duntov over at GM. Every Joe Six-Pack knows what a Corvette is, but a substantially smaller number know of Duntov and his contribution to the car. I don’t think Shelby would have a fraction of the fame he enjoyed with the replicas.
There was an anecdote in Car and Driver in the mid-seventies when Shelby was on a televised cooking show, promoting his chili (which has quite a following in its own right) and the clueless female cook asked him, “Didn’t you have something to do with cars?”.
Chevy never released a Corvette called a Duntov though, every car Shelby put out, which was semi-independent of Ford, had his name on it. I agree that he isn’t at the level of Enzo, but like Enzo it was his name on the cars and their cars both had racing successes to back it up. Even the ever quotable Colin Chapman didn’t have his name on Lotus cars (no way a cooking show host would know who he is/was either).
Forget the Cobra and the replicas of it for a second. The interest and collector boom in old Muscle cars alone brought tons of exposure to Shelby, the GT350s and GT500s were always the most sought after Mustangs of the era. Kids had been adding spray paint LeMans stripes to their 200 6 powered hardtops pretending they’re Shelbys for decades. The Mustang as a performance ponycar is owed to Shelby, and everybody half interested in Mustangs likely knows that name. His contribution to the Mustang platform for Ford was much more analogous to Zara Arkus Duntov’s contribution to the Corvette for Chevrolet.
I’m not saying the replica market didn’t bring him exposure, it definitely did. But some of that exposure soured the legend, and at the end of the day if there was enough demand by enthusiasts to create MULTIPLE companies to make these kit cars, then obviously the Shelby legend was already well known and publicized. The real cars would very likely still be worth what they’re worth today, and the legacy of the Ford Mustang and the LeMans victories would keep him relevant.
It’s fun and somewhat enlightening to compare Carroll Shelby with Steve Jobs. In spite of very different personal styles and cultures, I think they had more in common than we realize. Not only was Shelby a product visionary, he was a brilliant marketer and salesman, and he was relentless. All qualities we associate with Jobs. Both legends in their fields.
Love it! My favorite color, and those Halibrand style wheels are absolute hotness. Without the rollbar and sidepipes, it seems a bit ‘nekkid’, but as several have pointed out its more correct to the AC Cobra or 289 variants, not so much the 427.
I gotta say, to own and drive Id take a RepliCobra all day long every day. These aren’t exactly ‘cheap’ for a well crafted example but its not a multi million dollar museum piece that I could never enjoy. And having this car out on the twisties is how to truly relish ownership. Being a ‘replica’ means Id be free to make it as accurate or as customized as id want also. Given my biases, Id like this with a 392 Hemi under the hood. Slavery to tradition be damned.
My only real experience with a Cobra replica (or any Cobra for that matter sadly) was helping a friend sell his not-so-great SBC equipped version. At 6’3″, I was literally in pain as I contorted my legs into a position where the steering wheel would move and I could barely heel-toe the 3 pedals, but this might have been my only chance to drive even a copy. I couldn’t pass it up. With bad tags and no insurance, I hauled ass up Moraga Rd. for a couple miles, made one of the most difficult U-turns of my life and sped back to my buddies place. It took 15 minutes and the jaws of life to get me out of that roadster(much longer than the drive), but it was well worth it!
The way prices have skyrocketed on these, at least some of us CC-ers are old enough to have thought, “if only I’d scraped together $x000 back then for one and held on to it………”
Here’s a 289 for sale in Colorado Springs in 1972, $5100. My question for the collective wisdom is, what other cars might one have bought (used) then, maintained in merely decent driver condition, and be worth what a solid “driver” Cobra is today?
FYI: Inflation calculator says that’s $30K today.
There’s something about Cobras and golf courses. A few years ago I was playing at a seaside club when a distant rumble turned into a cavalcade of Cobras using the public access road through the course. Fun part was watching them negotiate the speed bumps at an angle to minimise the sound of graunch.
^^^^^^Hmmmmm…..also 1972, ColoSprings, but not same seller. A 427 for about 1/3 more than the 289 above. Is today’s price spread similar, anyone?
Call me whatever you want, but I have no desire whatsoever to own a Cobra, replica or real (ok, I’d take the real one for investment value).
However, if (in my dreams) I could ever find a genuine AC Ace . . . . that’d be something to die for.
And it would be worth it to pop the hood at a show to proudly show off the Bristol(? – I think) 6 cylinder engine. And it would be fun to explain that I owned, “a genuine AC before Caroll Shelby screwed it up.”
From what I’ve read, a genuine AC Ace is much rarer than any Shelby Cobra.
Three I6 engines were available; AC, Bristol or Ford (Zephyr – Ruddspeed version). I imagine most of these originals went the way of the split window C2.
From what I’ve read, total production of the Ace was in the three figures, and the first number was definitely not “9”.