It was born by Carroll Shelby and a memorable gang of SoCal hot rodders at Dean Moon’s LA area Moon Equipment speed parts production and race car shop in early 1962, as a new Ford “Fairlane” V-8 was lowered into an AC Ace roadster’s empty engine bay. This is where the Cobra legend began.
It was Shelby’s development mule, show car, and press car; regularly repainted several different colors so magazine editors, dealers and prospective buyers would think there was more than one.
Today, CSX2000 is wonderfully worn, but beautiful; metallic blue, and unlikely to change colors again, and worth tens of millions of dollars. Half the gauges don’t work, although the right turn signal does – all the time, even! Who knows how old these rock-hard, Goodyear Motorway Special tires really are? 6.70-15s on the rear, a 6.50-15 on the right front, and a 6.40-15 on the left front.
Thumb the starter button, and the solid-lifter V-8 snaps awake, settling into a slightly cammy, clackety idle. Wisps of blue smoke trail from the dual tailpipes, indicating valves and piston rings that were indeed rode hard. But the little 260 revs willingly, and transforms the first Cobra from a vaunted, horrifyingly valuable museum piece into a tangible sports car with good, old car smells, and loud pipes.
The engine revs easily, speaking lusty, small-block Ford sounds. Each tall gear seems to pull forever. Redline is 5,750 RPM, although it’s been to 7,000 and more, countless times. We dare not take it there anymore, lest one of those original piston rods decides to ventilate the original engine block – something I for sure don’t want to be responsible for. But a crisp 1-2 shift at 5,000 revs brings a bark of the ancient rubber, and suddenly it’s 1962: I’m Sports Car Graphic magazine’s John Christy, doing the very first article on Shelby’s new creation.
There’s plenty of play in the worm-and-sector steering, exacerbated by the junk tires – I’m just happy they hold air. Better not push the handling – no computer-aided-design, electronically managed suspension here; just transverse leaf springs, a somewhat flexi chassis, and worn-out shocks.
That tall rear-end ratio lets the Cobra roll freeway speeds comfortably in third. Fourth feels like overdrive. After a workout, the engine’s hardly smoking now. Another 1-2-3-4 run – at redline this time. Though it wouldn’t much impress a Ferrari, Corvette (or most EVs), the Cobra is legit fast when viewed through the lens of 1962. And none-too-shabby even today; good for a 0-60 in about 5.0 tics.
As I drove The First Cobra through the Nevada desert on this hot summer day, I wondered: how many road tests has this car been through? How many burnouts, speed shifts, and doughnuts has this poor baby laid down? How many books and magazines has this single little roadster appeared in (or on cover)? How many of my journalistic forbears, plus movie stars, racers, engineers, and other hangers on, have worked it through the gears “just one more time,” with a smile on his or her face? Hard to say.
I’m just damn glad to have been one of them.
