I was recently at a friend’s machine shop and saw this hanging in the rafters. I recognized it as a Cobra body and he explained it was a fibergl*** body by Paul Bennett out of Hayward. Apparently before my time, he told me it would fit on a 91” wheelbase ch***is. It looks to be really well made and complete including doors, window frame, boot lid, bonnet, and seats. Anybody ever built one of these? I was told Bennett built a ch***is as well but don’t think they’re in business anymore. The little research I discovered online stated that it might fit on a Factory Five ch***is. It’s for sale and looks to be a cool project. But I’m not going to engineer a ch***is for this thing due to the amount of hours involved nor for I have a jig. Yay or nay? Any advice as to weather a bit better than novice mechanic should get involved with a project like this. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Go for it! I love Cobras... Take it in small project at a time and before you know it, you’re driving it. I wouldn’t shy away from a project like that. r Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
My buddy built a Factory 5 with duel quad 427 , center Oiler . I want to do a 289 car now , just now sure about who makes a decent body and frame
I've been building these things since 1988, so I know a little. If you don't know how to fabricate and weld, my advice is to look at one of the kit car companys, F5 , ShellValley, Hurricane, ERA, and many others out there,, already ***embled? ( bring your wallet)just add motor/trans, look at , Superformance, Kirkham, and the grand daddy of them all Shelby American . I supplied Randalls 289 DragSnake body, look up his thread for what it takes starting from scratch.
Certainly take a look at my build thread: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/drag-snake-vintage-terror.1081919/ I will tell you, I have built a lot of cars in my time and some I think (before the Cobra) I even referred to as from the ground up. HOWEVER...that was not really the case. LOL As @Cheetahman said he supplied me with basically what you are staring at there in the rafters, a Cobra body. Looking at the photos it is obviously based off what I think would loosely be called the Cobra second generation. The body I have, which by the way is incredible, is the first gen or what they call slab side or small block etc. etc. The one in the rafters is based off what nearly all other Cobra body makers use, the 427 car. So here is what I really never considered, it is all the small stuff that we take for granted on most project cars that totally bite you in the backside... Door, Hood and Trunk latch catches. Simply thing right. On most project cars they are there. They may need cleaned up or shimmed up or replaced but they are there or there is at least a place engineered for them. Not here. Not only do you have to figure out how the latches work and what the exact position and orientation they have to be in but you have to engineer something to the ch***is that not only holds the latch catch but is not in the way of one of the hundred or two more things coming after it. On a Cobra all that stuff is engineered to the ch***is not the body itself. The body just mounts there and then the hood, trunk and doors mount by themselves BUT must fit their respective holes in the body. Imagine taking the body off and then putting the hood, doors and trunk on the ch***is. That is exactly how it works. AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THEIR HINGES! LOL Without a kit, YOU must engineer every single aspect of the car. Take for instance the track width. If you want the front wheels to fit right, you not only have to make sure whatever front end system you use is centered in the wheel well but fits correct left to right. So you basically have to decide up front how wide the frame rails are going to be because that affects what "A" arms you can used etc. You also have to decide how high or low or where to mount these arms to keep the wheel correctly in the well not to mention the correct final geometry. You almost need to know exactly what wheel and tire combination you are going to run so you can choose the correct offset or adjust the ch***is etc. I am pretty good at math but we decided early on no way we put any of these calculations to paper and start ordering parts. We actually had the exact wheels and tires for the car mounted and balanced ready to roll before we even cut the first frame rail runner. This stuff is only the tip of the iceberg. Just a couple of what for me has been hundreds of obstacles to climb. If I had it to do over, I would snag the 62 'Vette drag car I was looking at around the same time as we decided to build the Cobra without a second thought. I am not trying to scare you away from it, especially if like me you have an affinity for the Cobra. But I will say for me, I would not do it again. It is also why when someone looks at it and says is this the real thing or a kit car, I consider life in prison might just be worth taking them out! A build like this can sort of put you in that frame of mind...LMAO!
It is currently listed on fb marketplace https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...wse_serp:d384ad2d-c866-40ac-8ca4-5c99854d4106
This is a REAL Dragonsnake- specifically #2 of 2 factory built cars. There were a few others, but they were outside copy builds with parts bought from Shelby. #1 was driven by Tony Stoer, #2 by Jere Kirkpatrick
When I wrote for KitCar we had an annual Cobra Kit car manufacturer article with all the companies. I think there were about 53 manufacturers at the time. The most copied car design. Shelby tried to sue everyone and lost. He had not protected the shape. Shelby had lost all his Cobra, GT350, GT500 etc trademarks to Ford in Aug of 1967 for not paying them back for his 1962 startup loan. Ford did successfully sue anyone who use the names they owned. Ford made a Fox body with GT350 on it. Shelby sued and then got reminded he had lost the trademarks. They licensed him to use Cobra on his 2 seat continuation cars. In mid 67 he became a contractor to race in the TransAm for 2 years as Shelby Racing Company - at the end of the contract the cars and spares (that belonged to Ford) were sent to Bud Moore. He also got a personal services contract to be the face of Ford's wholly owned Shelby Automotive company that built the 68 & 69 cars. He got a similar contract in 2005 when Ford decided sticking SVT, SVO, GT350 and GT500 hadn't increased the sale of their performance pony cars enough. At first he wanted $1,000 per car to use his name. He got a 5 year 12 million dollar personal services contract. In reality Shelby even had little input into the cars Shelby American produced in the 60s. They did the V8 swap into the AC to produce the 289 Cobra. Ford's ch***is engineer Klaus Arning did the 427 coil spring ch***is that AC built. He also did all the changes for the 65 GT350 (Pete Brock did the styling - but Ford had to approve it). By mid 66 all the ch***is changes were discontinued to speed up production and the underpinnings of all future Shelbys came right off the Ford production line and were the same as every other pony car they built. The bulbous 427 body was also a Ford design as was the 1967 Shelby styling. While it was styled in LA it was done by Ford's designer Charlie McHose. 68 & 69 were done in Detroit. The 69s sold like turds so many of them got new VIN tags that said they were 1970 cars but in actuality they were all built in 69.
There were 5 factory built Dragon Snakes. There were also 1965 GT350 drag cars built. Shelby American had noted Ford drag racer Les Ritchey build those in his Glendora shop. He was also Gas Ronda's go to guy which is why Gas moved from Downtown Motors in Los Angeles where he ran a Galaxie in 63 and a Tbolt in 64 to Russ Davis Ford in Covina - 2 miles from Les' shop. Gas took his Tbolt to Russ Davis with him and once he got one of the Ford cammer pony cars they were p***ing out the rest is history. Actually he got 2 of the cars. The first was destroyed in a test when an axle broke. Since it wasn't Gas' fault they gave him the car they had kept aside as a PR car.
$1,000-1,500 MAX if it's hand laminated and has the hood, trunk and doors. This would be a very expensive project to finish. Do like we did with just a body we got free - turn it into a hot tub. The body came from John Kube in AZ and a friend owned Sundance Spas and they did the tub and plumbing.
When you hang around with folks who were there, it just confirms what everyone knows, that Shelby was one of the greatest ********ters of all time, and would sell you anything you could think of, as many times as he could lol. I won't debate the degrees of "factory built", only comment on what I know for sure. The first one, CSX2019, was built by Tony, Jere and Randy Shaw, and principally driven by Tony, the "Aimer". Tony got drafted into the Army, that car was sold. Second car is CSX2357, that was principally driven by Jere, and a record holder with him driving. For accuracy's sake, they are the two factory prepared and raced cars. Tony is a personal friend, and I know Jere casually. A few pics- first, Jere and Tony being interviewed, with CSX2357 on their left, and P1015, the genuine Ken Miles/ Denny Hulme 1966 LeMans MKIIGT40 on the right. Real deal car, on loan for an event. Also the #5 Ronnie Bucknam/ **** Hutcherson car, also on loan. And most of the FIA race cars, some original paint. And a real gem, Cobra #1, CSX2000, also on loan for the event- the one that got painted over and over for different magazine articles. I have been lucky enough to be around these cars since 1965, and nowadays can put my fingerprints on many of them- and then wipe them down. Life is good
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