Cobra History - Real and Replica

[robert]

With a big big Thankyou to Steve Hole of http://www.totalkitcar.com

Talking Cobra’s

Despite an infinite amount of books on the subject, there are some distinctly grey areas concerning Cobra replica history. Of course companies know full well how many they’ve sold – or haven’t! – but most of the time their information is a bit like the ‘fish that got away’ story and their sales figures miraculously grow by the power of five! Not wishing to sound like the Oracle, because I’m not, but I have been around the kitcar scene for nearly 20 years, interviewed Carroll Shelby and feel a little qualified to spout forth on the subject. In this first part of a new series exclusively for Snake Torque I deal with the history of the fake snake replica movement and in future issues I’ll deal with individual company histories that will build into a Cobra replica A-Z history.

I don’t think there’s ever been a more exciting car than the Cobra. The shape, the sound, the myth the pure sex appeal has been entrancing people since 1962 and even today it remains arguably the most recognised and awe inspiring sportscar in the world.

Most fans will know the basic history of the original car, how AC Cars developed it from the quintessential and very English Ace, and subsequently it found it’s way to the States and the famous ex-Chicken farmer turned Grand Prix racer from Texas, Carroll Shelby put the car on a dose of steroids and pumped up the arches and shoehorned ever increasing V8s under the bonnet. Apparently he woke up in the middle of the night and scribbled the legendary name COBRA onto a piece of paper on his bedside table. Believe that or not and Shelby swears it happened, the truth is that the Cobra is an icon, and everything surrounding it has gone down in folklore. When you think only 1003 of all-types were produced back in the sixties, it’s incredible that nearly 100,000 replicas have been sold.

Here’s the breakdown of how the originals production figures panned out:
Leaf Spring Cobra’s:-

260 ci engine Street Cars 62
260 ci engine Factory ‘works’ racers 4
260 ci engine Factory-prepared racers 1 260 ci engine Independently-prepared racers 7
260 ci engine Dragonsnake 1
260 ci engine production total 75

289 ci engine Street Cars 453
289 ci engine Factory ‘works’ racers:
Standard Competition 2
‘Sebring’ race cars 3
‘LeMans’ race cars 2
‘LeMans replica racers 3
427 Prototype ‘Flip-Top’ bonnet 1
289 FIA cars 5
Daytona Coupés 6
USSRC Roadsters 6
Total 289 ci ‘Works’ race cars 28
289 ci engine Factory-prepared competition cars:
Standard Competition 2
LeMans prototype 1
LeMans ‘replicas’ 3
USRRC roadsters 5
Total Factory prepared competition cars 11

289 ci engine Independently prepared competition cars 21
289 ci engine Dragonsnakes 4
289 ci engine bare chassis for Mercer Cobra 1
289 ci engine Willment Racing Coupé 1
289 ci engine COB/COX Street Cars 59
289 ci engine COB/COX Race Cars 2
289 ci engine Cobra Total 580
Leaf Spring Cobra Total 260 & 289 cars 655

Coil Spring Cobra’s
427 Street Cars 260
427 Prototype Competition Roadsters 2
427 Production Competition Roadsters 19
427 Semi-Competition Roadsters (SC) 31
427 Daytona Super Coupé 1
427 Chassis only 3
427 COB/COX Cars 27
427 Paramount Film Cars 5
Coil Spring Total 348

Making a GRAND TOTAL Leaf & Coil spring cars 1003

For the ‘anoraks’ among us the real truth behind the ‘CSX’ prefix is thus: AC Cars deemed the Cobra to be the third in the series so ‘C’ is logical (third letter of the alphabet, ‘S’ stood for Shelby and ‘X’ came from export. Simple really. I have read some real bull over the years about ‘CSX’.

Arguably original cars are still made today. AC Cars still exist as ‘AC Autocraft’ and the remarkable 80-year old Shelby, complete with someone else’s heart and liver, is still as feisty as ever and still turning out cars prefixed with ‘CSX’ and as he says in a Texan drawl “If it don’t say CSX on the chassis, it ain’t genu-wine”. When I asked him if the fact that he’s now making fibreglass-bodied Cobra’s in kit-form meant that he was in-turn producing replicas……the answer he gave is unprintable suffice to say translated he meant ‘NO’! It’s well documented that Shelby believes vehemently that the Cobra is his and no one else’s and he has actively set out to flex his muscles through the civil courts in the US, and claims he’ll put each ‘rip-off merchant’ out of business one-by-one. It’s not for printing here but my contacts in the USA have told me stories that would make your hair curl! Interestingly GT40 replica manufacturers CAV make his current batch of cars in South Africa.

Moving onto AC Cars. They’ve had a well-documented chequered history but are still trading not far from their original Surrey base and are owned by two South Africans. They were producing a derivative of the original car called the Mk4 that didn’t get particularly good press, but moved onto the Superblower, a £70,000 Cobra with a modern interior and a supercharger, but more recently have added the 212 a version with a turbocharged V8 taken from the Lotus Esprit and the CRS a ‘budget’ £40,000 Cobra with a body made from carbon-fibre.

Anyway that’s the potted history lesson of the original cars and now we’ll look at the replicas. The first replica appeared in 1966 by Allied Industries in the USA when the real cars were still being produced and since that time the US has gone bananas for all things Cobra. There are around 60 manufacturers there churning out replicas with ERA, Unique Motorcars & Kirkham being among the best.

Australia too has a very strong Cobra following and is second to the USA in manufacturer numbers, with around 20 companies supplying a fairly small market. Laurie Bongailas was the ‘first’ in Australia to offer a Cobra replica back in 1979.

South Africa has a strong market too, with CAV now producing Shelby’s cars and in Port Elizabeth a company called Hitech Automotive run by Jimmie Price who makes the Superformance replica and sends 35 cars per month to the USA where the car is sold less engine and gearbox and sells for the equivalent of £20,000. Price is a key figure on the world Cobra and general automotive scene now and half owns AC Cars and also manufactures the Noble M12 among other products. Another of his companies Glassport Motors is currently developing GT40 and GSM Delta replicas. Other significant South African players are Shamrock, Hayden Automotive and Performance Cars. Curiously nearly all the products end up being exported with the domestic market virtually non-existent.

In the UK there’s long been arguments over who was the first company to produce a Cobra replica. In 1978 DJ Sportscars who were making GRP spoiler kits for the ‘go-faster’ brigade were making a two-piece Cobra body for a German customer but there was no chassis, as the body was bashed about to fit BMW’s and the like. One day the guy never came to collect a consignment and the company’s sales manager of the time Adrian Cocking (later of Ram) kept nagging MD Brian Johns to do something with the bodies because he could see a good market in the UK for them. These cars became known as the ‘Exchange & Mart’ cars because that is where the company placed anonymous adverts for them. Soon they were so swamped with enquiries that the postman used to bring vanloads of mail each day. Incidentally it was Cocking who coined the ‘DAX’ name after reading a Harold Robbins novel with a hero called Dax. By early 1981 Brian Johns could see the potential for ‘proper’ kits with a chassis and some involvement with a guy called Dave Perry who had gained access to an American body produced by Steve Arntz that had been available since 1976 in California. This body has spawned the majority of the other Cobra replicas both past and present and also began the legend that became known as the Dax Tojeiro after later chassis input from John Tojeiro a man with history steeped in AC Ace history. Initially DJ were getting basic frames from Hanson Engineering run by a mad Kiwi called Pat Hanson. Indeed the ‘Toj’ goes from strength to strength and the latest derivative has de Dion suspension no less.

Other UK pioneers were Unique Autocraft with their Python also coincidentally based in Harlow new town like Dax, and they were literally just behind their rival by days in bringing their replica to the market. The Python continued until 1993 when it disappeared due to Unique’s main business of street rod’s taking off. It was resurrected by RV Dynamics last year and is now produced in Sri Lanka of all places and based on BMW 5-Series.

Hawk’s Gerry Hawkridge was also one of the first producers of the 427 copy as he was producing a car for BRA , and Howard Brooker of Metaline was busy at the same time in Wisbech, taking a mould off a real car to get his offering. Only problem was he forgot to take a splash off the bonnet, which is why the Metaline has a curious, shaped bonnet and air-scoop. The Metaline is still available but sells in minute numbers incorporating a whole host of additions including leather door pockets and Howard Brooker will basically accommodate any requests his customers make. If you want a fur-lined dashboard then you can have one.

Among the others right there in the early days was Brian Nichols of Southern Roadcraft who knew Pat Hanson and was also aware of the ‘Exchange & Mart’ Daxes. It was from this association that the well-known SR V8 was born. Another Cobra replica soon to make a comeback with Madgwick Cars.

Adrian Cocking left DJ Sportscars to form LR Roadsters (when Cocking was looking for a name for his new company he spotted a drum of resin made by L&R and used that!) and it was only logical given his early Dax beginnings that he should devise his own Cobra. The Ram SC as it was called had a chassis designed by ace racecar designer Adrian Reynard and in a later publicity stunt they even managed to get Carroll Shelby himself to endorse the product by signing the dashboard of a limited number. The Ram is no longer with us but it was a highly capable car as Cheng Lim of Thunder Road Cars continues to prove even now with regular wins in his Ram in the 750 Motor Club Sports Racing & GT Championship.

Other early contenders included the Sheldonhurst, complete with its wide front arches and distinctive stance, caused by the use of wider track Ford Granada suspension components. This car lives on in the Autotrack Cobretti and Classic Replicas Viper.

Later on by the mid-eighties Pilgrim Cars introduced their Sumo replica that has gone on to become the best selling Cobra kit in the UK with nearly 3,500 finding homes. Pilgrim brought Cobra ownership to the masses by giving people the opportunity to utilise humble donors such as the Ford Cortina & Sierra rather than standard fare Jaguar XJ6 and even shock, horror fit four cylinder engines. Such was the clamour to join the Cobra replica explosion almost anything goes, and around the world there are companies producing Beetle and Mazda MX-5 based versions and even in Indonesia a Cobra based on the Suzuki SJ. Pilgrim now under the control of Tony Holmes still service the budget end of the market but have moved their product a little upmarket.

The latest donor to find favour is the BMW in either E30 (3-Series) or E34 (5-Series) guise. The parts are affordable, reliable and crucially offer rear wheel drive ability. Whether they will take over from the Jaguar remains to be seen.

The cool thing about Cobra’s is that there’s a place for all tastes and pockets. For the purists there’s Hawk Cars with their 289’s and latterly as agent for Kirkham with the aluminium shells famously made in a former MIG-fighter factory in Poland and John Kerr at Crendon, who also makes Cobras of Faberge egg like quality. For those that aspire to the Cobra shape but want more modern underpinnings there’s the superb Gardner Douglas GD427 with its Elan-like backbone spaceframe and foam reinforced bodyshell. The GD offers the perfect harmony between a bit of purism and also stunning ability with many successes on the racetrack over the last 10 years. Another Cobra made in very small numbers that differs from the norm is the Magnum, and it sits wider and much lower than most others and attracts its own customers for that very reason, and is also a very capable car. Another highly respected Cobra is the AK 427 made by family run AK Sportscars in Peterborough who happily churn out around 15 cars a year of the highest order. Another company differing from the accepted norm is Fiero Factory who produce the Euro 427 for the budget end of the market and aren’t afraid to install Mercedes or BMW engines into their cars.

Here’s the current list of UK Cobra replica makers……..over the coming issues we’ll deal with the past in our A-Z guide to fake snakes:-

AK Sportscars AK 427
Autotrack Cobretti Viper
Classic Replicas Viper
Crendon Replicas CR 427
DJ Sportscars Dax Tojeiro
Fiero Factory Euro 427
Gardner Douglas GD 427
Hawk Cars Hawk 289 & Kirkham range
Madgwick Cars SR V8
Magnum Engineering SF 427
Metaline 427
Pilgrim Cars UK Ltd Sumo
Roman Kitcars KD 289
RV Dynamics Python

The Cobra may be 41 years old, but it still has the ability to reduce most men (and many women too) to gibbering wrecks and if anything it seems that there’s about to be another rise in popularity, with the CRC finding new members weekly, all attracted like you by the sex appeal and myth that is the Cobra.

Words by Steve Hole – Editor of www.totalkitcar.com

[MetaJacko]

Hi Robert,

Interesting, although I don't have a 'fur-lined dashboard' :P

This was in ST a while back wasn't it?

Are you going to put this someware permanantly on the site?

Paul

[robert]

Yep, it was in ST a while back and I will be putting it somewhere more permanent in the future.

[dingocooke]

Very interesting for a beginning Cobra chap like me, have you also seen www.cobratrader.com/html/cobrahistory.html an american site with a very interesting picture based history from ac to current kits. Cheers!:thumb:

[mate]

Robert,


Can you please advise of the actual current address and contact details of the AC Factory?

I will be in England over the New Year and would like to see the place if possible.

Thanks

Don

[Peranah]

Hi Robert

A question for you. Did Shelby ever build Cobra's with chevy small block? Even for testing?
looking forward to your reply.
Many Thanks
Clive

[kdavies3]

Folklore has it that Shelby wanted to use a Chevrolet engine when he concepted the car. Chevrolet (GM) would not give him license to use the engines so second choice was Ford. :thumb:
whether he ever built prototypes with Chevy lumps I don't know.

[mylesdw]

Nice article Robert!

Do you remember the 4x4 cobra produced by LR, all based around Sierra Cosworth components?

Around the time of the "exchange and mart cobras" there was also a strange bearded chap known only as 'Chuzzy' selling cobra bodies out of a barn in East Anglia!

[Dragonsnake Pilot]

Robert,

As a new member and owner of one of Shelby's drag racing Cobras, my first search through the forum was, not surprisingly, for "dragonsnake." Your article came up as the one and only hit!! I guess drag racing isn't as popular in the UK as it is in the United States.

If anyone would like to learn more about Shelby's quarter-mile land rockets, there is a new commercial-free website dedicated to them: www.dragonsnakes.com

Hal
CSX2019

[beachcomber]

Hi All,
Nice History Steve - anyone who has seen my entry in the "newbie" section will read that "I imported 2 Steve Arntz cars back in 1978 [ January to be precise ] built one in the Midlands, one ended up near Harlow. That WAS the car under discussion that Dave Perry obtained [ via "Muscle City" in Birmingham]- so do I get everyone's pat on the back for bringing the car into the UK that spawned thousands? It was quite strange to see all of the subsequent offerings that were claimed to be "taken from a real car", ALL displaying the very same flaws as the first Arnzt cars!!!!! Incidentally, the Sheldonhurst cars were produced SPECIFICALLY for the German market [ Mohr in Stuttgart ] around the Granada donor, as it was the only way at the time they could guarantee to get TUV approval - which they did. This resulted in the flared fenders to cover the unmodified front beam and rear axle - mods to either would have meant TUV was virtually impossible. Take a look in "Shelby's Wildlife" to see a precedent for the body mods.!
Pre-dating ALL of this, I had a deal with two guys in Birmingham [ 1977] who had a Cobra body in two halves [front/rear]. Muscle City was to produce a chassis and they were to produce GRP bodies. After 2 months development work on the chassis - they got cold feet AND SOLD THE 2 BODY HALVES TO SOMEONE ELSE [?]. I got seriously miffed and went to see my old pal Keith Harvie [ "Americar" fame - later PWA] in Tarzana ,Calif. He was building a 427ci side oiler monster Cobra and agreed to broker a deal with Steve Arnzt for 2 Kits / bodies. At the time Arntz refused to export cars / kits as he [ quite wisely ] expected they would be splashed. However,, he was quite happy to send 2 kits to Harvie in California. That was October 1977 - the kits arrived in January 1978 - the rest as they say, is History.
Strange now that I am still involved with both Mohr and RAM after some 25 years!
Hmmmm - Chuzzy Chussington - he would be the guy that tried to sell me a kit based on a Stainless Steel chassis - from a dimly lit garage along with someone else in the industry who should have known better [ and will remain anonymous to save their current blushes]. The "Stainless Steel" chassis turned out to be Mild Steel coated in a tin of Halford's finest "Stainless Steel Wheel Spray"! Not only was this painfully obvious to anyone who had worked with the material - but they'd even left the empty cans in the corner of the garage!
Beachcomber