Dennis Gage: Here we are at the Desoto Speedway down in Bradenton Florida.  One of these awesome cars, the 427 Cobra and its lucky owner, David Loebenberg who actually has this and a couple other beauties.  But today we’re going to talk about this masterpiece.  Possible the most powerful, awesome sports car ever built.  David, you’re a lucky man.

Well, there are a couple of other guys that have one.  But this one’s a little special.

It’s a full race.

Full competition Cobra.  Dry sump oil system.  One of three.

One of three.  It actually has a race history of sorts?

It has a race history.  The car number is 3020 and it was originally built and taken to Europe to be a back-up care to the GT40 cars at Le Mans.  And it’s documented in the sack registry.  Also the car has an assorted history of drivers and historical events.  And at one time the car was painted yellow with a big black stripe over it.  I mean a big black “X.”  And I’ve been fortunate enough to document that.  So I’m real happy to have that photograph.  I don’t believe it’s been seen by too many people.

The competition version, the full race version, had certain differences from the “SC” version, the semi-comp version or what people call the street competition or the regular, just the plain old 427 Cobra.  If there is such a thing.  It had wider rear flares, bigger tires.  It also had the side pipes.

Right.  The history of the car dates back to when Carroll Shelby was originally building them.  They were pretty much all comp cars but as with these days and most days, racers run short of funds and one of Carroll’s friends suggested that they document the cars for street use.  Therefore, they came up with the “SC” version.  But some were specifically set aside for comp cars at that time.

And this is a 65 but titled in 66, if I understand?  They say this thing was built on a couple of fundamental, all American premises at the time.  And that was there ain’t no substitute for cubic inches.  And that if a big engine’s good, a bigger engine’s better.  And this was sort of Carroll’s dream to build this car.

That’s correct.  Basically, they just took the 289 chassis and modified it to hold the bigger tires and a little deeper suspension.

They put bigger tubes on it, I believe.

Bigger tubes.

And the thing really is under this aluminum body is largely a couple rails and a huge engine.

That’s truly it.  The racers of those days have my blessing.  For the amount of arm power they had to use to steer these cars to victory.

Now David, take me through the interior of the full comp Cobra.

Well basically, as again there really isn’t a lot of difference between the true comp Cobra and the street version other than this particular car.  When they did the historical racing back in the late 80’s – I’m sorry early 80’s – they were required to put a fire system in it which you can tell by the center red knob.  Of course behind that is a fire extinguisher.  So it’s been slowly modified to run in today’s vintage races.  But other than that it was pretty much standard this is the package.

Quite a shifter.  It points forward.  I guess you need that for the lack of elbow room in there.

Exactly.  What it is, to be honest with you, is a 65 Mustang shifter turned around backwards.  Carroll was very ingenious to use whatever he could from Ford Motor Company and the time.

Yeah, ingenious is a great word.  This whole back end is gas tank.  That’s a 40…

Over 42-gallon tank.

42-gallon tank.  Wow!  And imagine it got great mileage, I’m sure.

I don’t think mileage was a concern of the day.

It’s a 427 side oiler.  Let’s have a look at it.

Take me through it, David.

Well, the thing that makes this car unusual – and I get a lot of questions about this – is this filler cap right here.  They always wonder why is there two filler caps on this car?  For being a dry sump oil system, the oil is not in the oil case.  The oil is kept in a separate case and it’s pumped through the engine.  It makes it a lot safer and it also adds horsepower.  Today, all the Winston Cup cars that you see out running around the Winston Circuit, they are all dry sump oil cars.

And as much as they spend at an angle you probably have to have that.

Exactly.  And other than that it’s a 427 side oiler, aluminum head.  It’s just pretty much the way it was back in 1967.

Cranking out what kind of horsepower?

This car’s never been dyno-tuned but I would say it’s pretty much in the area of 550/600 horsepower.  And probably the rear wheels upwards of 350 to 390.

Spectacular!  With being the race version, she’s got the big wide tires on back and those aren’t narrow on front.  Wired on knock-offs too.

Everything was done for safety back then.  Even now.  And the car was delivered originally.  This particular color is called “Rangoon Red” and most of the cars were just left aluminum.  And the number 13 was part of the original paint scheme for this car.  So when it was restored and it was authenticated by Dave Durell this is how the car came out of restoration.  That was about 10 years ago.

We’re on a track.  You don’t suppose we could take it for a spin, do you?

I suppose we could.  I think Carroll would like that.

I think he would too.  Let’s do this one for Carroll.

Okay great.  Let’s go.

There’s simply no way to describe the sensation of riding in a 427 competition Cobra.  David never pushed the car to its limits but we did do a few fast laps.  The Cobra is an animal capable of generating incredible G-forces.  On this half mile oval I had trouble keeping my head straight because of the cars awesome ability to accelerate, brake and corner.  In fact, the tamer street version called the 427 SC, is capable of accelerating from 0 to 100 miles per hour and braking back to 0 in 13.8 seconds.  30 years later only a handful of production sports cars have ever bettered that time.

Now that’s what Carroll’s all about.

And we’ve proven that this mustache is not Cobra proof.  The experience of my life, David!