Classic Cobra
As a car
enthusiast, there are few cars that are elusive to the eyes. Less elusive are
the sounds. Every now and then something starts up, you turn your head in the
direction of the rumble and you are blessed with the vision of something that
you will have a hard time forgetting. These moments occur every time a well
done Cobra fires up at a car chow or cruise in. These cars are almost always a
kit car (because an actual one is too expensive to risk the crowds drooling
over) but some have been done so well that you might have a hard time picking
one apart from a real one. The noise they make is music to the muscle car enthusiasts’
ears (although I am pretty sure these are considered more of a sports car) and
the rumble of a properly done 427 passing by you slowly at a car show just
makes you smile. If you are blessed by witnessing someone enjoying their
creation and blessing you with a burnout or a short hard pull, you know exactly
what I mean.
Mattel did
another great job depicting the bulky yet swoopy lines of the classic fenders
and the overall style of the car. The opening hood reveals a well detailed
engine and the hoods open similar to the real cars (not quite fully open). The
interiors are done well with plenty of details to let you close your eyes and
dream of being behind the wheel of your very own beast. There have been a wide range of versions of paint
jobs for the casting, but my favorites of all time are the iconic blue and
white 'real riders' edition from 1983 shown here:
A close
second is the red with black tampos that was used on several different card styles
through the years. It does surprise me that this casting was not in the
original 16 line up but there was a reason I am sure. This is still a fun car
to collect. There are still castings found in the mainline and are pretty easy
to find when released. There are so many versions that you can find one at
almost any flea market or yard sale for a decent price and if you are an EBAY
shopper, there were 362 listings at the time of this writing and they were all
relatively inexpensive save for a few older real rider or treasure hunt
versions.
And
what of the little monster in real life? I had to do some outside research for
this one as these were not around on the streets much and I don’t personally
know anyone that has one. I went to Wikipedia’s page for the AC Cobra to get
some general information. The Cobra or AC Cobra started out in 1962 and
featured a 260 or 289 Ford V8. The curb weight was 2019 lbs. Most of the work
was performed in the UK by AC Cars. They were then air freighted in chassis
form to the US where Carol Shelby’s outfit put the drivetrains in and began
testing them. [1] Minor body changes and refinements came for the 63-65 models
but only a 289 was offered. Then it got serious. Muscle cars were starting to
rumble, the Corvette was getting popular and more powerful, Ford had to do
something. They did. For the 65-67 models, the standard (and powerful enough)
289 was continued but a new monster was ready to take the streets with the
introduction of the 427 that produced 425 bhp and 485 lbs of torque. [2] There
were some special models and some interesting history that followed the AC
Cobra and I suggest if you are interested in these cars, take a look at the
Wikipedia page to check out some of these facts Link below). I suspect these
cars made a huge impact on the automotive industry after some time but they
were really designed to keep the upper scale buyer from looking at the Jaguars,
Ferraris and Porsches of the same time frame. They did sell well but very few
were produced.
I hope you have had a trip down a memory lane in your own
Cobra experience or maybe in Hot Wheels format. Happy collecting, hunt those
pegs and may you be blessed by TH Nessy.
As always, although I own the actual diecast pictured in
these posts, all artwork, logos, car names, paint descriptions and wheel
descriptions in regards to the Hot Wheels versions are copyrights of the Mattel
toy company.
Shelby is a trademark of Carroll Shelby licensing and Cobra
is a trademark of the Ford Motor Company.
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