- BODY: Auto World (copy of Aurora original)
- WHEELS & TIRES: Road Race Replicas
Getting near the end of the sports car fleet now, where 2 years’ worth of “Meet The Fleet”, “New Builds” and “The Replacements” posts have shown you almost my entire collection. This bright red Auto World Cobra is certainly one of my older cars, and as an “interesting” (maybe that’s debatable!) information tidbit, it is the very first car on which I put a number decal back when I bought my first water slide decal set, when I was figuring out that I was buying enough sportscars to build a racing fleet. She still wears that same racing number today, and still runs on the chassis she was originally mounted on after I bought this as a body only on ePay. I’ve always thought the Cobra roadster is one of those cars that really looks great in bright red (though in truth there is not a color a Cobra roadster doesn’t look good in), and I bought this one back when these things were still comparatively cheap.
Of course I added the driver, and if I had to do over again I would choose a different driver, since this dude seems a little too “casual.” He’s fine for a street car (I’ve used this same figure in some of the Road Crew ‘verts) but for a racing driver, I’m not sure anyone ever looks this relaxed…especially when driving a Cobra!
The Mk I Cobra was introduced in 1962 featuring a 260 cu. in. engine, installed only in the first 75 cars produced. Of these 75 cars, 62 were produced for the street, including “Crowd Pleaser”, the descriptive name of this completely restored street car turned race car owned by Hans “Headway” Hudson of Dana Point, CA. The 48th of the first 75 cars, this Cobra left Shelby’s workshop in December of 1962 wearing AC wire wheels. The car apparently had hard a life, because when Mr. Hudson bought it in 1975 it was a tow-away fitted with a Ford 302, its original engine nowhere to be found. The car had already been used as a racer, though, and had acquired a set of white racing stripes before being wrecked and stored, so the new owner decided to carry that tradition on.
Over the course of the following 3 years Hudson went through the car restoring every detail, including finding a correctly date-coded 260 block for it, though it has customized heads and non-stock intake and exhausts. The wheels are now the aluminum Halibrand type like those that would have been on a competition-built car.
Hudson has always taken the attitude that his appearances at Drag City are more for exhibition than competition, but that’s not to say he hasn’t won his share of races! Even if it has the smallest engine, its still a Cobra, which means it’s feather-light, power-to-weight ratio makes it faster than most other sports cars on the track, and it can brake better than most, as well. Hudson has no plans to modify the car further, and who would argue that it needs to be?
