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The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2015 259
OPPOSITE LOCK: COBRA MISIDENTIFIED – IT’S NO DAILY BEATER
Within hours of the Summer 2015
issue’s being posted on our website, we
received an email from Jim Sfetko
who advised us that the car we de-
scribed as CSX2483, the daily beater
small block Cobra pictured on page 11,
was actually CSX2533, owned by Jim
Barrett of Huntington Beach, Califor-
nia. Aside from both cars being the
same dark green color, this one had
some visible trunk lid damage which
led us to misidentify the car. The large
dent in the trunk was the result of a
ladder falling on it in Barrett’s garage.
Ouch! We hate when that happens!
tural changes. The decision was made
to build-out additional cars using
parts on hand, but to be legal they had
to be built to Canadian specifications.
As a result, the second batch of Cana-
dian cars was actually 177 units.
Canadian vehicle safety standards
of the day required more bumper pro-
tection than US standards. For that
reason, Canadian build vehicles re-
ceived a unique front bumper with
more dense foam in it and the rear
bumper was spaced out from the body
an additional two inches. The rear
bumper on the production GT is an
abomination anyway, and pushing it
out there another two inches makes it
look even worse.
It’s not uncommon for owners of
Canadian GTs to remove the Cana-
dian bumper extensions so the rear
bumper tucks back into the rear body-
work. Without question that improves
the car’s silhouette. However, it is kind
of surprising to see a modification like
this done to a car that is supposedly
brand-new and has never been driven.
There is an explanation for that, no
doubt, but it may take some time to
surface.
It is still difficult to believe that
someone could have a car like this sit-
ting in a garage for ten years without
driving it.