22 / 113
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2016 22
Jeff Gregg was accompanying his son
Gunnar at a Wisconsin Dells arcade
when they happened on this Cobra
video game. Naturally, Gunnar hopped
in the driver’s seat and it was difficult
to explain what “game over” meant.
Sure looks like a cobra to us. We spot-
ted this racing team logo on the side of
a Can-Am Lotus V8 from the mid-
1960s. “Ecurie” is
French for stable, a
common term for a
group of cars raced by a
team. The “SF” on the
Ferrari prancing horse
logo stands for “stabile
Ferrari,” Ferrari’s racing team.
Doug Henry’s dealership in Kinston, North Carolina is advertised on this large
billboard. When Doug Cresanta spotted it he wondered how many ‘69 Shelbys
Henry had in his inventory? After all, if he only had one car on the lot would it
make sense to advertise it on a billboard? What is he going to tell potential
buyers who are attracted to his business: “
Sorry, we don’t have any of those
left. But perhaps I might interest you in a really sweet, low mileage ‘62 Ply-
mouth Valiant?
”
Here’s an example of what it takes to
be an eagle eye: picking out the small
image of a Cobra on a full-page car
show flier. The eagle eye belongs to
Doug Cresanta who notes that this
event, held in Lutz, Florida, is being
put on by a Chevy dealer. You’d think
they could at least use a Corvette or
Camaro on their own flier. But we all
know that a Cobra has drawing power.
Colleen Kopec was settling down to
watch the National Geographic chan-
nel, expecting to see the exploits of
cute and fuzzy hamsters, chipmunks
or prairie dogs but she found herself
staring at a hooded cobra. The show
was called “Cobra Mafia” and it was
immediately obvious it wasn’t going to
be about the Brooklyn gangster
Carmine “The Snake” Persico, Boss of
the Columbo crime family who is cur-
rently serving a 139-year sentence in
federal prison. The cobra family in this
program were reptilian assassins
more deadly than any mafia goomba.
If this billboard doesn’t catch your eye
it might be time to consider a sub-
scription to
Knitting & Quilting Quar-
terly
. They could have chosen any
other car for this ad: a Corvette,
Porsche or Ferrari. But they didn’t.