Messages

I don't get the supposed missing VIN issue. If the damage was to the right hand front of the car, there is no factory VIN to be damaged. The factory VIN on a rack and pinion small block Cobra is on the left front A-arm mount. It should still be there if the car was damaged at the right front.

EDIT: I am clearly getting old. While in my mind I recall a VIN on my 289's LEFT a-arm, a friend has corrected me and explained it's actually on the right. OK, I guess the idea of this car losing its VIN is believable.

There are additional areas where a VIN should be in the event there is any question as to the car's validity.

Well...a nice thought, but if a family did acquire a Cobra way back when, and just drove it around their small town occasionally, never sharing any information about it...maybe the unknown car could yet exist up in the wilds of NH. But the idea that no one in 60 years has said, til now, "Hey, I saw a Cobra up in East Goshawful yesterday - anyone know anything about it?" is hard to accept.

We list no red 289s in NH but have 4 in the Registry in MA.

Tim: Sadly, you are not alone. That's what we all got.

Roy, it's not a question of "beating him down now that he's dead." A good number of Cobra owners have known about this for many years. We never felt the need to expand the issue further as that would have been "bad form" and it became quite apparent that nothing was going to be done to rectify the situation.

In the event the Cobra enthusiast mentioned in a prior post - who lost the negatives he bought after Dave "borrowed" them back - has any desire to comment or correct any details, I would welcome that.

(Ned, don't you miss your Lake Pacid "cottage"? ~E)
[/quote]

Earl, I still use it every chance I get. Thankfully there is nothing to miss.

There was a serious issue with Dave's negatives many years ago. A well-known and highly respected Cobra enthusiast in the LA area made an offer to Dave to purchase every one of his Shelby-related negatives, and a deal was struck at what both considered a rational amount, well into the thousands of dollars. This was during the time when Shelby products were considered more curiosities than collectibles, and before their values exploded. Dave made sure to warn his buyer about allowing untrustworthy types to "borrow" any of the negatives, and suggested the possibility that he might not get them back if he were to lend them out. It wasn't roughly a year after he acquired them that the buyer was approached by Friedman himself, who explained that he had been approached by a publisher who proposed a book project that Dave said he would be glad to work on but he no longer had his negatives. So Dave made a strong pitch to the buyer, explaining that if he could briefly borrow his old negatives, he would be extremely grateful. Of course the buyer said yes and allowed Dave to use his negatives. But as time went on and Friedman showed no interest to bringing them back, a call was made asking when the buyer could expect to have the negatives returned. That's when Dave's true colors arose and he said, "Look, you dumb bastard, I warned you that if you ever lent out those negatives there was a good chance you might never get them back!" And he hung up. No, he never made any restitution to the individual who had bought and paid for the negatives. This explains my disdain for one Dave Friedman, photographer.

Here's something I always wondered about: if Dave was paid for his work at Shelby American, who actually owned the various photos he took? Him, or Shelby? I compare it to a wedding photographer - the photographer is paid for his or her work and the photos are owned by the family. I'd enjoy hearing thoughts on this.

I had the opportunity to meet Jack Paveling several years ago at the Hershey swap meet in PA, and we discussed his recollections of racing 2043 over breakfast. He explained that he felt completely comfortable with the car's abilities and was aware of its unique handling characteristics. His difficulty at the last hillclimb resulted from the fact that the pavement was dry at the bottom of the hill but there had been some unexpected showers at the top that no one seemed to be aware of. So Jack came around a corner and the road suddenly became extremely slick, at which point the car slid or hydro-planed off the road, rolling over twice and coming to rest upside down. The roll bar is credited with saving Jack's life, and his recuperation took a good while. He sold the car soon thereafter.

Very sad. Have known Doug since our club days back in NJ and have stayed in touch once he moved roughly 45 minutes north in FL. I'll miss his special camaraderie and friendship. RIP, friend.

Regrettably, the Cobra Registry has no listing for a green Cobra in the state of WI. It may have been sold, or maybe it's off the radar. We don't know.

Here's a shot of the unusual AC "Greyhound" which they produced between 1959 - 1962. See if the grille reminds you of anything. And then there is a shot of an Ace 2.6, in this case RS5004 which was built in the summer of '61.

Ken Rudd, a local AC dealer who enjoyed racing the cars, came up with the idea of stuffing a 2.6 liter 6-cylinder Ford Zephyr engine into an Ace, which had used a 2000 cc 6 up until that time. AC decided to build a small run of these cars, but the height of the engine mandated a slight redesign of the nose. They made it a little taller and used a grille out of the Greyhound coupe, turned  upside down. It looked great and became the same nose used on the small-block Cobras.