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Originally Posted by 67 king cobra
Hi,
The early cars were Coopers, built for Shelby in 1963 and/or 64. Officially these early cars were called Cooper Fords and it was an article back on September 28, 1963 that used the term King Cobra for it. The Shelby team never used the term King Cobra for this car, but the nickname stuck. Shelby reference to the cars back in the day for the entries etc. were Cooper Fords, not one entry with the name King Cobra.
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Hello, I’m Dave MacDonald’s son Rich.
Congats on obtaining the car and I wish you well on the restoration.
You’re right in that during 1963 & 1964, Shelby American never referred to the Cooper Fords as King Cobras. For promotional reasons the cars were always listed in official race entries and press releases as Cooper
Fords. Ford was financially backing the entire Shelby Cobra movement and considering the car’s blockbuster success you can understand why they wanted their brand associated with the car. I can tell you though that the race team, my father & mother included, did like the King Cobra nickname and in fact commonly referred to it as that.
Yes the first King Cobras were called many things, Cooper-Cobra, Cooper Cobra Monaco, Cooper Monaco, and in the Aug ’63 issue of Sports Car Magazine they called it the “Super Cobra”. But clearly it was the media's use of the catchy term “King Cobra” that stuck … like glue. Like you my research shows the first King Cobra media reference was Sep 28, 1963, in Competition Press. They ran a headline titled “New King Cobra” along with a photo of my father running Riverside tire tests for Goodyear. Sports Car Graphic ran their Oct 1, 1963 issue also calling it the King Cobra.
My family attended the recent Shelby-Ford-Cobra 50yr Reunion and Bill & Eveylyn Hartman displayed their King Cobra that my father won in at the ‘63 LA Times GP, 63 Monterey Pacific GP & ’64 Augusta US Road Racing Championships…and what Bill didn’t know it until I told him that day was that his King Cobra also won the 1963 Hawaiian GP…it’s a special car. Donn Vickrey also brought his King Cobra that Parnelli won in at the ’64 LA Times GP. We talked Cobras the entire weekend and it was always “King Cobra”. I think it will always be referred to as that.
Here’s some shots of it at the event:
Shelby Cobra racer Dave MacDonald - Shelby 50yr Reunion
Sincerely,
Rich