[gjcomb]

I grew up in Southern California, so my teenage years besides being a good kid also included getting into a little trouble here & there (nothing major, mind you), especially street racing here & there. Saturday night around 11:30-12:30 was when you'd get together with the LA Street Racers and plan where you were going to run (or just check out the next man's machine rumbling down your way...sometimes, it was for some cash, other times for the pink slip. Sometimes, you see some crazy machines - one guy brought a dragster, although I never saw it run. A few times we ended up by the factories that occupied Avalon Blvd up to Central Avenue - nice long straightaway with the LAPD on the other end! Still, some wicked machines showed up...

But, my first encounter with a Cobra (427SC) was not with the street racers, but cruising on Van Nuys Blvd (after we'd cruise over from the Hawthorne Blvd area). I was in a '66 Nova SS that sported a super than normal modified 454 with a B&M Hydro. While this was a mean-spirited looking GM product, the Cobra that was next to us with its wide looking butt (fenders and tires) were really bad-ass looking. Of course, we did not run and the guy driving the Cobra never looked at me. But, I looked at his machine and wondered...I could not afford to get something like that, and was a GM fan for a number of years. When I was serving in the Navy, a buddy of mine decide to build a model of the GT40. I asked about the car, and he looked at me as if I was from another planet not knowing the history of the GT40.

In the mid-seventies, I inquired about Contemporary Cobras in New York and learned that they wanted to get a distributorship set up on the West Coast and here was a chance for me to get a replica at a decent price and discounted parts since I'd be a distributor for the car.

Nope - did not happen until the mid 90's when I did pick up a Contemporary Cobra with an FE setup and Jaguar suspension that I currently have today.

All this is owed to hearing about Shelby's cars and performance parts when I was a kid in high school.

My condolences to the Shelby family and my respects to the man who is now immortalized as the greatest American auto legend.

RIP GC