I never really felt unsafe or in any extraordinary jeopardy driving my Cobra - and when i say drove, I do mean drove. Small Caribbean island with mostly hilly, narrow, bad mountainous roads, no enforced speed limits and happy go lucky drivers. Some of you have been here and know what I'm talking about.
I always had a degree of comfort that having rebuilt and maintained the car myself I knew it intimately. Having raced, launched, drifted and spun it under controlled conditions on open lots, brand new development roads and old airport ramps, I felt very in tune with it's handling dynamics.
Now having said all of that, when I was run off the road a few years ago, i did my level best to recover it and failing to do so, I consider myself extremely fortunate to have walked away with a broken shoulder, a busted but rebuildable Cobra and an undamaged skull and spinal cord. I spun off the road and impacted hard backwards into the embankment of a large drainage ditch.
When I realized I was heading off the road backwards, I remember a flash thought about my head and the roll bar. In the aftermath, The steering wheel was bent outward ( towards the driver) and my left shoulder was obviously broken or dislocated. My sunglasses were found 30 feet from where the car came to rest.
Because I was on my way to a tennis club very close to home, I had only buckled up the lap belt. I'm pretty sure that is what allowed me to brace forward and save myself from more grievous injury.
After owning and driving a pretty good variety of fast cars over the years, nothing compares to the visceral thrill I got from the Cobra. Everything feels a bit pedestrian and watered down by comparison. Forgive me for the ramble
