The first Cobra I saw was back in 1963 (a lifetime ago). My buddies and I were driving north on Lindberg Blvd in St. Louis on our way to the old Alton Dragway in Alton, IL. At a stop light, up pulled a blue Ford pickup towing a blue open trailer hauling a blue 289 Cobra. It was a dealership owned race car from Yates-Stevens Ford in St. Louis. I had never seen a Cobra up until that time but I knew what it was from a few magazines I had read.
From that point on, I was hooked on the looks and the concept. But being a newly married guy trying to start a family, I could only dream about maybe someday. After all the kids were on their own and after retirement, I was able to again focus on a Cobra.:
For me, I guess it is several reasons. First, the lines on a 427 SC are unlike the lines on any other car, ever. Smooth and flowing, yet muscular almost to the point of being obnoxious. You can tell by looking that the car was built for one thing, to go fast and handle like a skateboard. The idea that the Cobra 427 SC was the first car to be branded as "the fastest production car ever produced" is a grabber also. But mostly, when you shoe horn yourself behind the wheel and fire up that 600 HP 427 sideoiler; the car starts shaking from side to side while idling, and the roar from the almost open exhaust ticks off each cylinder as it fires...that says it all. That is one of the sweetest sounds a car guy will ever hear. I have never heard another car like that. Drag cars are great, but they only go straight
(if you are lucky).