Original Cobra Investment: Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda---Maybe Not.

Cal Metal · #1 (**permalink**) 04-05-2002, 11:12 AM

I was just playing with my calculator doing a little Rate of Return analysis (ROR) and assumed a purchase of a street Cobra (289) back in '65. Assuming a $6,000 purchase with a current value of around $150,000 value today (pretty average for nice cars) the return is a compounded 9.08%.

The 427 cars, assuming no great provenance, comes in at around 10%, using a $250,000 market value.

For most of us, they are more fun than talking about our mutual fund quarterly performance, but the Large Cap. Value funds would have done much better. I try and convince the wife that I get a yearly 10% return bonus by just being able to talk about the car!! That is an intangible that has no price.

snakeeyes · #2 (**permalink**) 04-05-2002, 12:56 PM

Cal, interesting numbers. I wonder what the ROR would have been on a 427 car if calculated based on what they were selling for back in the late '80's--north of $500K, with some advertised around $1M...

Better yet, how about Phil Spector's ROR on his Daytona Coupe if he would have stored it properly, kept it in good original condition, then placed it on the market in the last couple of years? Astronomical--

Cal Metal · #3 (**permalink**) 04-05-2002, 03:53 PM

Bob:

Like any investment, it is always nice to know where the "top" ends. '88-'90 would have been a perfect time to exit. Kind of like Amazon at $600.00. If the return seems too good, it probaby is!!

Flyin_Freddie · #4 (**permalink**) 04-07-2002, 04:46 PM

I'm sure you read about the first time I saw a Cobra on a local Ford dealership's floor. My Dad had said he would buy me a car to take to college when I graduated...(Nice guy, my Dad! I love him dearly...!) Anyway, I went off on my Honda to look at what was on the market and gather some cost data. Wound up on a Sunday morning standing in front of a Ford dealer's window looking through it at a white/blue striped Shelby Cobra. It was a roadster, as I recall, and it was all roped off so the average dickweed couldn't just walk up to it and jump in. I could just barely see the sticker price on the windshield in front of the passenger seat. $6,682 and some change! I figured evan God didn't have that much money and left to go look at Camaros.

Ain't hindsight a wonderful thing? Wonder what that would have brought when the market was up so high for these little cars? Of course, I'm sure I would have sold it at some later date for something more 'responsible'....

Yeah...right.......

Rick Parker · #5 (**permalink**) 04-23-2002, 02:31 AM

Many of us have a story of a car we should have bought. In 1971 a very good friend had purchased CSX 2318, for about $4800. He was always changing cars and although this was a COBRA it was just a 2 seat small car that had no trunk room and his girlfriend disliked it. So he called saying he was selling it, offered to me for about $5000. I had just recently purchased a 911S and really at the time didn't give it much thought. Wish I had!

Rick.......

CobraDan · #6 (**permalink**) 04-23-2002, 04:12 AM

With the price of a srtreet Cobra listed at just under $6,000 and a full race 427 at just under $10,000 (tons of money in the sixties) and we knew then what they where going to be selling for in the eighties. Ford would have taken the job away from CS and produced so many Cobras they actually wouldn't be worth much today and you wouldn't be producing any replicas. You dreamers.

Dan

Bill Wells · #7 (**permalink**) 04-23-2002, 04:48 AM

Timing and luck in many cases is what it takes.

I have a friend who bought his CSX3xxx from the original owner in 1970 for $7,000. He still owns the CSX, gorgeous car, and smiles everytime he thinks about the used 66 Vette he almost bought instead. Back then, he said the two cars (Vette and CSX) he was looking at were about the same price. The Chev dlr started playing games with him on the Vette, he got ticked and bought the CSX instead... and never let it go. He said he owes the Chev dlr a big thank you. Bill.

Cal Metal · #8 (**permalink**) 04-23-2002, 08:13 AM

Cobra Dan:

The ultimate irony, which is really pretty funny, is that production was never a problem---demand was. Remember the 427s that sat on dealer showrooms for three years? It is amazing that a car that had, in the end, diffculty selling, would end of commanding so much money years later. A complete reversal of fortune.

I am sure, too, that the initial sticker price was well beyond the financial capabilities of most people. A Corvette was an expensive car, and these (Cobras) were often at a 50% premium or more to the already high-priced Corvette. The extra couple thousand paid big dividends down the pike if one was perceptive enough, though..........

Rick Parker · #9 (**permalink**) 04-26-2002, 08:54 PM

Various sources have stated in print that the last unsold 427 was still available at S&C Ford in San Francisco in 1967. Quite a while
after production ceased. Wouldn't Steve McQueen have looked great wheeling that around San Francisco instead of the Mustang used in the movie Bullet!!!

Rick

Bob Parmenter · #10 (**permalink**) 04-26-2002, 09:11 PM

Cal you devil!

I had almost (emphasis) been able to erase that memory of standing in the show room of Galpin Ford in 1966 drooling over the black 427 that was having trouble finding an owner. Couldn't quite stretch an Airman Basic's paycheck, and surprisingly, they had NO interest in my '58 Delrey as a trade. I guess they had no appreciation of a 348 tri-power ride!