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83gtragtop -> RE: Bill cosby talks about a cobra (4/30/2008 10:30:43 AM)
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Bill Cosby's Cobra was no joke, the twin to the Cobra that was sold at BJ for over 5 million.
"Shelby Motors built 22 427 competition roadsters. In 1965, 1 was selected and converted into a special model called the 427 "Cobra to End All Cobras". The first one of these (number CSX 3015) was originally part of a European promotional tour before its conversion. This conversion called for making the original racing model street legal with mufflers, a windshield and bumpers amongst other modifications. But some things were not modified, including the racing rear end, brakes and headers. The most notable modification is the addition of Twin Paxton Superchargers. This gave the car an alleged 800 brake horsepower (bhp) and 462 lb·ft (626 N·m). of torque at an astounding low of 2800 rpm. Officially rated at 0-to-60 at 4.5 seconds, legend and lore have it as doing that in a little over 3 seconds as one must lay off the throttle heavily just to get traction off the line. Another non-competition 427 roadster was converted,(CSX 3303), and given to Shelby's close friend, Bill Cosby. Cosby attempted to drive the super-fast Cobra, but had issues with keeping it under control. This was humorously documented in Cosby's album titled "Bill Cosby, 200 M.P.H.". Cosby then gave the car back to Shelby, who then shipped it out to one of their dealers in San Francisco, S&C Ford on Van Ness Avenue. S&C Ford then sold it to customer Tony Maxey. Maxey, suffering the same issues as Cosby did with the car, lost control and drove it off of a cliff, landing in the Pacific Ocean waters. It is to be noted that Maxey's accident was largely speculated as suicide. It was eventually recovered and the wreckage was bought by Brian Angliss of CP Autokraft. He is expected to auction his restored version in the future. Shelby's original model, CSX 3015, was kept by Carroll Shelby himself over the years as a personal car, sometimes entering it into local races like the Turismos Visitadores Cannonball-Run like race in Nevada, where he was "waking [up] whole towns, blowing out windows, throwing belts and catching fire a couple of times, but finishing." CSX 3015 was auctioned off on January 22, 2007 at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event in Scottsdale, Arizona for $5 Million plus commission (a record for Cobras, and a record for a Barrett-Jackson sold price). In fact, the car received the name "SuperSnake" at the Barrett-Jackson auction. Before this event took place, the car was merely referred to as "Carroll's Cobra" or the "Cobra to End All Cobras". This term was stolen from the only true "SuperSnake" which is a 1967 GT500 which was specially built with a medium riser 427. The car is distinctive in looks as it had a unique triple stripe. This cars purpose was to run demonstrations for the new goodyear thunderbolt tire. The car ended up doing a practice run with Mr. Shelby himself driving, however, Chuck Cantwell did the actual run. The car reached speeds of over 170 miles per hour. The car survives today and should be referred to as the true original SuperSnake."
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