A peaceful Sunday morning in the canyons above Los Angeles came to life as CSX2001 announced its pending arrival in the distance. Like a rock star making his way to the stage, Bruce Meyer thunderously rounds the final corner before pulling into our prearranged parking area. The sounds of a competition 289 Cobra just never get old…
This is it, CSX2001, the very first production Cobra.
Bruce has had Cobra's since 1965, and Carroll was his dear friend. “I've always admired what Shelby accomplished; building a team, winning championships, a proud American and winning Le Mans...he checked every box.”
Bruce reminisces, I always had the desire to find just the right small block Cobra with race history. There are so few out there with unquestionable provenance and uncompromised purity.
There's an expression “even a blind squirrel finds a nut”…that was Bruce over 20 years ago at Retromobile in France. This car was being offered by Lukas Huni, a highly-respected broker from Zurich. The Cobra was prepared by Ed Hugus, sold to Lloyd “Lucky Casner” CAMORADI RACING to run at Le Mans in 1964. As it turns out, Shelby had come out with his FIA Cobras for LeMans and Casner, after successfully running the LeMans trials, decided it was no match for the FIA team cars and sold it to a wealthy French racer, Jean Marie Vincent, who took it to Ford Racing in France and had it converted to full FIA specs as you see it today.
Captivated by the look of the car and its purity of design… with only a handful of prior owners, it had an unblemished race history. Big bulbous 427 rear wings, comp 289 engine, original body, 35 gallon comp gas tank, original interior, chassis and engine …it was “all there”…the “Holy Grail”.
The very first production Cobra, the first Cobra ever to race, the only cobra to contest the famous Tour de' France. It was race prepped by Ford Racing and traveled with the factory Cobra Daytona coupes and Shelby's Team.
It didn't take Bruce more than a few minutes to commit to acquiring the car. When something this special comes along, it may never pass before you again…so from that moment on, he was the new custodian for this important piece of Shelby history. He kept it in Europe and did a rally from Budapest to Prague. Then shipped it to Mike McClusky where it was stripped of the inappropriate green metallic paint and refinished as you see it today. It has been on the Colorado Grand, to the Goodwood Revival, displayed at the Petersen Museum and driven and shared regularly. It has won awards at Amelia Island, Kirkland Concours and Pebble Beach.
Bruce feels there is an obligation to share important artifacts like CSX2001.
I hope you enjoy these photos of the time we spent together with Cobra #1.