No discussion of Shelby Cobra history is complete without a detailed look at what is arguably the winningest Cobra of them all: the famed Essex Wire 1965 427 Competition Cobra Roadster, now headed for the Mecum auction block this January in Kissimmee, Florida.
Numbered CSX3009, the Essex Wire Cobra was the tip of the spear in a sweeping racing endeavor under the Ford Racing Team banner that also included a Shelby GT350R and two Ford GT40s and campaigns in SCCA A and B Production, the U.S. Road Racing Championship and FIA international competition.
The Birth of the Essex Wire Cobra Racing Team
One of the world’s largest industrial wiring consortiums, Essex Wire’s sponsorship of the project was driven by the company’s dynamic president, Walter Probst. While in the process of taking the company public on the New York Stock Exchange, the visionary Probst arranged a marketing partnership with his largest customer, Ford Motor Company, to promote the Essex and Ford brands through racing with Shelby’s all-conquering machines as his weapons of choice.
Probst placed Essex’s Ford Account Executive Fred Krammer in charge of getting the project off the ground. Krammer’s first move was to recruit 24-year-old businessman and race driver Robert L. “Skip” Scott of Devon, Pennsylvania, then one of the leading independent Cobra racers in the U.S. and an occasional driver for Shelby American and a protégé of Ken Miles.
As a Shelby American preferred customer, Scott facilitated the purchase of CSX3009 by Town & Country Leasing of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which then leased it to Scott’s own company, Howe Sound Refractories of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Scott then widened the driving talent pool by recruiting veteran sports car racer, multiple SCCA champion and Shelby team driver Dr. Dick Thompson and Ed Lowther, a former stock car and midget racer who had sharpened his craft under Thompson’s calm tutelage on the Gulf Oil Corvette racing team and later drove Cobras for other Shelby customers.
Billed to Shelby American on January 11, 1965, CSX3009 was finished in Wimbledon White and equipped with FIA-style Halibrand wheels. As a full competition roadster, it incorporated the FE-block 427 CI side-oiler V-8 engine with a single Holley 4-barrel atop a magnesium intake manifold, 12.4:1 compression-ratio competition aluminum heads, unmuffled steel-tube side exhausts, remote engine and rear-end oil coolers, a Ford Toploader 4-speed manual transmission and a Salisbury limited-slip differential. As specified by sponsor Essex, the car was finished with a single wide Raven Black stripe with orange borders and “Essex Wire” in black letters on each door.
Essex Wire Cobra’s Historic Debut on the Racing Scene
CSX3009 entered the fray on April 4, 1965, in the Pensacola, Florida, USRRC 200 with Scott driving and Thompson as relief, qualifying 10th and finishing fourth overall. It was the first appearance by a 427 Cobra in a major race and an outstanding debut for the fledgling racing team.
Following more success with fifth, third, sixth and third overall finishes at Bridgehampton, Watkins Glen, Continental Divide and Road America, respectively, the Essex Wire Cobra was entered in the FIA-sanctioned Bridgehampton Double 500, where it qualified ahead of the Shelby-backed 289 roadster of Bob Johnson at 1.47.4 and finished third overall in the first FIA race contested by a 427 Cobra.
Commenting on CSX3009’s performance in Michael Schoen’s outstanding book, “The Cobra-Ferrari Wars,” Dick Thompson revealed a humorous detail that has since become part of Cobra lore: “The 427 was appreciably faster than the 289 and faster than the small-block (Corvette) Grand Sport, but it was not a long distance car … It was a real bear of a car but it would just go like hell … We called that car ‘Ollie the Dragon.’ Every time you let off on the throttle, a belch of fire about three feet long would shoot out the hood scoop. That was apparently normal.”
By the end of the 1965 season, the Essex Wire Cobra had finished fourth overall in the United States Road Racing Championship—an impressive result for a new team.
Scott and the Essex Wire team then moved on to the international arena for 1966 with a pair of Ford GT40 MkI racers. Lowther purchased CSX3009 to run it in the SCCA’s A Production series with sponsorship from Eger Ford in Pennsylvania, scoring an almost unbroken string of outright victories that included winning the November 27, 1966, SCCA American Road Race of Champions (the precursor to the National Runoffs) at Riverside, California, and culminated in the 1966 SCCA A Production National Championship. Lowther and Ollie the Dragon almost repeated the feat in 1967 but were edged out at the November Daytona ARRC by Dick Smith in CSX3035 and Tony DeLorenzo’s L88 Corvette.
Following the 1967 season, Lowther sold CSX3009 to Sam Feinstein of Rydal, Pennsylvania, who placed third in the SCCA Northeast Division in A Production. Feinstein and CSX3009 missed the entire 1969 season while the car was rebuilt after being caught in a 37-car pileup on the New Jersey Turnpike.
Refinished in green with white side stripes for the 1970 season, CSX3009 returned to finish second in the Northeast Division standings. It raced at both the 1970 and 1971 ARRC but dropped to third in Northeast Division A Production. Fortune returned in 1973 when Feinstein met renowned Ford engine tuner Al Joniec of Batmobile Mustang funny car fame, who managed to extract a legal 670 HP from the original 427. Ollie the Dragon was back in business.
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At season’s end, Feinstein repeated as Northeast A Production Divisional Champion and then won the November ARRC at Road Atlanta. Feinstein and 3009 were again Northeast Division A Production Champions in 1974 and 1975 and showed well in both season finale ARRC races.
Restoring the Essex Wire Cobra to Its Original Glory
After placing an ad touting the car as having “more Shelby history than any other Shelby product in the world,” Feinstein sold CSX3009 in 1982 to famed collector George Stauffer, who kept it in as-raced condition until 1995, when its next owner, David Trueman of Jeanette, Pennsylvania, commissioned a restoration by Racing Restorations, Ltd. of Danbury, Connecticut.
The Cobra languished through subsequent owners until its new owner, former race driver André Ahrlé, commissioned renowned Cobra builder and restorer Mike McCluskey to return the car to its present immaculate condition in its famous Essex Wire livery. Carroll Shelby himself visited McCluskey’s Torrance, California, shop three times to advise on the restoration process and ensure the finished car’s complete authenticity.
Their combined work paid off in 2013 when CSX3009 won Gold at the SAAC 38 Convention in Fontana, California, scoring 497 of 500 points, the highest score ever for a Competition Cobra restoration. Still in Ahrlé’s assiduous care, CSX3009 is today a multiple-time Best of Show Award winner—testament to its sensational presentation.
Arguably the winningest and most famous Competition 427 Cobra in the world, CSX3009, the beloved Ollie the Dragon, retains a high degree of originality that includes such irreplaceable items as the original and very rare magnesium intake manifold and aluminum competition cylinder heads, the original T10 4-speed manual transmission, competition differential with oil cooler, original 1965 magnesium wheels and 1966 NOS Firestone tires, and an additional set of original Halibrand wheels with Goodyear Blue Streak tires.
In addition to an exact 1:5 scale model of the original car and an extensive history file complete with period photos, documents and restoration details, this most legendary of Competition Cobras is accompanied by the helmet, race suit and gloves of Ed Lowther from 1966, the year in which the affable Pennsylvanian won the car´s first championship on the way to writing a fascinating chapter in Shelby history.
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