A Cobra 25 years too soon takes inspiration from customs and coachbuilts

Photos courtesy Worldwide Auctioneers.

What if Carroll Shelby had the ear not of Henry Ford II but of his father, Edsel Ford? And what if sports cars became a phenomenon in the United States not after World War II but before? And what if the line between customizer and coachbuilder wasn't as distinct as one might believe? The result may well have looked like the 1939 Ford "Cobra" that's coming up for auction later this month.

Hot rodder Paul Normand of Rochester, New Hampshire, who typically turns out cars every month or so during the winter, said he wasn't so much inspired by Shelby's Cobra as he was by another Ford-powered two-seater, the Yankee Doodle Roadster built in 1940 by Rudy Stoessel at Coachcraft Ltd of West Hollywood, California.

"I saw some old custom sports cars of the Fifties and thought I'd do one," he said.

Rather than building a body from scratch, as Stoessel did, Normand started with a 1956 MGA, to which he added a pair of 1939 Ford front fenders and wider rear fenders, though he kept the MG's convertible top mechanism.

Underneath the car he slipped an aftermarket Cobra reproduction chassis, fitted with a Corvette independent front suspension, coilover-sprung Chevrolet S-10 rear axle, disc brakes front, drum brakes rear, and adapters to fit the 1939 Ford wheels. Power comes from a dual carburetor-equipped Ford 8BA 221-cu.in. flathead V-8 mated to a three-speed manual transmission.

Due to the work involved, Normand said this car might have taken him a couple months to complete instead of his typical one. Whatever amount of time it took him, it didn't stick around his place very long after he finished it. "I think I drove it down to the end of the driveway and back," he said. "And I never called it the Cobra; the guy who bought it from me called it that."

The one-of-a-kind car, listed for sale online last year for $32,000, will cross the block as part of Worldwide Auctioneers's Houston sale with a pre-auction estimate of $30,000 to $40,000. The sale takes place April 23 at La Toretta Lake Resort and Spa in Montgomery, Texas. For more information, visit Worldwide-Auctioneers.com.

 

from Hemmings Daily – News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/1SPoYue