427 Semi Comp — Cobra Registry

The 427 Cobra S/C, or “Semi-Competition” model, was actually the result of two interrelated factors. Shelby’s initial plans were to build 100 427 competition roadsters which would be homologated for FIA racing. The factory team would campaign these new and more powerful cars, and combined with Shelby American’s experience in the 1964 FIA events, success seemed likely. Additionally, Shelby planned on selling the rest of these cars to independent racers and teams, both in the U.S. and in Europe. The new car would also be homologated for SCCA production racing in the United States. Based on the number of 289 Cobra competition roadsters built and sold over the previous two years, selling one hundred of the new race cars over a two year period was not seen as presenting an especially difficult problem.

That perception, however, would quickly change. When the FIA inspection team arrived at Shelby American in April of 1965, only 51 of the new cars were on hand. FIA homologation was withheld because a minimum of 100 examples had to be produced in order for a manufacturer to receive certification. As a result, Shelby American was forced to campaign the previous year’s race cars—the 289 FIA competition roadsters and Daytona Coupes.

The SCCA was a bit more lenient and granted approval for the 427 Cobra in December of 1964, after only one prototype had been built. Actual 427 Cobra production began in January of 1965 but the SCCA took Shelby American at its word that it would produce a minimum of 100 cars by the end of the model year. For SCCA’s purposes these did not have to be full competition cars; street cars could be included in that minimum number (as they were with the GT350).

As soon as the first batch of cars arrived at Shelby American from AC Cars, Ltd., a handful of buyers materialized at Shelby’s door. They purchased the cars with the idea of competing in SCCA amateur events. Because FIA certification had not been obtained, only a handful of cars were bought by European racers. By the end of the 1965 season, 16 427 competition Cobras were being actively raced in SCCA events. Sales were not what you would describe as brisk, probably because there was no factory team racing overseas, grabbing headlines. The unsold cars sat in long rows behind Shelby American’s hangars, and on blocks without wheels due to a Halibrand magnesium wheel shortage. By the beginning of the 1966 racing season, Shelby American was long on 427 Cobra competition inventory and short on buyers.

CSX3035 was built as a silver S/C and went to Hi-Performance Motors for their inventory. In May of 1966 George Harm and Dick Smith of Fresno, California were shopping for a race car and went to Mel Burns Ford in Long Beach. They didn’t have one on hand but they said they could get one pretty quickly. CSX3035 was delivered to Mel Burns and the sale was completed. When they got the car back to Fresno the first thing they did was to paint the nose and front fenders Day-Glo Orange. Smith bought Harm out in 1967 and the nose color was changed to Day-Glo Yellow. He was very successful with the car and at the 1967 ARRC at Daytona he won the A/Production National Championship.

Enter, Shelby American’s Eastern Field Sales Representative Charles Beidler. As a field sales representative, Beidler’s job was to act as a liaison between the dealers in his geographical area and the factory. He helped dealers with orders and assisted in resolving customer problems. He approved warranty work and also expedited orders when necessary. If a dealer needed a car, it was sometimes faster to get it from another dealer than from the factory. Beidler knew where the cars were in his area and he would contact the dealer who had the car and arrange for it to be shipped to the dealer who needed it. Then he worked with the factory to expedite the replacement of the “borrowed” car with one the same color from the factory’s inventory.

On one of his trips to the factory in Los Angeles, Beidler noticed the long rows of uncompleted 427 race cars sitting idle. He knew they weren’t selling, so he wondered out loud, “What if we had those things out on the street?” Shelby’s National Sales Manager, Dante Cardone, thought the idea had merit and began to pursue it.

One of the obvious appeals of the 427 Cobra was that it was the fastest production car ever made. Beidler reasoned that someone who bought one because of that fact would be hard-pressed to turn their back on the opportunity to buy the fastest of the fast. As it turned out, he was right. He went back to his sales territory in the northeast and immediately found a buyer for this new model – the 427 Cobra S/C. Depending on who you talked to, those letters stood for either “Semi/Competition” or “Street/ Competition.” The car went to the owner of a large trucking company and was sold through Archway Ford in Baltimore, Maryland. Beidler recalls that he ended up selling about three-quarters of all the 427 S/Cs to dealers in the northeast. Once the first dozen or so 427 competition models were completed and delivered, the remaining cars were finished one at a time, as orders arrived. All of the cars invoiced in 1965 were full competition models but once the S/C was offered, the remaining cars were built either way.

The dealer cost for a 427 Cobra street car was $6195. The advertised retail price was $7495. As production began to wind down, as cars in the CSX33xx range were being built and given 427 engines again, the dealer cost rose to $6595. In late 1967, everyone at Shelby American knew things were about to change: the 427 Cobra would be discontinued, and production of the 1968 models was moving to Michigan. In order not to be left with any cars after they moved out of the airport hangars, the dealer price was cut on some cars to $5195.

Initially Shelby American charged between $9500 and $10,000 for 427 Cobra competition cars, to both dealers and private individuals. When the initial demand subsided, the price settled at $9500 but options almost inevitably raised the price above $10,000 with some retail buyers paying well over $12,000 for their cars.

By the time the S/C concept came about, it was clear to almost everyone at Shelby American that there were more 427 Cobra competition cars than there were buyers for them. One had only to look outside at the long line of unfinished cars in raw aluminum sitting on jackstands to understand that. The dealer price of the S/C was substantially reduced from the price of the competition car (to $7395) in order to motivate dealers. Retail price of an S/C was around $8500 but since these cars were so rare, there was really no set price and dealers could charge whatever they wanted.

In that the S/C was essentially the same car as the competition model, the difference in cost probably led some racers to buy an S/C instead of a competition car. There was also the question of availability. Often when someone made the decision to purchase a new race car, they wanted it right now. If an S/C was sitting there on the showroom floor, and the price was lower, they chose the S/C instead of specially ordering a competition car and then having to wait 30 to 60 days for it. Unless they were car shopping in the winter, that was a big chunk of the racing season.

The S/C was every bit the race car the “standard” competition model was. They were both delivered with full windshields, soft tops with side curtains and tonneau covers. S/Cs had mufflers—or what passed for mufflers—in their side exhausts while the competition cars had no mufflers. A fair number of S/Cs found their way onto the race track. Bob Grossman, an exotic sports car dealer from Nyack, NY with a lot of race experience, purchased CSX3022 and raced it in SCCA events in the northeast. West coast SCCA racer Jim McCashin bought CSX3052 and raced it successfully in several events in 1968. And Dick Smith purchased CSX3035 and raced it in SCCA National events in 1967. He drove the car to the 1967 SCCA A/Production National Championship and was Northern Pacific Division Champion in 1968. Smith was officially clocked at 198 mph at Daytona in the car (although he later learned that Ford representatives had unofficially clocked him at 201 mph). Gerald Mulnix bought CSX3031 and finished 8th in the SCCA’s Central Division in 1968.

The determining factor of whether a car is classified as a competition model or an S/C is how it was described on its original Shelby American invoice—not how it was used by its original owner.