The Shelby American (Summer 2016)

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The SHELBY AMERICAN Summer 2016 6
doesn’t matter at all. Some of the
carpet is coming up. Yeah, so what?
The idea of owning a car like
this is so freeing, so enjoyable, so
basic, that it puts collector car own-
ership in a whole new light. Drive
it, it’s fine. To the lake, to the ice
cream stand, to the mall to buy
socks. As you drive, instead of on-
lookers thinking, “ There’s another
rich guy showing off,” people think,
“ How neat that he still loves to
drive that old beat up rat, a car he’s
probably owned forever.” You own
it, it doesn’t own you, so have a ball
with it.
Food for thought.
Are the Cars & Coffee shows
being held all over the country a
relatively new phenomena? Appar-
ently it began in 2003 when a
handful of car enthusiasts brought
their cars to a community parking
lot at Crystal Cove Promenade in
Newport Beach, California on a
Saturday morning. Word quickly
spread and the get-togethers got
larger and larger, to the point
where they outgrew the parking lot
where it all began.
It was an informal, sponta-
neous gathering where no one was
in charge. And that was the rub:
the management of the property
became worried that it had become
too large and was creating prob-
lems for local merchants. But there
was no single leader or sponsor to
deal with. So the cars were no
longer welcome and were forced to
move to a larger parking area.
They found a large lot owned by
the Mazda Corporation and shared
with a Taco Bell in nearby Irvine.
Word spread quickly, mostly
via pictures sent on the Internet,
and soon Cars & Coffee “meets”
were popping up across the country
on Saturday mornings. This was
yet one more automotive trend that
began in Southern California.
Or was it?
THE COBRA LIVES RENT-FREE
IN SOME PEOPLE’S MINDS
Psychologists could have a field
day with the Cobra because it is an au-
tomotive Rorschach test. Any vehicle
that looks, even remotely, like the
iconic Cobra roadster brings immedi-
ate comparisons by some people. It’s
almost like they can’t help themselves.
Take this item in Hemmings DailyIn-
ternet newsletter (April 15, 2016 at 7
a.m.). Editor Daniel Strohl writes,
“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 be-
fore?”
The “What If” analogy can be ex-
tended out to infinity, sometimes get-
ting to the point where it becomes
nonsensical. It’s a harmless pursuit, of
course, but does it accomplish any-
thing other than wasting time? We
doubt it. It’s indulgently called “bench
racing” in the automotive hobby. We
bear no ill will to Strohl, who is merely
trying to generate a story about this
car, but c’mon – does an MGA with
bulging front fenders and a roundish
grille really resemble a Cobra?
The car is a one-off custom created
by hot rodder Paul Normand of
Rochester, New Hampshire. Normand
claims he wasn’t really inspired by
Carroll Shelby’s sports car as he was
by another Ford-powered two-seater,
the Yankee Doodle Roadster built in
West Hollywood, California by Rudy
Stoessel in 1940. Normand started
with a 1956 MGA and added 1939
Ford front fenders. He mounted the
body on an aftermarket Cobra chassis
and fitted with Corvette independent
front suspension and a coil-over Chevy
S-10 rear axle. It is powered by a 221-
cubic-inch Ford flathead with dual car-
buretors backed by a three-speed
transmission.
The car found a buyer almost as
soon as it was finished. Normand only
drove it to the end of his driveway and
back before a buyer scooped it up. “ I
never called it a Cobra,” he said, “ But
the guy who bought it from me called
it that.” No doubt his vision was tem-
porarily impaired by the stars in his
eyes; the word Cobra can do that.
The infatuation apparently didn’t
last long because the car went to the
Houston Classic Auction on April 23.
In the auction catalog it was listed as
a 1939 Ford V-8 “Cobra” Roadster. It’s
not surprising the Cobra name was in-
voked: how much attention would it
have attracted described as a 1956
MGA? It sold for $22K, something less
than the pre-auction estimate of $30K-
$40K.
Rudy Stoessel’s Yankee Doodle Roadster.