User:Lbpollardva/sandbox/1963 Shelby Cobra Mark 1 CSX2125

This 1963 Shelby Cobra CSX2125, is the last Mark I worm and sector steering box car manufactured before Shelby American changed over to rack and pinion steering. One of only three cars painted Metaline Blue, it was originally built and sold as a "street Cobra" equipped with class A accessories & the 289 high performance Ford V8 engine and BorgWarner T10 four-speed transmission. The car was originally consigned to the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, MI on July 31st, 1963. The original invoice was voided and the car was invoiced again to the US Molded Fiberglass Company in Detroit, MI on August 27, 1963. It is believed the car was either sold to US Molded Fiberglass as a favor to the Ford Motor Company or as part of an evaluation program.

CSX2125 had many owners over the years. The original owner of record was Stan Aldridge, who also owned US Molded Fiberglass at the time. Lori Bassler of Vintage Motorcar Company spoke with Mr. Aldridge in July 2020 about the car. Mr. Aldridge said he did not own the car very long and sold it because it was "uncomfortable". He recounted driving the car to Elk Heart Lake in Wisconsin with Carroll Shelby. The car still had manufacturer's plates when Aldridge and Shelby took it to Elk Heart Lake to attend a race, work in the pits and have dinner. Aldridge said Shelby was a 'great guy'. Aldridge was unable to recall to whom he sold the car. Further information about the car's ownership remains unknown until it appeared in a classified advertisement in July 1979. Then owner Timothy Robinson of California listed the car, now painted red, as "1963 Cobra 289 CSX2125. Special red exterior, black leather interior, 12,000 original miles, chrome spoke wheels. Beautiful. $50,000 or best offer. In mint condition.". The car was then purchased by Bob Mangiona, vice president of the Southwest Leasing Company (SLC), for $45,000. Mr. Mangiona sold it soon after to his company and it was part of the SLC collection for about 5 years. SLC offered the car for sale in 1985 and it was then purchased by Ned Tanen of Santa Monica, CA. Tanen, who passed away in January 2009, owned the car until his death. There is a bit of mystery about Tanen's actual purchase date. SAAC had documentation showing that Tanen bought the car in 1985, which was backed up by Mangiona's claim that his company owned the car for about 5 years. Tanen, however, sent a letter to SAAC telling the organization that he had purchased the car in 1980.

Tanen, an American film studio executive, was possibly the most notable owner of CSX2125. Tanen was known for films (including but not limited to) American Graffiti, Jaws, Sixteen Candles, St. Elmo's Fire, Animal House and Top Gun. Ned was also a friend of Carroll Shelby's and Shelby signed the original glove box door "Great car Ned. Your friend Carroll Shelby". In an interview with Bob Mangiona in July 2020, Mangiona stated that Tanen added an Edelbrock intake manifold to the car as it was not a feature on the car when he owned it. This refutes Tanen's story of CSX2125 being the only Cobra he had seen to come with an Edelbrock intake manifold from Shelby American. Cobra researcher and historian Dan Case of Bozeman, Montana has stated that street Cobras, like this one, came with the stock cast iron intake manifold. Case states that it was highly unlikely for Shelby to use an Edelbrock as there were other preferred optional intakes and induction systems regularly offered by Shelby American.

CSX2125 is currently owned by Lewis Pollard of Warrenton, VA. He purchased the car in 2010 at a Bonhams Auction. While the car is a 1963 and was listed and sold as such by Bonhams, it was erroneously titled in the state of California at some point as a 1964. The error with the year may have happened when the first owner of record titled the car in the next calendar year. The state of California does not maintain records dating back to the 1960's and the occurrence has been unable to be tracked. Pollard enjoyed the car for a while, driving it and showing it at events.

In 2014 the car was brought to Vintage Motorcar Company in Inwood, WV for some partial work which later turned into a full scale restoration. Vintage Motorcar Company spent the next five years researching and meticulously restoring the car to its original specifications. Vintage Motorcar Company worked with Pollard, the California Division of Motor Vehicles and the Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles to obtain a corrected title reflecting the car's actual build year of 1963. With documentation from Shelby American Automobile Club (SAAC), various books on Shelby Cobras, a letter from Vintage Motorcar Company and a visit from the Berkeley County, WV Sheriff's Office to document the car's markings, Pollard was able to have the car title re-issued with the correct 1963 year.

When CSX2125 came to Vintage Motorcar Company the car had been used as an occasional driver for about 50 years. The car had been painted a couple of times and mechanically repaired over the years, but it was mostly unrestored and, therefore, was a little tired and in need of some repairs and service. VMC determined that the engine had some incorrect valve train components, which made it nearly impossible to properly adjust the valves and tune the engine. The discovery led to an engine rebuild and engine bay detailing. During the engine rebuild, VMC researched the car's history and realized that it was more significant than originally thought and was, in fact, the last Mark I. The AC Registry archives were based upon the handwritten ledgers of the AC Motorcars Company, which listed some different information on the car than the SAAC Registry. VMC saw a more accurate breakdown of the specific colors used on the cars as finished at AC in England. CSX2125 was listed in the SAAC Registry as being "Bright Blue", which was a known color, but it was actually finished in Metaline Blue at AC along with only two other cars in the group. John Bassler, owner of Vintage Motorcar Company, was only able to find a few references to Metaline Blue used on earlier AC cars and that there may have been some variations in shades. To date, no one has found any factory color chips for the AC Metaline Blue, as they have for many of the more common AC colors. Oddly enough, CSX2125 was finished late in the last group of Mark I Cobras, and the other two cars painted that same color--CSX2131 and CSX2133--were actually Mark II rack and pinion cars, which were being built even as the last worm and sector steering box cars were being finished. (CSX2131 is believed to have been destroyed and CSX2133 is a well-known car as it was a road test magazine feature car and the photos of it from the period are some of the best examples of an early Cobra for restoration details. Bassler saw CSX2133 for sale in an auction tent in October 2019 at the AACA Hershey Fall Meet. It is now painted the later Guardsman Blue and is in need of a restoration to correct many body modifications.)

Once Pollard learned of the significance of CSX2125, he decided to have the car restored completely and returned to the original as built specifications. As VMC disassembled the car, they found many problems--missing parts, some mild damage/evidence of abuse, perhaps from street racing, such as broken differential mounts and frame tabs ripped off/cracked. There may have been some mild track use as there were some threaded tow bar mounts on the front of the frame tubes. VMC, however, was not able to substantiate a sports car track racing history. The restoration technicians did find evidence of many layers of paint jobs applied to the car, red being the most recent, but the bottom layer found all over the car was the blue/green/gray color they believed to be Metaline Blue.

In the process of restoring the body there was a lot of panel straightening done and picking and filing out dings and dents. The entire left side lower rocker and door jamb had to be replaced due to damage and corrosion, as well as the lower body support frame tube. There were several other areas that needed aluminum pieces welded in to replace thin and corroded sections, but the majority of the original coachwork was saved and straightened. Many of the interior body aluminum panels were replaced, such as the engine bay inner fenders, due to cosmetic reasons. Luckily the body had not been modified much at all over the years, which is a rarity. Only the rear fenders had been pulled out a bit to house wider wheels and tires and VMC massaged them back to their original shape.

VMC credits Dan Case, a renowned Cobra researcher and "guru", as well as Dave Wagner, Jim Cowles and others as being beneficial to their research. With the help of these Cobra experts and by pouring over every photograph of cars built in the same time frame (close in serial number) and all parts and reference books they could find, VMC was able to piece together what was correct and not correct for this car as the last Mark I. The engine turned out to be in the correct number range for the 63 1/2 289HP engine group known to be used in the Cobras at that time and the transmission was the correct earlier cast iron T-10 used in early street Cobras. The correct cast iron Ford intake and Autolight carburetor, also, were used. There were many hard to find British and early 60's Ford parts to make everything correct, particularly the date coded items, most of which took a few years to track down. The most difficult to obtain was about half of the correct British hardware for the car, which was missing or had been replaced with common domestic items over the years. Cobra restorers have purchased and stockpiled a lot of the parts and hardware, making it difficult and costly to obtain them in many cases. Also, CSX2125 was one of the cars built during the transition from the all British electrical systems to the "Fordized" Ford engineered versions of Cobra electrical systems. It still has the British wiring harness, fuse box, switches and most of the guages, but has a Ford generator, voltage regulator and a "Rotunda" tachometer--which VMC really had to search to find and it was quite costly.

The interior had to be completely restored. The seats were rebuilt and everything was recovered in the correct chrome dyed heavy grained leather. The Shelby signed glovebox door was not reused in the restoration due to its being covered with an incorrect leather during a previous cosmetic refurbishment. VMC fabricated a new glovebox door and covered it with the correct leather. (The old signed glovebox door has been framed in a shadow box with other significant parts and pieces from the restoration an was given to Pollard by VMC.)

CSX2125 was awarded the Craftsman Phil Hill Restorer's Award Sports/Race at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance in March 2020. The award highlights that the car was the best new restoration of a sports or race car at the event. This was the car's first time at a show since restoration was completed. Mr. Pollard was presented the award by well-known car enthusiast and collector and host of Chasing Classic Cars, Wayne Carini. Following the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance the United States was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and multiple concours events for the year were canceled. In July 2020, CSX2125 was awarded second place in the People's Vote in the online Concours Virtual in Class I, Poster Cars of the 60s, 70s and 80s. Among cars in the class were a 1974 Ferrari 246 GTS Dino, a 1966 Ford GT40 MKI Road Car and a 1964 Bill Thomas Race Cars Cheetah. In September 2020 the car was awarded Best in Class at the Greenbrier Concours d'Elegance at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV, chosen over two significant AC Bristols in the class.

Efforts to discover owner history of CSX2125 continue, specifically from 1964 until 1979.