Hang on, you may be thinking, Ford never made a King Cobra with blue racing stripes. Correct: This is a special edition of the Australian-market Ford Falcon XC built for 1978 to celebrate Ford’s 1-2 finish at the 1977 Bathurst 1000 (aka the Hardie-Ferodo 1000). Lest you think the race was held at some ho-hum track in who-knows-where Australia, know that the steeply graded, 3.861-mile Mount Panorama circuit, comprised of public roads in New South Wales, is one of Australia’s most iconic:
Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images
The only thing this photo is missing is a kangaroo … and yes, there are multiple instances of kangaroos interrupting (or adding chaos to) a race weekend at Mount Panorama.
But back to the Cobra at hand, and the one that caught our attention this week when it sold for the equivalent of over $150,000.
In 1977, Ford snapped a two-year streak of wins by GM at the Bathurst 1000 endurance race. Allan Moffat and Jacky Ickx, in the #25 Ford XC Falcon GS500 Hardtop, and Colin Bond and Alan Hamilton in the #2 sister car, finished 1-2. It was Moffat’s fourth win of that race, and Ickx’s first (on his first attempt, too, a feat that wasn’t repeated for 34 years). Moffat went on to win the 1977 Australian Touring Car Championship. If you smell a special edition in the works, you’re right on track.
“The One-Two Finish” on October 2, 1977, before a crowd of 40,000.Leo Thomas/The Sydney Morning Herald/Fairfax Media via Getty Images via Getty Images
At the same time, Ford of Australia was about to switch over from the Falcon XC to the XD, and had about 400 of the old, XC Hardtop bodies lying around. Edsel Ford II, son of Henry the Deuce, and deputy managing director of Ford Australia, saw an opportunity: Use up the old shells and build a limited-edition car to celebrate the 1-2 at Mount Panorama. Put big blue racing stripes on it, he said, and call it Cobra.
Ford Heritage Vault
Ford Heritage Vault
Ford Heritage Vault
No one was going to tell him that livery was heavy-handed, so Edsel got his way—and the last laugh. The cars sold, and even better, people ordered them with expensive add-ons like power steering and air conditioning. (Why A/C wouldn’t come standard in Australia we don’t know.)
Collecting Cars
Collecting Cars
Collecting Cars
Collecting Cars
Collecting Cars
The 400 Cobras are divided into two groups, by their engines. The first 200 have the 351 Cleveland V-8, and the second 200 have the 302 Cleveland V-8. Of the first batch, #2 through #31 were homologation specials, featuring reinforced spring towers, modified suspension crossmembers, and a unique fiberglass spoiler for Ford’s Group C race cars. These are informally known as “Bathurst Cobras,” since they are most closely related to the race cars. Only two Cobras out of the 400 built break the pattern: #1 was built with a 302, rather than a 351, and #351 was built with … you guessed it, the 351 and not the 302. They just had to make it complicated, didn’t they?
Collecting Cars
Our Sale of the Week car is build #241, one of the 302 cars. It’s one of 100 built with that engine and a four-speed manual transmission. The listing names all the standard options—front and rear power disc brakes, dual exhaust, LSD, laminated windscreen with tinted band, Globe alloys—but not air conditioning, power steering, or electric windows, available as add-ons.
Collecting Cars
Collecting Cars
Collecting Cars
However, the car is very original, retaining its numbers-matching engine, and wearing the crazing paint to prove its authenticity. According to Collecting Cars, it has only had two “registered on-road owners,” and “is reported to have been garage-kept throughout its life.” The only non-original part is the front spoiler, which was replaced “early in the car’s life” by a Bathurst-spec version “after damage under first ownership.” The most fun detail about #241 is under the engine bay: The signatures on the air cleaner belong to Allan Moffat, who finished first at the Bathurst 1000 in ’77, and Dick Johnson, who finished second.
Collecting Cars
#241 sold for A$215,000 (about $151K), putting it right in line with #202, another 302/manual example, but with a repaint and no driver signatures, that sold for A$214,990.
You’d never guess, from their six-figure auction results, that the Falcon XC Cobra was a born from a marketing effort to get rid of extra body shells. We like to think that, after seeing the sales numbers, Edsel Ford raised a glass to Dick and Allan, for going 1-2 at Bathurst at a most convenient time in the product cycle.
Collecting Cars
Collecting Cars
Collecting Cars
Collecting Cars
Collecting Cars
Collecting Cars