Weekend car $hows

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to help a buddy deliver a Ford Mustang Cobra Jet drag racing car to two car shows in central Florida. We started in Polk County, at Fantasy of Flight for a Mustang show which included various other Ford engined products like the AC Cobra (and various replicars based on Cobras), and the Ford GT 40's, and the Pantera's. The owner of the Cobra Jet drove his Pantera to both events, we brought the Cobra on the trailer.

Now, you'd think a twin turbo Pantera would be a star attraction (the gentleman owns two of them, and several other exotics including a Ford GT-40), but you'd be wrong. The Cobra Jet started life as a regular Mustang, but was pulled off the assembly line to have a specially built drag racing engine installed. Actually, there were exactly 50 of these 2008 models made exclusively to win the 2009 drag racing championships, and sold only to drag racing teams. Rules say you have to have 50 to be considered a production model. The car does not have basic amenities, like mirrors, turn signals, AM/FM, etc. It does go fast, very fast. The owner got his from a team that needed three, but ordered four. It pumps out over 1,000 horses, and sounds like a banshee out of hell when the throttle is advanced. When we took it off the trailer on Saturday, it had 2.6 miles on the odometer.

By Sunday, when we took it to an Exotic Cars show in St. Petersburg, it had 3.6 miles. At Fantasy of Flight there was a bit of distance between exhibition parking and the trailer. I didn't stay all day on Sunday, so I'm guessing the odometer probably is now pushing maybe 5 or 6 miles. Low miles of course are important when it comes time to sell the car. A year ago, one of the really low numbers (ours was #27) sold at Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction for $400,000. This particular car has never been on a drag strip, by the way.

Oh, I also learned some fun trivia facts - did you know the GT-40 got its name from the fact it stands 40 inches? At that Carroll Shelby named the Shelby Mustangs GT-350 and GT-500 based on the fact there was a 350 foot walk from his house to his shop front door, and a 500 foot walk from the back door of the shop. Sounds logical to me, considering the 350 had a 289 engine and the 500 had a 428 cubic inch. Rich guys and car designers, especially rich car designers, can make their own rules.