Ford Cobra

40 years ago, sales were down to a trickle for the unloved Falcon Hardtop. The new-shape XD was imminent and production was being wound down as dealers were working hard to move the remainder of their stock. A team assembled at Ford HQ in Broadmeadows including Henry Ford’s Great Grandson, Edsel Ford II. The Plan was to come up with a way to move the remaining 400 body kits. There was a suggestion to go all black for a “Playboy” model complete with bunny decals, but was quickly shot down as it would be sending the wrong message as a family focused company. Edsel Ford suggested ‘Cobra’, and although it was met with some resistance, having the last name “Ford” seemed to be enough to get his vision into production.

All 400 Cobras were based on the Falcon 500 GS Hardtop. The first 200 cars were fitted with Ford’s legendary 5.8-litre (351ci) V8. Also within the first batch, there were thirty 'Bathurst' versions, usually referred to as ‘Option 19’, which was specifically for race homologation. The second lot of 200 featured the 4.9-litre (302ci) V8… all except car 351, which naturally boasted the 351 V8. There are a few other promo cars with the “Cobra” treatment as well, but they’ve all disappeared, including a short-wheelbase F100 pick-up, Transit van and a quartet of XC utes. Meanwhile, the Hardtops were divvied up between the premium dealers and all 400 sold out in no time, proving to be an unexpectedly big hit.

“Even if you’re not a Ford person, everyone knows the Cobra,” Paul says.

“I just love the way it looks,” Kerri adds. ”It’s so much fun jumping in that car, driving down the coast and seeing little kids smile at you and say ‘look at the race car!’ I used to do the exact same thing when I would see them driving around as a kid.”

Kerri grew up in the quintessential Australian household, since the family driveway was peppered with various Fords and Holdens; but the Cobra struck a chord with her that has rung through into adulthood.

“It was when I started hanging around with Paul, that’s when I really started getting into the Hardtops,” she reveals. “I went to visit him in New Zealand and at the time he took me around in his V8 XA Hardtop.”

Paul chimes in. “It was my first Muscle car,” he said. “Back in the 80s, you didn’t see too many young blokes running around in V8s.”

“Every guy that was in his 20s who had moved over from NZ bought a V8 when they got to Australia, it was the first thing they did.” laughs Kerri.

“I came across to Australia in 1988. My parents held onto the Hardtop for a while, but when they realised I wasn’t coming home, they sold it on me. That was 30 years ago, but I still love that car.”

Paul and Kerri had worked hard, built a business and taken all that life had thrown at them. It was time to take a step back and find a way to really enjoy what they had worked for. Kerri had always kept an eye on Hardtop prices, and their growing value spurred them into action. “If we don’t do it now, then we’ll never be able to have one,” Kerri says.

Interest in early-model Falcon Hardtops of all series has surged in recent years, and are even approaching the same stratospheric values enjoyed by the original Holden Monaros and Falcon GTs in recent times. Stand-alone specials like the John Goss, Horn, Allan Moffat and Superbird are highly sort after nowadays, but none more so than the Cobra. Recent auctions have had genuine examples fetching up to $200K. Not bad for cars designed to move the last bits and pieces out of the Ford factory that retailed from $9405 back in 1978.

The couple spent countless hours trawling eBay and automotive websites looking for the perfect Hardtop. “We even looked on sites based in New Zealand and South Africa,” Kerri says. “We thought a Cobra would be out of our range at the time, so we were looking at XA Hartops as well.”

They came across a Cobra for sale in Tamworth. “We looked at a Cobra and an XA on the same day, they were the same money, but the XA had about $30K worth of work done on the engine,” Kerri explains. An offer was made on the Cobra and after an agonising two week wait, the Ford was heading to its new home.

“The seller delivered it to our door,” Kerri says. “Up until the point he rolled it into our back yard, I still just didn’t believe it was ours. The first thing I did after he left was to pop the hood and look at the plate stamped No.361.”

The car had been sitting for about five years and only needed a new battery to start life on the road again. They worked on it together and have had a few minor repairs to do here and there. “It did have an auto, but when it let go, we put in a four-speed single rail, which is what originally came out with the manual spec versions,” Paul says. “When we were looking to buy one back in 2015, the manuals were so much more expensive and were already out of our price range.”

“It sucked as an auto,” laughs Kerri. “It was just boring. It was like two different cars; the manual just woke the motor up.”

Paul echoes the sentiment. “Now It drives better than most new cars that we have owned,” he says. “The only other thing we have changed are the wheels. The standard rears are a little skinny, plus we use the car so much and the original wheels are very expensive, so we wanted to put them into storage to preserve them.”