On the weekend of the 15th I conned my wife into driving with me in the
Cobra to the Concours d'Elegance at Ben Lomond, in the Santa Cruz
Mountains. What convinced her was the prospect of a pleasant afternoon
in the mountains in scenic surrounding and a little wine tasting. Cars
aren't really her thing. Well, strolling around Highland Park was
enjoyable and the scenery was pleasant enough, but there wasn't any wine
tasting. She was mildly disappointed but still had a reasonably good
time. The whole affair was small so it didn't take long for us to view
the cars. I didn't bother with many of the American cars (mostly
Chevrolets, which was the featured marque), confining most of my ogling
to the Brit cars on hand. And, there was BEER tasting. I only had one
glass of Red Hook ESB because it was too hot to drink a lot of beer and
I had the drive back on snaky Highway 9 to contend with. Pun intended.
My wife mostly kept to the shaded tree lined periphery of the park.
I was disappointed to see only one (non Cobra) AC. I'd been lead to
believe there would be several. I didn't even see Charlie Wise's Ace
Bristol. It was his article in the ACOC newsletter ACtion about last
years event that had piqued my interest in this years event. Of course
we had arrive a bit late (1:30pm) so may have missed his car. The Ace
that was there was an AC powered car in beautiful condition. It was red
with black interior and appeared to be very original. I discovered in
the August ACtion (received after the event) that this car had recently
been acquired by its present San Jose owner.
Since the subject of sophisticated early Brit car engines has come up
lately, and While I'm on the subject of the AC engine, well, sort of, I
think it's interesting to note that this double overhead camshaft design
dates back to 1919. Not the first, but certainly one of the earliest.
Even more interesting (I think) is that this engine powered various AC
cars from that time until the mid 50's. AC got a lot of mileage out of
this design. Pun intended.
While I didn't get a chance to talk to the owner of the Ace, I did
manage to chat with was Bill Simpkins, owner of CSX2368. His car is a
very nice Mark II driver in near concours condition. It was good to
have a nearly perfect example of a 289 to re-inspire my restoration
enthusiasm, which had waned dramatically after the gas tank fiasco.
Also it gave my wife a chance to see what a Cobra COULD look like. For
the past 25 years she's only had my increasingly ratty looking example
to behold. Besides that, I had an opportunity talk to another snake
owner and that doesn't happen very often. There was one other
unexpected benefit: I felt less guilty about the pragmatic approach
I've taken to various repairs over the years after seeing a few non
original bits on his car.
We talked quite a while about different Cobra related things, but two
subject invariably come up when Cobra owners get together. One is
Carroll Shelby's "new" 1965 427 Cobra S/Cs. I've yet to find a snake
owner who has bought into this scam. In fact, Simpkins toured Shelby's
plant in LA a year or so ago and saw the "recovered" 427 chassis pieces
we've all seen pictured in automotive magazine. He even got a ride in
the 427 S/C featured in these same articles. He wasn't convinced by
anything he saw or heard. The slightly rusted 427 parts he was shown
didn't look 27 years old to him.
The other subject that always comes up is the relative merits of 289 and
427 Cobras. We were in full agreement about preferring the 289 over the
427, though he wasn't quite as turned off by the looks of the 427 as I
was. But we both felt that the 289 was more aesthetically pleasing. I
have never driven a 427 so didn't have an opinion about relative
handling, but Bill has driven a couple and much preferred the 289's
"feel". This seems to be the general consensus of other people I talked
to who have driven both.
The only other car remotely related to an AC at the park was a 427
replica. I think it was the same car I saw at the Palo Alto Britcar
meet last year. I've seen more convincing looking replicas.
We had taken the fast boring way to Ben Lomond from Santa Clara (I280 to
highway 17, 17 to Scotts Valley), so decided on a more leisurely return
trip. Highland Park in Ben Lomond is off Highway 9, which winds through
the Santa Cruz Mountains ending up in the Santa Clara Valley at
Saratoga. Highway 9 is not only a more interesting drive, but a much
cooler one, and it was a hot day. It didn't take much to convince my
wife since we had both gotten a bit baked on drive up and at the park
itself. Once on the road we saw quite a few interesting cars going both
directions on Highway 9. I think a lot of other concours goers and
participants had the same idea.
It's been a while since I've had the snake on mountain roads and I had
nearly forgotten how effortless it was to wind through steep twisty
curves. My wife has far less enthusiasm for this kind of driving and
wouldn't let me try to keep up with a guy ahead of us on a Kawasaki; not
that I could have. Besides, I had to hold it down a bit if I had any
hopes of keeping her convinced that we should go on the "Day Before The
Britcars Meet" Sports Car Tour and Picnic. Even so, it was fun, much
cooler and scenic. I salivated a bit for some genuine English ESB as we
whizzed by the White Cockade. Later we got a big thumbs-up from the
driver of a car that pulled over to let us by.
Speaking of the "Tour", we drove over one piece of the possible route
last week. My wife and I had spent a couple of days near Half Moon Bay
and decided to return to the Valley through Pescadero, a small town near
the coast. We bought some dandy tasting garlic flavored bread at one of
the little markets there. We plan to buy more if Pescadero is included
in the tour. My wife also bought an "open car" hat in Half Moon Bay so
she's made the commitment to the tour.
Roland
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