They had no two-seater sports car. In 1969, the Shelby Mustang became the GT series. Ford attached the Cobra name to a hot version of the Fairlane, powered by the 428 Cobra Jet big-block.
In seven model years, the Cobra had moved from a tiny roadster that was mostly a racecar, to a pony car, and finally to a mid-sized Ford muscle car.
The downside was the tremendous legacy that fell upon a no-frills, mid-sized Ford with the gas-sipping heritage of the Fairlane. In this role, Ford Division built the Cobra to take on the no-frills muscle cars springing up in Detroit. The original“ econo-muscle car,” as the magazines dubbed this new breed, was Plymouth’ s 1968 Road Runner, based off the Belvedere / Satellite. Dodge’ s version was the Super Bee, based off the mid-sized Coronet.
Mother Mopar caught the rest of Detroit off-guard in 1968. The Big Three made money by selling options, which could quickly run the price of a muscle car over and above the budget of the young buyers. Dodge and Plymouth got wise. They built the Road Runner and Super Bee into an inexpensive mid-sized coupe or sedan. Mopar’ s target was a mid-14-second quarter-mile mauler for less than $ 3,000. Cost-adding options, such as the 440 Six Pack or the dual quad Hemi, were mainly performance, or just what the American youth wanted.
Bob restored the engine to stock, including the original compressor for air conditioning. This 428 Cobra Jet is a CJ-R, for ram air. This is the R-code, denoted by the fifth digit of the VIN. The base engine was the Q-code, or non-ram air 428 CJ. Both rated 335 horsepower. Ford also offered the 428 Super Cobra Jet, with or without ram air. In either case, you got the Drag Pack components, consisting of 3.91:1 or 4.30:1 rear axle, external oil cooler and Le Mans rods.
For the Cobra, Ford Division started with the Fairlane 500. There was an upscale Torino and Torino GT in the same mid-sized body style. The Fairlane 500 started with a lower base price and fit the formula of an economy muscle car. They replaced Fairlane badges with Cobra. From there, Ford went for the jugular by making the 428 Cobra Jet big block the standard engine, besting the base 383 in the Road Runner and Super Bee by 45 cubic inches. The horsepower figures for the 383 and the 428 CJ were the same, at 335. However, the 428 CJ pulled more like 400 horsepower. Ford slid
Ford adorned the front fenders of early Cobras with Cobra cartoon style decals. Later, they switched to more serious die cast badges, as seen on this 1969 Cobra.
the horsepower numbers down to give their 428 CJ an edge in the Super Stock drag racing classes.
Why the Cobra did not sell well is anybody’ s guess. My guess is the Road Runner was new and cheap and really caught on. Cobra came a year later to the party. The Cobra badge was a little confusing on a mid-sized mauler. The Cobra, in my opinion, fit a much sportier model. The Cobra heritage was a flashy two-seat roadster.
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