COB 6008 – The History of a Racing Cobra

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COB 6008 - The History of a Racing CobraOn 6th September 1964, COB 6008s first owner, Bruce Ropner, entered the Capston 4-hour relay race at Croft and on 29th September competed in a drag race at RAF Church Fenton where it won its class. Keith Schellenberg purchased 6008 during 1965 and continued to compete during that season. He then took part in the Angolan Grand Prix in Africa in November 1965. During 1966, Schellenberg put the Cobra up for sale for £1750 but at the time, there was little interest in used race cars so the car went into storage before being purchased by Brian Classic, who traded it to Michael Fisher. Fisher carried out some restoration work and resprayed it in the Shelby team colour, Viking Blue. A rather dubious roll-over bar was replaced by a proper braced hoop and quicklift jacks gave it a more authentic race car appearane. He arranged a test session at Silverstone and considered it rather dangerous, but a new owner, Gary Hamilton, too on the job of 'sorting it out'. Hamilton kept the Cobra until 1966 when it was sold to Peter Hannen, Peter owned it for several years before selling onto Bill Wkyeham who entered it in historic races. In 2000 it was purchased by James Lindsay who continued to race the car until it was bought by Kevin Kivochan, in 2003. No sooner had he purchased the Cobra, he raced it at the Macau Grand Prix Kevin and 6008 competed at Goodwood, Silverstone and Le Mans where Jack Sears, Jackie Oliver, Dan Gurney, Gerry Marshall, Derek Bell, Sir John Whitmore, Stefan Johansson and Richard Attwood shared driving duties. It's age began to show and in 2009 a full restoration took place, retaining as much of the original car as possible, including the chassis and body panels. It was also repainted the same as the day that Jack Sears drove it at Croft in 1964. When the restoration was complete, it took part in the 2011 Le Mans Legends race and a few weeks later was displayed at the prestigious Salon Prive event in London. The car was pictured at the 2011 Race Retro event.Tags:,