One of the original "Muscle Cars"

The 69' Ford Fairlane Cobra

The Fairlane Cobra owned by Paul Winters is one of  Fords fine examples of a true "Muscle Car". Powered by a tire smoking, ground pounding 428 Cobra jet the Fairlane would cover the 1/4 mile in the mid to low 14's hazing the original polyglass belted tires most of the way. The 428 CJ could be had in virtually any Fairlane or Torino model, but not many self respecting, hormone pumped young adults would be caught going to the local Drive-In with a four door, skinny tired, vinyl topped  Fairlane with a shaker scoop poking thru the hood. There was the Torino GT but that was off of the Cheap-O-Meter. Costing around $3,200 dollars It was the Fairlane Cobra package that delivered the right mix of style, fashion and performance. This is truly one of the real "Muscle Cars".

Story of Paul's Cobra

My car was found on my way to work in Memphis in 1979.  I knew the car had been parked overnight as it had heavy dew on it.  So I decided to stop and ask if it was for sale that afternoon.  I did and it was.  The guy was the original buyer of the car.  It was all  original but sad looking.  It had wire spoke wheels and a dark red Terrible paint job.  I think they painted it at about 45 lbs of air pressure.  The Ram-Air cleaner and hood scoop were also missing.  That was on another car the guy had in a garage elsewhere and was retrieved. I did not check out the numbers to closely but luckily he had not changed anything that was so bad.  Later I found that the engine and trans were the original.  This was proven by a partial VIN stamped on both.  The carb was the saddest thing he had done.  He told me he had changed it into a “double pumper”.  This was done by ridding it of the crossover line and connecting two individual rubber fuel lines to the fuel bowls and mounted on the shock tower.  I discovered he had placed a Nickel in the factory fuel inlet.  Oh what a thrill and hard to find to remove.  Anyway it is the factory carb.  The rest of that crap went in the garbage.  I wish I could find that Nickel though. I wanted to return it to the original color so I began to strip it of the ugly darker red.  That is when I found out I did not want to do body work.  So off to the body shop where they completely stripped it and repainted it factory Candy Apple Red.  The paint work is now 14 years old and I am still very happy with the looks. The interior is factory with the exception of carpets.  Those were replaced using an ACC carpet set of the original design and material.  The seats had one seam that had come loose with the help of years of sunshine.  A local guy 80 years old re-sewed it recently.  The rear seat belts were still in plastic when I bought the car.  The back seat may never had been ridden in.  Or at least not often or safely. My Cobra has been in several shows all over the South.  It won best in “restored” Ford at the National Muscle Car finals in Memphis, Tenn. two years in a row. 1993 and 1994.  I have attended over 45 car shows/cruises that gave out plaques.  Many others that did not.  Recently (July, 2005) I attended the Fairlane Club of America in Kingsport Tenn. I also was able to take my car to Darlington Speedway for a photo shoot ( August 2005).  I got to pose it in the “Dodge winners Circle”.  Appropriate since the Cobra and Talladega won a few there. Many people call it a Torino.  It is not.  It was titled originally as a Cobra.  The certificate of origin called it a Cobra.  Many also mistake it for a Mustang.  I don’t bother to challenge them.  I know what it is. The engine has been “freshened up” back to standard. The C6 had one leak that was repaired by this web sites owner.  I can say he scared the crap out of me when he scattered parts all over to do the fix.