What can you say about a car club that has been around since the early '70s and hasn't ever taken a dime in dues? When you're devoted to the vehicle, like the members of the Cobra Owners Club of America (COCOA) are to their rides, it becomes very clear. These guys just like to drive the hell out of their Cobras!
A club since 1964 (at a time when real Cobras were affordable!), COCOA started conducting a two-day racing event at Willow Springs International Motorsports Park near Rosamond, California, in 1971. It's a biannual affair with one meet in May and the other in October. Perfect weather is usually found with the May meeting, with the event actually starting the day before with a cruise up the backside of Angeles Crest Highway (behind Los Angeles) on a two-lane, twisty, turning road perfect for horsepower-charged Snakes
Roughly 80 cars get together at a meet (with 100 cars it gets tough to let everybody on the track, so organizers limit the entries) and are grouped by experience (red, novice; white, intermediate; and blue, race-prepped cars and drivers). After passing tech, about 30 cars to a group go out on the track and run for about 20 minutes at a time. If you can get around the 2.5-mile course in two minutes, you're doing well. Blue-team experts clock in around one and a half minutes.
Willow Springs began its life in 1953 as the first example of a "purpose-built" track in California, and it claims to be the oldest such track in the country still in existence. Dozens of car clubs have scheduled meets through the year (Porsche Owners Club, West Coast Viper, motorcycle racing, as well as Skip Barber's Racing School), but no group has been doing longer than COCOA. So if you are in the area during the month of May or October, you may want to stop by and check out this gathering. It's informal, sociable, informative, and, if you happen to be driving a Cobra, pre-'80s Mustang, or any other vintage Ford-powered car, then it could be a whole lot of fun, too!