289 Fia Cobra - Hey Little Cobra

Performed by The Rip Chords and written by Cobra owner Carol Connors, a musclecar song called "Hey Little Cobra" raced up the charts in 1964. The album's cover art depicted one of the most famous racing 289 FIA Cobras ever campaigned by Shelby American. The black-hued and yellow driver-striped Cobra wore number 15 on its roundelles most of its career, and was piloted by Ken Miles, Dan Gurney, Lew Spencer, Dave McDonald, Bob Holbert, Allen Grant, and Graham Shaw. In March '63, Gurney, Spencer, and McDonald finished 28th overall at the Sebring FIA 12 Hour endurance race with the black roadster. At one of its last competitions in May '64, Miles piloted it to first place among manufacturers at the Kent, Washington, USRRC. The black beauty was designated CSX2128 289 Sebring Roadster for its serial number and rack-and-pinion steering as well as its 289ci Ford small-block mill. The '63 Sebring Cobras were the first to get rid of the smaller 260ci Ford engines and less precise worm-and-sector steering boxes. Unlike most racing Cobras of the '60s, the CSX2128 retired in June '64 after finishing second at Watkins Glen, and it wasn't thrashed in post-retirement racing. The roadster is also famous for being driven by future California governor and American president Ronald Reagan in his last film, The Killers, a Hemingway story that also starred Angie Dickinson.

Auctioneers Russo and Steele weaved all these elements together to recount the CSX2128's history for hard-to-impress automotive aficionados interested in adding the car to their respective collections in January 2005 at R&S's Scottsdale auction. The result was history-making. Hey Little Cobra was auctioned off for the record-setting price of $2,133,000 to an anonymous bidder who vowed to display the roadster at the Shelby American Museum.

While the original car is preserved as a museum piece, the Kirkham 289 FIA Hybrid depicted here gets the snot driven out of it at race events across the country. Cobra enthusiast Dean Lampe has built and owned three Cobra kits over the years. He had always wanted a bare aluminum roadster, so he traded his finished Hurricane 98 car with a 427ci FE big-block to friend and Cobra fan Jay Nordstrom in exchange for the in-progress Kirkham 289 Hybrid, the first of its kind from Kirkham Motorsports in Provo, Utah.

Wife Lisa and sons Dylan (8) and Reed (6) enjoy participating in events with the Kirkham 289 FIA and husband/dad Dean. Reed is able to drain the oil and screw in a new filter, while Dylan can change the brake pads at all four corners himself!