Chuck tore down the top end of the engine in good faith, planning a valve job and a little more power, but it didn't turn out that way. The car sat without its cylinder heads and intake manifold until 1990, when his son was ready for a driver's license and the keys to the Cobra. They worked together to return the car to what it was in 1969, and it's been back on the road since 1995.
Chuck says he owes his former wife a debt of gratitude for her support when he was trying to buy this car a lifetime ago. "She was the one who fell in love with this car and told me to offer the guy more," he said. Approaching four decades later, Chuck regularly enjoys this car, driving on weekends in good weather.
With a car like this, what excites the senses is its powertrain. Not only does Chuck get to enjoy Cobra Jet power, there's nothing quite like a vintage Top Loader four-speed to get the memories rolling. It's the feel of an old-fashioned Hurst shifter, the T-handle, and the whine of First gear during hard acceleration. Those 3.50 gears give Chuck a nice compromise between all-out drag racing and good cruising ratios. Granted, this is not an ideal setup for driving an old musclecar hundreds of miles to a show. Expect to see 3,500 rpm at 70 mph with these gears, but imagine the 3.91 or 4.30 gears which were also available.
Chuck looks at his collectible Ford musclecar with great fondness and a deep sense of relief that he didn't sell the car when fuel prices escalated during the '70s. He never lost sight of what he and his former wife loved about the car back in 1972. And that's part of the charm of a really big sting that hasn't lost its edge in 34 years.