THE FIRST 289 COBRA

The person who has come to own “the first” of anything worth collecting—whether through happenstance, patience, determination, privilege, or blind luck—is, by extension, unique simply for owning precisely what no one else does. With obscure and vintage collectibles in particular, the fight to attain the first example of any prized item can draw out over decades and consume untold sums, provided such an item is even available to private buyers and not poised under spotlights in a public museum, hermetically sealed behind three inches of laser-guarded glass. Proto-collectibles for most hobbies are thus locked away, never to trade hands again, making the chance to have the first of anything—particularly an iconic sportscar—a rare and storied opportunity indeed.

One such instance arises here, offered from its third recorded owner since 1963: Carroll Shelby’s first 289 Cobra.

Featured in nearly every significant catalogue of Shelby marque history and showing a remarkable preservation of its original features alongside extensive documentation from new, chassis number CSX 2044 is a exhilirating prize of compelling and irreproachable significance.

Making of a MAD SCIENTIST’S COBRA

Until Shelby and company showed up in force at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March 1963, Cobras were mostly known to the West Coast racing community. Outside of Sports Car Graphic and Hot Rod, they weren’t a household name until early summer of that year. So, if you were writing to Carroll Shelby Enterprises in March of 1963, you were most likely a Californian and certainly a sportscar nut. Indeed, Dr. Harrison “Hap” Horn was from Palo Alto; but where one might expect him to be a road racer, he was rather a pioneering computer scientist at Stanford University.

As befits a scientist, Dr. Horn had already done his research, and the letter he wrote to Shelby on 17 March was brief and to the point: “Please send me complete technical description and specifications, prices, and availability of your AC-Ford car, and its options and accessories.”

That’s exactly what he received two weeks later, sent personally by Carroll Shelby himself. With interest piqued, Dr. Horn wrote back two full pages of questions and comments, the most crucial of which—at least in hindsight—was the very first one: “Are you still using the 260 engine, or has it been replaced with the cored and bored 289 item?”

The answer was that, up to that point, Shelby had been using Ford’s 260-cubic-inch V-8 engine and was still building cars with it. In fact, Dr. Horn’s car, chassis CSX 2044, should have been just another 260 Cobra. But his detailed and constantly evolving specifications for the order drew out so long that by the time his car was ready to have the engine installed, production was already beginning to switch over to the more powerful 289-cubic-inch V-8 that would come to define the Cobra.

Thus, in early May 1963, CSX 2044 became the first Shelby Cobra to be originally fitted from new with the 289 cubic-inch V-8, engine number 3011B-524. Better yet, this significant, original, and numbers-matching unit still resides within CSX 2044’s engine bay.

While Shelby American Automobile Club records and marque researchers have determined that CSX2025, a 1962 260 Cobra show car, was converted to a 289-engine configuration at approximately the same time as Dr. Horn’s special-order Cobra, but CSX 2044 is unequivocally the first Cobra born with Shelby’s iconic 289 V-8. Remarkably well-preserved, retaining its original features and documentation, CSX 2044 is perhaps the most obsessively documented Cobra on the planet.

Every piece of paper associated with the car has been retained. Individually, many of them are utterly mundane—old registrations, receipts for nuts and bolts, even a few speeding tickets—but taken together and compiled within the car’s two-inch-thick file, they form an irreplaceable record that conclusively answers any doubts about its stellar provenance.

Along with all the car’s original sales documentation, another highlight of the extensive history file is a handwritten letter about the build progress of CSX 2044 from none other than Peter Brock, noted automotive designer, racer, and Shelby’s first paid employee. “Everything just about complete, except for roll bar and impact reels,” Brock writes. He compliments Dr. Horn on his choice of white enamel and tells him the serial and engine number. Brock also suggests chroming the roll bar, “…as painting it just won’t (we feel) look right.” Dr. Horn dutifully agreed and the car still proudly displays that original application of chrome to this day.

This custom “roll-over bar” ($200) is one of the distinctive options that help distinguish this car in period images. CSX 2044 was also fitted with a set of Goodyear tires (five total, including a spare), and seat belts with shoulder harnesses and impact reels. Reflecting his later interest in safety, Dr. Horn also specified left and right convex mirrors and an interior “anti-dazzle” mirror. An additional side pipe was a no-cost option, and he ordered a rear bumper and front grille guard to protect both ends of the bodywork. Driving comfort was enhanced with sun visors, wind wings, and a heater, while the brightwork continued under the hood, with a chromed air cleaner and aluminum rocker covers. Dr. Horn’s only evident modifications to CSX 2044’s configuration as delivered new was a pair of larger tail lamps from a contemporary Ford pickup, and reflective red tape applied to the rear end after delivery on 21 May 1963.

Over the next six years, Dr. Horn drove more than 23,000 incident-free miles in his 289 Cobra until, one day in late 1969, the muffler knocked loose after catching on the lip of his garage threshold. In a miracle of unintended preservation, Dr. Horn never got around to making the simple repair to fix the muffler; months turned into years, and years into decades. He became busy developing the original Macintosh computer with Steve Jobs, and so CSX 2044 spent more than 30 years in the Horn family’s garage.

Near the turn of the millennium, Dr. Horn began researching Cobra prices before he quietly, and privately, notified a select group of Shelby collectors that he was ready to sell his carefully preserved 289. After a protracted vetting process in which Dr. Horn evaluated each collector’s passion for this irreplaceable car, only the preeminent Cobra enthusiast Lynn Park passed scrutiny, and so CSX 2044 entered his prized collection of outstanding and significant Shelby Cobras in 2001.

Since returning to the road, it has had a single, correct repaint in the original color and is currently equipped with an upgraded carburetor. Other than that, new tires, and Dr. Horn’s aforementioned taillamp swap, nearly nothing has changed from its original configuration as delivered in May 1963.

CSX 2044’s delicate and characterful wood steering wheel remains un-warped, while the red interior upholstery is beautifully patinaed with very fine original carpet throughout. Notably, the correct and irreplaceable wing nut that secures the fifth original wire wheel within the trunk is present, as is the car’s fragile, original windshield. Acquired by the consignor from Mr. Park in August 2013, this carefully preserved and continually admired prize of Shelby history has been driven a grand total of 200 miles over the past decade of custodianship.

Every Cobra is, in a way, a reflection of the person who ordered it. With so many coveted classic cars, that originality has either been lost through successive restorations or, if the car remains original, it is in such degraded condition that it’s not drivable. Dr. Horn’s CSX 2044—the first 289 Cobra–—however, can be taken out for a blast into the hills on a cool Saturday evening, looking and driving just as it did 50 years ago, while still serving as a benchmark reference car.

There is no other 289 Cobra like it, and certainly none earlier. CSX 2044 is and will forever be the first.