Please find attached some info and photo's of our pride & joy. Our 1978 Ford Falcon Cobra Number 392. Please keep up the good work with the site. As president of the Vic branch of the Falcon Cobra Club l receive around 2-3 inquiries per month from people asking how they can get their hands on a Cobra.

Rod tells us that, "Credit must go to the original owner David from Tyabb who purchased the car new from Edwards Ford KooWeeRup in country Victoria in 1978. David lovingly cared for this unrestored Cobra and not wanting to clock up too many K’s the car was hardly driven over the past 8 years, and there is only 172.000Kms on the clock approx 6000Kms per year ( not bad for a car that’s almost 28 years old)

It was News Years Day 2004 and we had our First Cobra (Number 366) on display at the Hot rod and Classic car show in Mornington when we first met David, he said he had a Cobra sitting at home in his shed, so we got talking and l asked if he was a member of the Falcon Cobra Club and he replied that he did not know one existed, so details changed hands and he was invited to our next event and David left saying that he would give us a call.

2 Weeks latter the phone rang and it was David. He was thinking of getting the Cobra out of mothballs and putting a FOR SALE sign on her!!!
l asked if l could have a look at the car. My son and l took the short drive to David’s house, The car was in great condition the only problem was how do l sell the idea of having two Cobra’s to my wife???,after a lot of crawling and promises a deal was stuck and the rest as they say is history.

We now had Two Cobra’s sitting side by side in the garage, so we decided that one of them had to go. We were approached by a Cobra fan while on a club run to Beechworth and with in 3 weeks Cobra Number 366 was sold and now resides on the Vic /NSW border under the loving care of its new owner.

This left us to focus our attention on Cobra Number 392. Falcon Cobra’s were the brainchild of Edsel Ford ll (great grandson of Henry Ford) who in 1978 was the assistant Manager of Ford Australia.

Also in 1978 there were 400 two door hardtops which were not selling well and the new XD range was coming, something had to be done to move these remaining cars. Enter the Cobra, it was Edsel’s idea to paint the last 400 hardtops white with blue stripes similar to the American racers of the time, so the already painted Bold Blue coupes were masked up and sent back through the paint shop were the Snow white paint was sprayed over the top, (if you see a genuine Cobra with stone chips on the white paint there should be blue paint underneath)

The sale of the new Falcon Cobra’s were a hit with both the public and the dealers, Ford Australia sent only 2 Cobra’s to each of their premium dealers and there was a buying frenzy. People who had ordered a Cobra basically got what they were given and there were deals going on between dealers and it’s been reported the Ford provided some dealers with a 351 Crank and Rod set to turn some 302 into 351’s for buyers who were not satisfied with what they were given.

So all 400 cars were sold with in days. All Option 96 Falcon Cobra’s came with the following standard features such as.
• Reclining front bucket seats with Striped cloth insets to mach the exterior colour scheme
• Four wheel power assisted disk brakes
• Dual exhaust system
• Bathurst Globe Wheels
• ER70H15 Radial tyres
• Colour coded front & rear spoilers & bumper bars
• Touring suspension
• Limited slip differentials
• Individually numbered glove box plaques 001 to 400
The First 200 cars had 351 (5.8Lt) V8’s and the second 200 cars were all 302 (4.9Lt) V8’s (except for Number 351 which had a 351 V8)

Here is a breakdown of the number sequence of the Cobra Production run.

001 Promo special 302 auto
002 - 031 = Bathurst Special (Option 97)
032 - 041 = 351 Manual Air Conditioning Power Steering
042 - 080 = 351 Manual Air Conditioning Power Steering Fast Glass
081 - 200 = 351 Auto Air Conditioning Power Steering Fast Glass
201 - 300 = 302 Manual
301 - 360 = 302 Auto Air Conditioning Power windows
361 - 400 = 302 Auto Air Conditioning Power windows Fast Glass

Price when new = $9,405 Option 96 (4.9 engine)
$11,116 Option 97 (Bathurst)

Identification of a Cobra is easy
Numbered plaque on the Glove box
Second ID tag on the front cross member below the Right hand side head light it should read “COBRA R PACK 00XXX (XXX= the build/car number) Z605 (Paint code).

The engine number, Body number (left hand side Shocker tower) and the Compliance plate (ID Tag) number should all be the same
Prefix should be JG65 (JG=built in Broadmeadows - 65=hardtop)
Most cars were built in July 1978 (U=1978 - M=July)
The next five digits were vehicle build number Eg If the car number is 392 then the ID number would be JG65UM00392K (K=V8)

Being one of the last Cobras produced Number 392 has all the factory options .eg. Power Steering, Power windows and air conditioning, it also has a long range Bathurst fuel tank and a 9 inch 3.25:1 Detroit Locker rear end.

The wheels which were on the car when we bought it have been hand made by race car driver Jim Richards at his workshop in Melbourne in the early 80’s, and have reported to have seen track time on one of his race cars.

The centres are 15 inch Ford Globes that have had the outer rim machined off so that an extra 2, 1/2 inch rim could be fitted using high tensile Allen bolts, this makes the wheel size 15 x 8.5.
There were only 4 sets of these wheels ever produced. They did however need a good clean and polish so they were taken to Rod and Paul at WHEELS in Ballarat where they were dismantled, acid dipped re-sealed painted and polished, New Yokohamas tyres were also fitted 225x60x15 front & 275x60x15 rear. Every car show we attend some one always asks about the wheels because they are so unique.

If you look in the boot you will find an original 15x7 Bathurst Globe wheel fitted with a Dunlop Aquajet tyre, the original boot matt still has both part numbers on it (as the boots in coupes are wider than four door sedans the outer part numbers on the boot mat were cut off so they would fit into the Sedan boot) there is also the original jack and jack bag.

You might be wondering why we have the Official Track Car livery on the car. This was a club exercise as we have replicas of the Allan Moffat No1 & No2 Race Cobra’s in our club & it was decided that we should also have a replica of one of the Track cars (There were 7 or 8 Cobra Track Cars at the 1978 Hardie Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst).

Since we have had the Stickers on the car it has been used as one of the Track cars at the 2005 Easternats at Sandown Race Course and we were also the pace car at Bathurst 2005 leading the historic group C race cars on a parade lap of the circuit just prior to the main race. This also makes a great Club display at any of the Shows we attend.
Since the Cobra has been in our care it has picked up a few awards
It won Best Falcon Cobra at the 2005 All Ford Day in Geelong, Top Cobra at the Ford Performance Vehicles open day 2005 and Top Muscle Car at the Cranbourne Car & Bike Show 2005.

We have a strong following in our club with around 20 members and we also welcome associate members. You will find us at most of the major shows and we like nothing better than to drive our cars when ever we can Classic and Historic Club permit registration in available to our members with 6 cars operating under the scheme. The whole idea of the Falcon Cobra Club of Aust (Vic) Inc. Is to keep the mighty Cobra on the road where it belongs. Club Committee members can be contacted through the Web site http://www.falconcobraclubofaus.com of call me direct on 0407 407 008.

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