The Cobra Register Magazine Issue 1

ISSUE 1 SPRING 2018 He blew his mind out on a car...THE NEWSLETTER FOR OWNERS AND ENTHUSIASTS OF THE AC ACE AND THE 260, 289, 427 AND DAYTONA COBRAS > Great driving roads Part One. Oakham to Medbourne > Running Report: Peter Adams > Personalised registrations > W hat’s in a number? Part One: Cobra registration numbers > Rear View: Motor Sport Magazine: 1966 - Part One

IntroductionOn behalf of The Cobra Register, technical insight or indeed anything else thatI’m delighted to welcome you you feel would interest your fellow 289’ers orto this, the inaugural edition of 427’ists; please get in touch with me at editor@‘Cobra’, our very own magazine; thecobraregister.com I look forward to hearingthe first of the series really has from you.been an absolute pleasure to In this edition we have running reports fromput together and I’m genuinely Peter Adams, Paul Blore, Roger King andexcited about what we can myself, our very first Great Driving Roadsachieve in future editions. piece, in addition to a very special feature on COB6107 – the famous Tara Browne AC 289Over the last 25 years, I have regularly contributed Sports that back in 1966 featured a pioneeringto whatever club magazine that I happened paintjob that truly was once seen and never,to be a member of at that particular time (and ever forgotten.believe me, there have been many), but this And just a final note on the name of ouris the first occasion where I’ve actually been magazine; the Register board spent much timeseated in the Editor’s chair, so the weight of coming up with various potential names for thisresponsibility sits particularly heavily on my missive; some subtle and many less so, someshoulders. Why? Because I want to give very clever and others much closer to cheesy.you, our fellow members something that will I was surprised by what a delicate balancehopefully both inform and entertain in equal naming a magazine actually is. And the endmeasure and ideally, our magazine will be result? ‘Cobra’; simple, powerful and definitive,something you might actually want to keep for just like the car that started the legend 56 yearsposterity (albeit online), rather than merely flick ago and one that we still can’t get enough of,through and then put in the bin after just one which seemed rather fitting.cursory read. I truly hope that you enjoy our first edition.I hope to bring you genuinely insightful features Lee Marshallthat comprehensively colour your Cobraknowledge and add to the pleasure of owningthese very special cars.But the truth is, I just can’t do it without you;and whilst I’ll be a regular contributor as wellas editor, I do need your input as you, dearreader are the very lifeblood of our collective,so please don’t be shy in putting your headabove the parapet; whether it’s a runningreport you’d like to share, an event report,If you have any of your own content regarding build,historic stories, events and anything else of interest,please send them to: [email protected] 2



Great driving roadsI discovered this route almost by accident almost The journey is best taken either at first light in15 years ago, at a time when my life wasn’t quite the summer, before more mundane traffic is outas happy and settled as it is now, so driving this and about, or at the opposite end of the day; justroute takes on added significance and always before the sun sets, though you’ll probably havesucceeds in reminding me to always appreciate a bike or two on your tail if you choose the latter…what I have (though sadly I can’t seem toconsistently apply that same sentiment to cars...) If you prefer your dining a touch less rustic, then an additional bonus is the Nevill Arms, locatedStart your journey in the historic market town some 8 miles distant in Medbourne, which servesof Oakham and head up the A606 towards a great full English from 8 am, assuming youStamford, taking in the majesty of Rutland Water haven’t already had a coronary courtesy of theto your right, passing through the villages of Moose’s Hoof; alternatively, this is the perfect pitWhitwell and Empingham, before turning off the stop for an early evening Shandy and a bite tomain road to follow the shore of the reservoir eat.as you drive through Normanton, Edith Westonand Manton. You’ll pick up the A6003 towards Situated idyllically alongside a tributary of theUppingham, including a 1.5 mile straight, River Welland, which gently flows right outsideknown locally as ‘the big dipper’, affording the the Grade 2 listed front door, the Nevill provides aopportunity to clear out the cobwebs, whilst quintessentially English location that would graceflexing your right foot and probably testing your the backdrop of period road tests and brochurenerve at the same time. cover shots alike.If you plump for anearly morning run, you For me it’s perhaps themight want to break your very essence of my perfectjourney at Sycamore summer’s evening; enjoyingHarley Davidson, a long drink with your CobraUppingham where you parked close by, listeningcan grapple a breakfast to it ‘ting and ping’ as itbap at The Moose’s Hoof,the airstream burger bar slowly cools down followingsituated on site here. a spirited drive, withHighly recommended if the setting sun bathingyou appreciate what’s now a golden glow over allfashionably known as street you survey. Is there afood, everything here is more magical image tolocally sourced, well cooked, encapsulate the joy of oldgood value and generous in portion. The guywho runs the ‘van is a genuine petrol head, car ownership?providing your engine is big (tick) and preferablyAmerican (tick again). In summary; my first nomination for a great driving road offers a combination ofOnce you’ve refuelled, turn immediate right onto scintillating driving along with stunning views ofthe legendary B664; rated by Classic & Sportscar the surrounding countryside AND a choice of pitmagazine’s Ace 2.6 owning Simon Taylor as stops along the route to titivate your tastebuds;‘epic’ and is a perennial favourite with the biker all experienced in possibly less than 2 gallons. Infraternity; both good kite marks for a genuinely fact, just reliving this journey makes me feel ourgreat driving road. Comprising a tangle of very own ‘breakfast club’ meet coming on, so I’dhairpin bends as it descends steeply away from like to propose this very route for the inauguralUppingham, affording a truly stunning vista of Cobra Register weekend run of 2018 – anysurrounding Leicestershire, this is a challenging takers?road that rewards driver input in spades. Addinto the mix some great, long straights to open I’m very much looking forward to hearing yourthe taps and you have the perfect road for some own nominations for your favourite driving roadstruly memorable open-air motoring. in the coming months; so please contact me at [email protected] and share your experiences. Lee Marshall 4

Running Report: Peter AdamsWith 2017 already a fast fading memory, the last few months have seenjust a weekend run down to the Royal National Lifeboat headquartersat Poole to meet up with some sailing chums. Classic boat sailors areoften also classic car enthusiasts, so our passions encompassed bothroad and water. The weekend weather was cold but clear and the tripwas a great end to an eventful year. The car is now up on axle standsawaiting the next phase in its development.2017 started with a self-inflicted panic. The the outset my intention was to completelyworkload had grown largely due to the old rebuild it and the intervening years haveproblem of “whilst this is out, I might as well seen the cooling system rebuilt, along withdo this too” and what started as a reasonable the braking system, rear axle, a change fromobjective progressed into a substantial to- do MGB to Hawk front suspension, reworked fuellist, all of which was to be completed just in system, aluminium lined and altered boot andtime for the mid May Roses road trip. a reworked dashboard, seat installation and interior trim.I purchased the completed and correctlydocumented car in November 2010, but from 5



What’s in a number?Part One: Cobra registration numbersI have an admission tomake, which probablywon’t show me in a goodlight; I’ve long harbouredan unhealthy obsessionwith registrationnumbers on old carsand indeed the plates onwhich they sit. There; itfeels good to be finallyout in the open.For me, a number plate is an utterly intrinsic In this two-part piece, I’ll discuss original ACpart of any old car; where the right one ‘factory’ registration numbers and their origin incan significantly enhance the appeal of an edition one, along with highlighting the Britishindividual car, whilst an unimaginatively dealers who supplied new Cobra’s in period.chosen or poorly presented number can We’ll also discuss the potential minefield ofhave the complete opposite effect; even if personalised plates and then next time, we’llthe car to which the number is attached to is cover off number plates themselves and howan otherwise outstanding example. In recent to create period perfect ones, along with sometimes, I believe more enthusiasts are waking suggestions around where you can find aup to this. period correct registration number and more importantly, how much you’ll have pay for it!Now, before you consign me to anorakscorner, wearing a bobble hat and muttering AC factory registered carsdarkly, this once niche element of ourmovement is beginning to take on added In the period when Cobra’s were originally insignificance as the value of old cars continue production, UK market cars would either beto rise, pushing up the standard of restorations first registered by the factory, or by the localand indeed new builds too. Whether your supplying dealer and for the purposes of thisCobra is a Thames Ditton built original or a feature, I shall refer specifically to those carsmore recent replica, reconstruction or tool that carry COB or COX chassis numbers, ratherroom copy, it will benefit from displaying a than CSX cars that initially headed statesideperiod correct registration and number plate and subsequently came back to these shorescombination as it will take levels of authenticity at a later point in time.to new heights and additionally just mightsilence those annoying people who constantly In the case of cars first registered by theask you ‘is it a real one?’ factory, each would be issued with a Guildford 7

What’s in a number?County Council letter sequence. On ‘suffix’ And on AC 289 Sports models:cars from 1963 on (i.e. those cars with an Aregistration or later), the latter two letters of MPD170D NPA160D MPD160D KPD150Cthe first part of the registration number would PPE20E commence with a PA, PB, PC, PD, PE, PF, PG,PH, PJ, PK or PL sequence – such as BPH5B. As no 427’s were delivered ‘ex works’ in period,The first letter of that sequence did not in any none carried UK registration numbers when new.way determine the geographical origin of the That said, a small number of cars, both originalplate. On ‘prefix’ cars (i.e. cars with pre-A and more recent do now carry period Surreyregistrations), the geographical designator will registration numbers as there are those ownersappear at the end of the plate, rather than the (this writer included) who feel that they add abeginning – 300PK and 4141PE for example, certain level of correctness to their cars, thoughwhich appear to be the only ‘prefix’ registered this is a purely personal view and one on whichCobra’s in period. many will (and do) differ! Reference to the SAAC World Registry Now, in addition to Surrey registered cars,4th edition shows that many UK supplied you will also occasionally see those that carrycars originally carried a Guildford issued the similar ‘PO’ or ‘PX’ letters in their plates,registration plate, irrespective of which garage usually cars supplied by K N Rudd Ltd ofultimately handed the car over to their first Worthing. It’s worth noting these are Sussex,owner; a good example being COB6010; rather than Surrey designators and in truth,a car first sold by Peppers of Newcastle, are more regularly seen on Aces, rather thanStaffordshire, even though it carried the Cobra’s (excepting the 1965 Autocar road testSurrey number MPD170D. The definitive 289, COB6022 and registered CPO681B). Thisearly records of each car exist within the car was supplied by Rudd simply due to theoriginal factory logs curated by the ACOC, fact that AC didn’t have a 289 factory suppliedso whilst the SAAC Register is reliable to a demonstrator for the UK market.point, given this reference work is written bythe exceptional SAAC team in America, it London Registered Cobra’soccasionally and understandably doesn’t fullycomprehend the intricacies of the British car Given the number of London based dealersregistration system in place at the time, so is who supplied new Cobra’s, the secondnot completely infallible. most numerous geographical designator unsurprisingly comes from our capital and260 and 289 Cobra’s first registered with included the following 289 Cobra’s, exceptingSurrey registrations in period include: the 2 last cars, which were both AC 289 Sports models:100PK 4141PE BPH4B BPH5BAPA6B FPF666B FPA10B GPC8B CLW384B CLH2B CLH3B FYW96CFPD20D FPF100B EPJ808B FPF55B FYX291C DLO100C EYT72C NPA201D JPA9C GPG4C GYK768C* KYW858D* 8



What’s in a number?for first owner Robert Burnard, but in more They cover any numbers issued on orrecent years carried the London issued after 1929 and the guides were updatednumber CLW384B and possibly looks all the to incorporate all types and structures ofbetter for it. It’s a great shame when cars registration numbers including precedinglose their original registration numbers; a sequences, reversed index and then finallycase in point being KPD150C, the Motor road suffix plates, which would cover most Cobra’stest car (COB6016), which subsequently as these were introduced in 1963 and thenbecame 11COB, also receiving the Brian made law by 1965. You can find used copiesAngliss treatment, being converted to full 427 on Ebay and they retail for around £10 perspecification. To my eyes, the original and copy. Whilst they may not initially rank as thehistoric identity of this most important car has most obvious riveting automotive read; trustbeen lost to what can only be described as me, they do make a great addition to yourvanity and sometimes you can try just a little motoring library and offer access to periodtoo hard. When has any Jaguar or Porsche 911 correct information and you will find yourselflooked better for a ‘JAG’ or ‘911’ registration leafing through your copy; if only to trace thenumber? Me neither. origin of past owned cars, now long gone…As an aside, it’s also worth noting that at no Hopefully, part one will have given you anpoint in period did any cars carry an ‘ACC’ introductory insight into the world of period-letter combination; these are a very recent correct registration numbers and I suspectdevelopment in Cobra circles and cannot in that it’s either whetted your appetite to learnany way be considered to be period authentic. a little more, or you may feel sufficiently satiated not to delve any further into thisSuggested further reading often ill-informed subject. In the next exciting instalment, we’ll be investigating where toChiltern Vehicle Preservation Group: search for these period perfect numbers, howHistory of Car Registration & Number Plates much you’ll need to pay and then we’ll take a look in a little more detail at how to buy (orWritten in 2003, this is an excellent potted create) authentic number plates on which tohistory of the vehicle registration plate in display your registration number.the UK and details the changes in sizeand structure of plates issued from 1903 Lee Marshallonwards. It’s especially useful in tracingthe geographical origin of your own numberplate as it details all the ‘classic’ two lettersequences issued by local authoritiesin period. It is available online as a pdfdocument if you follow this link www.cvpg.co.uk/REG.pdf For any old car enthusiast, it’sgenuinely indispensable and best of all, it isfree of charge!Glass’s Index of Registration MarksOnly for registration number anoraks, Glass’sproduced these guides regularly in the periodup to the late 1990’s and were used mainlywithin the motor trade, alongside the Glass’sGuide Check Book of car values. The ‘Index’series of books detail when a registrationnumber was first issued and additionally showswhere in the UK that sequence originated. 10





The Buick provided Tara with a blueprint for hisAC, which rather than being dispatched to B.E.V.’sstudios located in a disused factory in Chalk Farm,his car was actually painted in Tara’s own garage;a lock up in Mayfair, over a prolonged period thatwas likely to have covered the first 6-8 monthsof 1966, often accompanied by The Beach Boysrecently released masterpiece ‘Pet Sounds’ as thesoundtrack. As a nod to the zeitgeist of the momentwhen this AC truly ‘flowered’, the title of thispiece closely replicates the iconic ‘Cooper Black’typeface and colour palette of the original albumcover, just in case you wondered.Back to the car itself, ‘the treatment’, comprisedhand painting the AC in a dazzling variety of brightenamels, most likely applied directly onto theexisting factory paintwork. When Paul McCartneysaw Tara’s completed 289, he was so enamouredwith it that Dudley Edwards was immediatelycommissioned to paint Paul’s upright piano athis home on Cavendish Avenue and it retains its’psychedelic finish to this day. Early in 1967, it wason this very piano that Paul wrote the SergeantPepper track ‘Getting Better’ that features the line‘I’m painting my room in the colourful way andwhen my mind is wondering’, a direct reference tothe work of Edwards.Once completed, the 289 was displayed inclose friend Robert Fraser’s gallery on DukeStreet, Mayfair from Saturday September 3rdand on Monday 5rd he gave a short speechthere to introduce the car and what it stood for.In the photo’s below, the AC hadn’t yet had itswindscreen refitted following its’ new paint andyou can see Browne in the driving seat as it exitsthe studio following its’ residency there. At thismoment in time, Browne was banned from drivingfor 6 months for speeding on the M6, which wasa great source of irritation, according to Tara’sclose friends; imagine having a car like this and notbeing able to show it off…This gallery exiting sequence was filmed byBritish Pathe and entitled ‘Art on Wheels’ and canbe found at https://www.britishpathe.com/video/art-onwheels. The Pathe newsreel was releasedfor public consumption on 03 November, whichmeant poor Tara had less than 7 weeks to livefrom when it was first shown in cinemas acrossthe UK, shortly before the main feature film at yourlocal ABC Gaumont Theatre. As you tucked intoyour Mackintosh’s ‘Week End’ selection box in thedarkness, seeing this spectacularly coloured caremerge from a London window must have felt likewitnessing something from another world. 13

There’s a suggestion in some less well-informed in this rare image below. Note also that the carquarters that Browne was killed on the way to now has its’ windscreen fitted and appears roadFraser's gallery to view the car for its’ inaugural legal.showing to the public. This is clearly nonsense,especially given the Pathe film clearly shows Tara died in the early hours of 18 December 1966,Browne piloting his 289 out of the gallery, rather following a road traffic accident the precedingthan in, which rather puts paid to this grim theory evening in South Kensington, when his borrowedsomewhat; and while we’re destroying falsehoods, light blue Lotus Elan FHC allegedly ran a red lightby December 1966, the Cobra wasn’t even in the and hit a stationary van. He was just 21 yearsUK at the time of Tara’s old. Amongst his many passions were cars – heaccident, it being on theother side of the world, was a keen amateurcreating a stir stateside. racing driver and often practised inThe truth is a little more the deserted streetsprosaic, Tara had invested of London, drivingin Dandie Fashions, a at speeds of upboutique on the Kings to 100 miles perRoad and was allegedly en hour. This isn’t someroute to meet with David manufactured romanticVaughan (of B.E.V.) to vision to build up adiscuss designs for the picture, post mortemshop frontage following – he regularly did,a date with model Suki according to his closePoitier when he was killed. friends at the time.Suki later appeared atthe side of former ‘Stones Tara was a keen andguitarist Brian Jones and genuinely talentedsadly he too was not to spanner man, spendingsee in the dawn of a newdecade. much of his time at friend Len Street’sThe Beatles later invested garage fettling cars,in Dandie, renaming the to the degree thatbusiness Apple Tailoring, in a 1965 interviewwhich ran alongside the with Penthousebetter-known Apple Boutique magazine, he statedthat operated out of Baker he was employedStreet. Apple Tailoring was nota success and closed towards there, which wouldthe end of 1968, outlasting the have caused muchApple Boutique, which itself amusement to hisclosed for business on 31 July fellow members of1968. the establishment.Following its’ brief display in Employed he mostRobert Fraser’s gallery, the certainly was, but289 along with the Buick was the truth was thatphotographed by Lord Lichfield in and around Tara had personallyMayfair and then at nearby Primrose Hill on 29 invested in theSeptember, along with the emerging Birmingham dealership to enablePop-art band The Move. Selected images him to indulge his passions on his own terms andsubsequently featured in the magazines ‘Paris he drew a weekly salary of just £9 for servicesMatch’ and the American fashion and lifestyle rendered, equating to £150 in 2018. A former Lotuspublication 'Look'. mechanic at the factory in Cheshunt, Len Street was an authorised Lotus and AC agent for CentralTo avoid hiding any of the new paintwork, the rear London, building a strong following amongst sportsnumber plate was re-mounted on the bumper, car enthusiasts in the Capital in the late 60’s andrather than on the bootlid and the car sometimes into the 70’s.carried a front plate, but only selectively, as shown The Lotus Tara died in was owned by the girlfriend of one of his close friends, Glen Kidston and as Tara had been working on it at Len Street’s garage, 14



By late 1968 psychedelia as a movement was well and truly over and many cars given 'the treatment' in period were then unceremoniously blown over in more sober hues and quickly sold on to new owners, as was the case here. In cultural terms, this really is one of the most important 'art cars' of that brief but brilliant period, alongside John Lennon's Phantom, which survives to this day with almost original JP Fallon paintwork, having been donated to the Cooper Hewitt Museum in 1977 in lieu of a tax settlement. It is now in the care of the British Columbia Museum, spending much of its time in storage, whilst George Harrison’s restored Radford Mini De Ville GT, resides in the custodianship of the Harrison estate. Both Beatle cars were finished in more sombre hues when new; Lennon’s in Valentine Black on delivery from R.S Mead of Maidenhead in June 1965, complete with all brightwork excepting the grille finished in body colour, much to the consternation of Rolls Royce Motor Cars. Harrison’s Mini was originally finished in metallic black when new in 1966 and both then received their trippy paint in the early summer of 1967, almost a full year after Tara’s trailblazing AC. Both of these designs were inspired not by B.E.V. but by The Fool, the Beatles’ preferred art collective; comprising Dutch artists Simon Posthuma and Marijke Koeger, who were responsible for the huge mural that briefly adorned the Apple Boutique in Baker Street from November 1967 until May 1968, when it was overpainted white by order of Westminster City Council. Tara’s memory was honoured by The Beatles with a number of lyrical references on Sergeant Pepper, which they had commenced recording at the time of his death. Some were obvious ‘nothing to do to save his life, call his wife in’ (Good morning, Good morning), ‘I read the news today oh boy, about a lucky man who made the grade. And though the news was rather sad, well I just had to laugh; I saw the photograph. He blew his mind out in a car, he didn’t notice that the lights had changed. A crowd of people stood and stared; they’d seen his face before, nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords’ (A day in the life), taken from an article about Tara in the Daily Mail from 17 January 1967, through to much the less obvious ‘meeting a man from the motor trade’ (She’s leaving home) and ‘I’m painting my room in the colourful way and when my mind is wandering’ (Fixing a hole), though Paul actually sings ‘in a colourful way’. And stay with me here, there are quite possibly two visual references on the iconic album cover too, seen here in full view in Michael Cooper’s Flood Street16





In the same edition, the Porsche 911 made its bow, road test-ed by former 356 owner, Jenks, who pronounced it ‘a real GTcar’. With a list price of £3,438 1S. 3d including purchase tax,a nearly new 289 Cobra could be had for around half the price.In the review of the most favoured cars of the preceding year,the Sunbeam Tiger was viewed as one of the highlights of1965, though Jenks (again) was disappointed that the testmodel only had the ‘not very cooking’ 4.2 litre lump and not the4.8 – in true british style, no cubic inches were mentioned…In the classifieds, Camden Sports Cars of Leighton Buzzardhad in stock a 1963 AC Greyhound, fitted with Bristol en-gine, with wire wheels, reclining seats and low mileage, allfor £1299, whilst our friends at The Gold Seal Car Companyoffered a 1959 Ace Bristol, registered BYE536, finished in Poly-Chromatic Blue with grey hide trim, radio, tonneau and heaterfor the princely sum of £635.Meanwhile, Motorway Sportscars ‘Try them up the motorway’of Faversham stocked a 1957 Aceca in Indigo blue for just£525, whilst Dan Marguiles of Queen’s Gate Place Mews of-fered a 1961 Ferrari 250GT Berlinetta, showing one owner andlow mileage for £2750.As further evidence of those different times, look no further thanthe recruitment piece for the Royal Air Force, entitled ‘Share thegreat companionship of men who fly’, which sounded more likean invitation to date with, rather than fight for your country (andif the former was your preference, then bear in mind that sort ofcarry on would remain illegal for another year)…April saw a page dedicated to Rob Walker, who professedthe 1966 model American Ford to be quieter than his Jaguar,which caused much tongue wagging, whilst Renault launchedthe pioneering 16 in the UK and Jaguar the E Type 2+2, whichwas received far more positively back then vs. now. In thePictorial Review, Roger Mac featured in GPG4C, having brokethe Brands Hatch club circuit GT record with the ChequeredFlag Cobra. 19