When you think of the cars from Shelby American, perhaps one of the first ones that come to mind is the powerful 427 Cobra . With the thousands of replicas having been built it is easily the most recognizable car Shelby American produced. Twenty one early 427 Cobras were full competition cars and at $9,000.00 sales were slow, so the remaining thirty one 427 Cobras were converted to S/C specs and sold as street cars. The 427 S/C was nothing less than a detuned race car for street use. When you look at the few drivers who were consistently successful in racing 427 Cobras, the names Ed Lowther and Harold Keck come to mind, but they were on the East coast. On the West coast, there was Dick Smith. Dick Smith approached a local Fresno based radio station to purchase a new S/C and with the help from Shelby American's Lew Spencer a deal was made. In 1967, Smith won the A- production championship in CSX3035 and while racing the car at Daytona was clocked at 198mph, pretty impressive since the 427 Cobra had the aerodynamics of a brick. In 1968, Smith took first place in the Northern Pacific Division and went to the ARRC runoffs at Daytona, unfortunately engine gremlins caused an engine failure, one of Smith's very few DNF'S. Smith continued to fully enjoy CSX3035 with the advent of historic/vintage racing in the late 1970's. CSX3035 was a regular fixture on the West coast SAAC Conventions as well, the red 427 Cobra, with its tubular nerf bars and "198" on its side was easy to spot. Next to, if not in CSX3035 was the ever joyful, easy going, Smith . At SAAC 30, Dick Smith, announced he was retiring racing CSX3035, its always hard to keep good racers down, and a short time later Smith was racing and promoting the Factory Five 427 Cobra.

On April 18, 2007 we lost another 427 Cobra driver, Dick Smith, in a airplane crash north of Los Angeles. Dick Smith was 73 years old and was a very experienced aviator being a commercial pilot at one time, he passed away doing one of his favorite pasttimes: flying. He was in route from Fresno to Lancaster, California with his 16 year old stepson, Kyle Runciman when Dick's single engine Piper crashed into Tehachapi mountain. The pair of Fresno based residents were flying to Lancaster to look at a restored B-17 which was on tour at the time. The crash occurred at an elevation of 5,500 feet, about 115 miles North of L.A. The crash was under investigation.  Dick Smith will be missed.

 

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