Cobra in a Sharkskin Suit

Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp

The well-known story goes that John Willment of Willment racing fame had a spare 427 competition Cobra chassis gathering dust in the workshop, so he decided to fit the Savonuzzi- designed Ghia built body from a Fiat 8V which he had previously found in a scrap yard.

The power unit was a Holman and Moody 427 V8 with twin four barrel carburetors. Unfortunately, John lost interest in the project and sold the car before it was properly finished. But here is the untold backstory of the Cobra Italiano.

Now back in the mid 1980’s in Brighton, UK, I worked for two partners who, amongst their business interests, bought and sold exotic cars. On one of the partners came upon a collector who had three cars for sale – a right hand drive Lamborgini Muira SV, the last left hand drive 289 Cobra built by AC cars in Thames Ditton, and the Willment Cobra. The cars were purchased just before the prices went mad and they remained in stock for about a year before finally being sold for a very small profit. During that time the other partner, who had a thing about American V8s, used the Willment Cobra Coupe as his daily smoker as they say in the trade. I can well remember visiting Brighton Marina on a wet and windy day to see the Cobra covered in salt spray parked as if it were a just a Ford Cortina.

I then lost track of the car until a few years ago when out of the blue, the car appeared as part of the Style Et Luxe Display at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It was then that I met with who can only be described as the car’s savior, Mr. Mark Chowis. Mark had owned the car for a few years and knew of its early history but there was a gap in his knowledge of the cars history for the 1980s which I was then able to fill.

Having seen the car again I contacted Mark and asked him to list what he had done to the car during his ownership. As you can see from his reply the work was extensive. How on earth my boss managed to drive it as an everyday car is beyond me.

Mark Chowis: When I got the car in 2006 it was not in roadworthy condition. The interior was claustrophobic and horrible. The dash was far too high and projected too far back into the cabin.

I also didn’t like the shape of the back of the car where the number plate was mounted. The latter I believe was Willment’s chaps’ way of accommodating the large fuel tank. I had a new tank made in a slightly different shape so the body could be remodeled in that area to match Dave Sydorick’s silver Supersonic in the USA, which I felt had the best rear styling of all the Supersonics.

Here’s a list of the major things I did:
*reshaped rear panel below boot, changed number plate position, fitted ‘banana’ number plate lights
*new fuel tank
*complete respray to the original Ford Monaco Red.
*re-chroming as necessary
*full rewire
*moved seating position forward and shortened steering column to match
*re-positioned pedal assembly for easier operation
*fitted new ‘SC’ Cobra dash (replacing the old Ford Zodiac lash-up) and steering wheel
*replaced the failed magnesium Halibrands with modern equivalents
*re-trimmed the interior in the same style as original
*freshened up engine
*built my own exhaust system including headers
*reinstated the dual quad Holley set-up that (luckily) came with the car
*changed axle ratio from 2.88 to 3.31
*upgraded cooling system
*replaced the bent front wishbone (must have upset the handling somewhat!)
*note that I have kept everything I removed/changed from the car.

As you would expect there’s a whole list of more minor things that have been fixed or reworked as necessary.

The car is now a delight to drive. Powerful, stays cool in traffic and handles well.