Joel “Mr. Motion” Rosen will be reunited, at the Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals, with the 427 Cobra he built and drove to national records more than four decades ago!
It was a Cobra, not a Chevy, that first put Joel Rosen and Motion Performance into the NASCAR and NHRA National Record books!
During 1965 and 1966 Joel Rosen campaigned not one but two national record-holding Cobras - the small-block MOTION Cobra and Clem Hoppe's big-block King Cobra. While he did have help from Shelby-American's Don McCain in converting his street 289 into a Motion Dragonsnake, Rosen prepared and campaigned the 427 Cobra without any outside support. After wrecking his 289 Cobra, he continued tuning and racing Hoppe's Ridgefield, NJ-based 427 Cobra.
“One Sunday, while racing my Cobra at Island Dragway in New Jersey, I pitted next to Clem Hoppe, the only other Cobra racer at the track. Hoppe had a stunning, brand new, black 427 Cobra that unfortunately wasn’t running as quick as a well-tuned big-block 396 Chevelle! He was not happy," recalls Rosen.
Hoppe is quoted in “How To Snake A National Record,” SPEED AND SUPERCAR, June 1967: “My best runs were in the 14s; I couldn’t get a bite. I was about to chuck it all when I saw Joel Rosen in his Cobra put on a show at Island Dragway in New Jersey. That renewed my faith in The Snake. Next stop – Motion and recordsville.”
Joel Rosen, L, with Clem Hoppe and KING COBRA, 1966-'67.
Shortly after turning his Cobra over to Motion Performance, Clem Hoppe embellished the car’s graphics with Motion Cobra livery and started collecting 11-second time slips. Joel Rosen’s first run in CSX3159 was an 11.90 against an 11.40 NASCAR record. Later in the season, King Cobra ran 10.30s and set a new NASCAR record - 131 mph in 10.64 seconds.
Longtime friend, Bill Kolb, a serious drag racer and high-performance Sales Manager at Larsen Ford in White Plains, NY during the mid-1960s remembers Hoppe. Kolb sold CSX3159 to Clem Hoppe on July 1,1966: "I remember selling Hoppe a black Cobra like it was yesterday. I had it special ordered with optional rear fender flares. He was the only guy who ever came into Larsen shopping for a Cobra to go drag racing," said Kolb.
At the 1967 Record Meet at ATCO Dragway, Hoppe’s Cobra, after dyno tuning at Motion, left, blasted the NHRA record. “My partner, Jack Geiselman, and I drove the 427 Cobra for more than three hours to the track followed by a shop support car. We changed plugs and tires and made a couple of passes. We set the AA/SP record at 10.67 seconds, put back the street plugs and tires and drove back to the shop. Except for almost going deaf and my back taking a beating, it was a piece of cake," said Rosen.
Licensed and regularly driven on the street, the Cobra's 540-horsepower 427 engine was blueprinted and balanced by Jack Merkel. It was fitted with trick cc’d Shelby heads with sodium-filled exhaust valves, forged pistons, magnafluxed and micro-finished steel crank, steel rods, Ford (#C3AZ625OZ) cam retarded six degrees, finned and baffled eight-quart Shelby (#S2CR6675B) road racing oil sump and Motion headers with 32-inch tuned tubes, 3 1/2-inch collectors and takeoffs for small mufflers. Motion-Mallory Super/Spark ignition (36 degrees total advance) with Ramcharger wires supplied the firepower. Fresh air was ducted to the engine, below, right, via a Shelby (#S1CS-7616025A) hood scoop.
On the track the Cobra was fitted with “pinned” 10.5x15-inch Goodyears inflated to six psi and narrow Goodyear Stock Car Specials on six-inch wheels up front. Its original knock-off Halibrands are still on the car today!
In 1969 Clem Hoppe and his record-setting King Cobra mysteriously dropped off the radar screen. His Mercedes, with luggage in the trunk, was discovered abandoned in a parking lot at JFK Airport. Neither man nor machine could be found. Years later Rosen learned that Hoppe had vanished and that his parents stored his Cobra in a barn. While trying to track down Hoppe’s Cobra, I learned that he had a partner - a childhood friend named Alan Earl, who helped him purchase the Cobra from Larsen and was involved in racing it before, and for a short time after, Motion Performance came on the scene.
“We went our separate ways in 1968 and I was shocked when Clem’s Dad called to let me know he had disappeared,” said Earl who still lives in New Jersey and is currently restoring a big-block Chevelle. “Clem and I had some great times with the Cobra after it was Motion-ized. I’ll never forget match racing against the famous Turbo-Stang Mustang in the summer of 1968 at New York National. The turbine-boosted Mustang put on quite a show, but Clem managed to hold his own against the fire-breathing racecar.”
It was not until early-2004 that word leaked out about the ground-pounding, drag racing Motion 427 King Cobra that had vanished in 1969. It was available. It didn’t look like the former record-holder. It didn’t run like it either. Gone was the unique Motion livery and raucous 427. It was the real deal!
Interviewing Tony Conover, who found and restored the King Cobra, above, and checking the Shelby Club (SAAC) Registry revealed that in the early-1970s, Clem Hoppe's family had sold the Cobra to Carl Mentz of Reamstown, PA for approximately $6,000. A 428 engine powered it at the time. Mentz, a Cobra enthusiast, bought it cheap knowing that it required a full restoration. It was still a bargain.
When Mentz showed CSX3159 at the 1977 Shelby Club (SAAC) Nationals, it was painted Guardsman Blue and powered by a medium-riser 427 fitted with stock exhausts. In 1981 Mentz sold it to Dr. Charles Hash of York, PA for $55,000. When the civilian-dressed Cobra came on the market in 2004, Shelby restoration specialist, Tony Conover in Hanover, PA, immediately recognized and valued its drag racing heritage. And, he wanted it.
Approximately $265, 000 changed hands and Conover became the rare Cobra's fourth owner. After spending more than 30 years hiding in plain sight and masquerading as a stock 1966 Cobra, CSX3159, powered by a correct solid-lifter 427, was driven out of Conover Racing & Restoration. It looked and ran like it did when it collected mid-10-second time slips and annihilated 1966-1967 NHRA and NASCAR AA/SP records!
In January 2005 the King Cobra was featured at the Russo & Steele auction in Scottsdale, AZ. After spirited bidding, Len Perham, Chairman & CEO of Optimal Corporation, paid $525,000 for the keys to the born-again racer. It's now the centerpiece of his collection of rare Shelbys, big-block Corvettes and 427 COPO Camaros.
Len Perham drives his Motion Cobra on the street as well as in competitive events and shows it at local concours. He keeps a 55-gallon drum of Cam-2 in his garage to ensure that the Cobra's 427 runs as well as it did in the late-1960s. Len & Linda Perham have an enviable collection, above, of important sports cars and musclecars: a 427 Cobra previously owned by Jan & Dean and Rod Stewart, three 427 COPO Camaros including a ZL-1, five Shelby Mustangs and three mid-series Corvettes. Included in his collection is the first Shelby GT-350 built and one of 20 1967 L-88 Corvettes.
Rosen’s involvement with Cobras started to fade with Chevrolet’s introduction of the new Camaro in late-1966. He continued racing Hoppe’s Cobra, but shifted his primary focus to partnering with Baldwin Chevrolet, building a 1967 big-block Camaro racecar, and concentrating on developing a marketing program for niche market Chevy musclecars.
Len Perham's 427 Cobra at a California concours, 2007.
“I am glad King Cobra has a great home surrounded by ultimate performance cars of then 1960s and owned by someone who appreciates its heritage and actually drives it. I wish I knew where my MOTION Cobra ended up,” reminisces Rosen.
Anyone interested in owning their very own King Cobra, should check out the 1:18 scale die-cast metal model, right, in the Ertl American Muscle Thunder Series. Unlike the original, it is affordable!
The Motion 1965 King Cobra will be featured in the Baldwin-Motion/MOTION Reunion display at the Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals in Chicago on November 20-21. For more information, please visit, http://www.mcacn.com/
For the complete story of Joel Rosen’s small & big block drag racing Cobras, see MOTION Performance, Tales Of A Muscle Car Builder (Motorbooks), http://www.amazon.com/Motion-Performance-Tales-Muscle-Builder/dp/0760335389
Cobra enthusiasts should check out, http://www.saac.com/