“I kept seeing this old partially restored Shelby Cobra in the back of Dave Dralle’s race shop, and I finally worked up the guts to ask if there was any way he would consider selling it to me.”
~ John McKenna
Owner John McKenna, driving Cobra CSX2004 (#04), leads a fellow Cobra competitor through the esses.
By Jake Grubb
Photography by Adam Hosey
That old partially restored Cobra was CSX2004, the authentic fourth Shelby Cobra ever made! It was a priceless jewel in the rough, tucked away in the race shop of Dralle Engineering in the little desert town of Rosamond, California, adjacent Willow Springs International Raceway.
After springing to life in late 1962, at a time when the term “Cobra” in the automotive world was still in debate as to whether the sports car bearing this name would sustain or fade into fiction, CSX2004 was sold to a frisky Los Angeles sports car buff who blazed the roads of southern California until his addiction to the throttle caused him to miscalculate. While on a high-testosterone highway sprint near Redondo Beach, California, he crashed heavily and lost his life. The car, seriously damaged, was nearly lost as well, but for the alertness of local car man Josef Chechia, who somehow was able to wrest ownership of the Cobra CSX2004 hulk and cart it away.
“The office” of CSX2004 is much as it was in its heyday; analog, intuitive, efficient.
Josef, a well-known automotive metal fabricator in the coastal Los Angeles region, knew Dave Dralle and extended an offer that Dralle couldn’t refuse. Dave, well acquainted with the car’s potential, had a vision for the Cobra as a racecar that rivaled the standards of Carroll Shelby himself. He bought the Cobra CSX2004 hulk from Josef. And he intended to realize his vision for the car through the skills and facilities at his specialty car business, Dave’s Automotive, in Torrance, California. Little did he know at the time that over 35-years would pass before that vision would finally be achieved at the persistent behest of an enthusiastic customer, one John McKenna.
Rollbar configuration, abbreviated by today’s standards, follows the initial pre-Shelby American design of original American Shelby constructor, Ed Hugus, Shelby Cobra racer and owner of European Imports.
In the 1962-63 time period, Dave Dralle, a master California racer, car crafter and engine builder, had been keenly tracking the developments of a new sports car called the Shelby Cobra even before its arrival on the American scene was official. And he was mighty curious about it. Dralle knew Carroll Shelby from southern California racetracks, as well as from Shelby’s Goodyear tire operation in Santa Fe Springs, south of Los Angeles. And although Dralle didn’t much like or trust Shelby due to his P.T. Barnum style, he knew Shelby’s racing, car building and marketing exploits could be formidable. And besides, if that Cobra turned out to be the real deal, Dralle had every intention of figuring out how to get his hands on one and race it himself.
A short time later, through his happenstance acquisition of the wrecked CSX2004, Dave Dralle became an official Shelby Cobra owner and focused considerable energies on becoming a master of this beastly but thrilling car, through opportunities to race newer and more refined Shelby Cobras in both SCCA and professional competition events. In the meantime, over the decades that Dave Dralle was building a business, raising a family and becoming a professional championship-level race driver, he became known as one of the top Shelby Cobra independent specialists on the West Coast. Dralle-built and race-prepared Cobra 289s, 427s and Shelby GT-350 Mustangs routinely ran at the front throughout SCCA, professional and vintage racing, often out-performing Shelby factory race team competitors. And through it all, quietly in the background, Dralle was painstakingly restoring and readying his prized Shelby CSX2004 Cobra for reintroduction to the motorsports world.
Paddock photo of CSX2004 exhibits flared fenders
that reference the Shelby factory team Cobras of the 1960s.
Enter: John McKenna. No ordinary performance car buff, McKenna had been referred to Dave Dralle by Shelby Cobra expert and longtime friend Randy Dunphy in the late 1990s. McKenna, in the process of purchasing a Kirkham 427 Cobra, which was widely considered to be the best officially licensed Cobra replica available, was seeking an expert to build, refine and set-up his Kirkham, as well as get some driving lessons in this formidable high horsepower car. Randy Dunphy’s categorical recommendation for the man to do this was Dave Dralle. Dunphy’s edict: “let him take his time with your car; it’ll be righter than right.”
During the Kirkham process, on periodic trips from his Seattle location to Dralle Engineering at the Rosamond shop near Lancaster, California, John McKenna spotted the old “real” Shelby Cobra in the back of the shop and became increasingly curious. “How awesome to have an early era authentic Shelby Cobra,” he thought, “and maybe even some day race it.”
Using its 525 horsepower and attention-getting torque, today’s CSX2004 roars effortlessly uphill
at Kent Washington’s Pacific Raceways.
Two years after McKenna’s Kirkham project started at Dralle Engineering, he got a call. “Come get your car,” the voice said. It was Dave Dralle. By this time John McKenna’s interest in becoming a race driver himself had skyrocketed, and he expressed to Dralle his desire to race his newly completed Kirkham 427 Cobra. Dralle’s response was a firm “not that car,” explaining that a street Cobra set-up is different than that of its racecar cousins, and that besides, the Kirkham’s 427 cubic-inch, 640-horsepower was monstrous to manage on a racetrack, much less in a learning environment.
At this point it was time for a race-pace ride around Willow Springs Raceway, euphemistically referred “Big Willow” or “The Fastest Road Racing in the West.” Dave Dralle, still a master on the racetrack and nearly 40-year veteran of Cobra testing and racing at Willow Springs, took the wheel, with John McKenna as passenger. The roller coasters at Magic Mountain, an amusement park just miles away, couldn’t begin to compete.
A study in exit speeds. CSX2004, full traction, power on.
Result: John McKenna was guided by Dave Dralle and colleague Randy Dunphy (an experienced vintage racer himself) into the purchase of a Ford GT 350 Mustang racecar, which had plenty of power but was safer and more forgiving than even the best Cobra. After rapidly gaining experience and skill in this car over a 2-3 year time period, McKenna wanted to race a Cobra more than ever.
With John increasingly expressing his interest in purchasing Dave Dralle’s CSX2004 Cobra, Dave ultimately decided that after nearly 40-years of part-time attention to his prized original Cobra, that it would stand a better chance of completion in new and freshly enthusiastic hands. A deal was struck and John McKenna became the owner of CSX2004. Final restoration and race preparation accelerated in earnest.
Ford GT40 cylinder head combined with four Weber carburetors references late 1960s Shelby Cobra factory team cars, delivering maximum power and crisp throttle response.
In the meantime, McKenna elected to purchase a second Kirkham Cobra, in this case a fully FIA-spec racecar, competition prepared, including FIA aluminum body, Windsor 302 cubic-inch V8, Ford GT40 heads and horsepower output of 525 bhp, a 20% reduction from that of the Kirkham 427 Cobra. This car would, in effect, become his trainer for the soon-to-be completed CSX2004 Cobra.
CSX2004 Origins
Because the Shelby Cobras built in their first two years of production were built in more than one place, including AC Cars in Great Britain by Charles and Derek Hurlock and European Cars in Pittsburgh at the operation of Ed Hugus, precise trackings of these cars’ construction before assembly was ultimately organized through Shelby American remains beset by riddles. Clearly, however, CSX2004’s build preceded manufacture at Shelby American, and at that time European Cars was known to be well systematized. All indications are that this car was initially “kitted” at AC Cars in Great Britain, assembled in full at European Cars in Pittsburgh after shipment to New York, and transported west to be sold in Los Angeles, most likely through Shelby American. Established Shelby Cobra authority Lynn Park, after examining this car in detail, confirmed from multiple markings throughout the chassis and core components of the car that it is, in fact, provably CSX2004, the fourth Shelby Cobra ever made.
Dave Dralle’s approach to the car from the beginning of his ownership was to utilize all viable original elements of the car in its restoration — however to detail the car in such a way as to incorporate the very best of every engineering refinement and key component improvement that was confirmed over time to make the Cobra factory racecars superior. With these principals in mind, the John McKenna CSX2004 289 Cobra is as good as it gets. The car is built and prepared exactly as Dave Dralle blueprinted it for himself. Today, the CSX2004 Cobra meets the very best specs of the top Shelby team Cobras at the peak of their historical rein, and owner/driver John McKenna’s race results at multiple tracks soundly bear this out. History, artful restoration, matchless competition preparedness, handsomeness, performance and documented race results barely scratch the surface of this remarkable car’s legacy.
