was invoiced to ShelbyAmerican on October 1, 1962—when I wasa car crazy high school sophomore with a1953 Mercury that cost me fifty bucks. Itwas powered by a venerable flathead V8which quickly acquired a pair ofStromberg 97s with bad needle valves thatwould periodically stick and flood thecylinders with 25¢ a gallon gasoline. It hada non-functioning hood scoop, until I got anaxe and used it to chop a hole sort of nearwhere the air intake should be. The 3-speed had a very un-cool column shifter, soI saved my money until I had enough toget a Fenton floor shift kit. I was happy tohave my own car, but it was much heavierto push than my mom’s Rambler. When Iwould sneak out of my bedroom window atnight to go cruising, I had to push the Mercdown the block before I could start it, so Iwouldn’t wake her up.

On November 30, 1962 there is a re-ceipt from Shelby American for two Lucas50-amp fuses (at 8¢ each) and two 25-ampfuses (11¢ each). It appears that the“Prince of Darkness” hovered over Cobrasfrom the very beginning.

On December 3, 1962 CSX2021 waspurchased by Dick Newhall, a StanfordPh.D., for $5,995.00 plus $1.25 for rust in-hibitor in the cooling system. DMV feeswere $16.00 for 1962 and $91.00 for 1963.Stories abound about the earliest days ofthe car, told by Newhall, who passed awayin the late 1960s/early 1970s. He remainsa legend to his nephews. Prior to buyingthe car, Carroll Shelby took Newhall for aride in the Cobra. Newhall had his youngnephew in his lap and Shelby took off, fullthrottle, toward a nearby pier. He came toan abrupt stop within a few feet of the endof the pier, with nothing ahead except thePacific Ocean. When Newhall got out of thecar, his pants were wet; he blamed it on hisnephew.

Newhall was an avid SCCA racer andlived in San Francisco. He had raced bothan MG TC and an AC Bristol, and wassoon racing the Cobra. However, the rela-tionship was not a happy one. The car was

more than he wanted to handle, so he soongave up and bought an open-wheel, single-seat Stanguellini to race. The Cobra be-came the tow car (the hitch receiverbrackets are still welded to the chassistubes). Newhall is said to have received aspeeding ticket while driving the Cobraand towing the Stanguellini up theGrapevine at 85 mph. There are a ton ofNewhall stories, wistfully related by hisnephews. He married late in his life. Fol-lowing the wedding ceremony, everyonethrew rice at the newlyweds in their Cobragetaway car. Newhall could not bear therice kernels littering the car’s interior, sohe and Pat stopped between the churchand the reception hall to pick them out,one by one. They arrived at the receptionthree hours late, making a lasting impres-sion on his new in-laws who had paid forthe lavish affair.

The Newhalls had no children but apack of nieces and nephews made up for it.They recall how much he loved the car andwas neurotic about it. His wife Pat wasfrom Massachusetts, and after he passedaway she moved back home, taking the carwith her. She sold it sometime in 1968.

Between 1968 to 1973, CSX2021’swhereabouts or who owned it are not

known. However, in 1973 it was listed forsale in Westboro, Massachusetts. The indi-vidual selling it had it parked in a two-cargarage next to his house next to a 427Cobra without an engine or transmission.The price for either car was $5,000. At thattime it had a roll bar, a Weber inductionsystem and Ferrari-style side vents cutinto the fenders.

It was purchased by Ward andRichard Heinrich from Litchfield, Con-necticut. In 1983, Ward moved to Texasand took 2021 with him. He drag raced thecar occasionally and in 1984, he entered itin the Dallas Grand Prix vintage race. Thecar failed to finish. He put it up for sale in1989, and it was purchased by a buyer who“promised to keep it forever.” In the follow-ing ten days CSX2021 changed hands fourtimes, ultimately being purchased by MikeTangney and brought back to NorthernCalifornia. He enjoyed the car until 1994when I bought it from him.

My father raced Midgets afterWWII until the late 50s. There werea lot of dirt tracks and a lot of peo-ple who had made it throughthe war came home eager forcompetition and lookingfor a different kind of

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CSX2021– Frank Zizzo

risk. My dad’s car carried the number 68and it was the first race car I ever rode in.I really don’t remember it, because I wasabout 18 months-old. Family legend has itthat my father put me on his lap and did afew hot laps (this in the days before rollbars and lawyers). He didn’t have gogglesfor me and as a result, I was blind for aweek from the dust. My mother never lethim live that one down.

One of my earliest memories is layingon the back shelf of our car, under the rearwindow, and looking at 68 on the trailerunder the flickering lights of the Hollandtunnel. Being a part of racing, first as amascot to the Midget racers and then as adie hard fan, nurtured a strong desire todrive my own race car. Unfortunately, mywallet could never match my aspirationsuntil I was much older and was better ableto afford the financial black hole that isracing.

My folks were divorced when I wasaround eight. My mother moved to Califor-nia and my dad moved to Florida. He be-came the president of the National ServiceManagers Council of Ford and worked at adealership in Miami. He was an ace me-chanic and enjoyed the evolving muscle carmarket. The custody arrangement calledfor me to spend summers with my dad as

well as every other Christmas. Every sum-mer in Florida, he would take me to thedealership with him and let me “work” inthe service bays. I would be “assigned” toone of the mechanics and would be givenvarious jobs—mostly cleaning things and,in general, getting dirty. I loved it.

At that time in Florida a 14 year-oldcould get a drivers license. Equipped withthat little pink piece of paper, I had quitea time sucking Custom Supreme down thebarrels of the various behemoths that myfather would give me to drive. I couldn’timagine life being much better than that.

Back in California, I was fortunate tolive about a half-hour’s drive from River-side Raceway. It was an amazing place inthe early 1960s. In those days, beforeOSHA, a person could walk, stand, or sitjust about anywhere without signing agazillion waivers. People were trusted totake some responsibility for themselves.When the Cobras arrived at the track, itwas just stunning. The heretofore “fastguys” in the Vettes and Jags just watchedas the Cobras flew by them. I guess what Iexperienced was the classic “love at firstsight.” At that point I would have given abody part, one which I was not making fulluse of at that time and of which I had two,to own a Cobra. Unfortunately, in thosedays a Cobra cost half as much as mymother’s house. Owning one, at that point,was not possible. However, coveting onewas deeply ingrained by my Riverside ex-periences.

Fast forward to 1994. Being over-edu-cated and over-paid, I soon managed to ac-quire (in sequence) a 1970 Boss 302, aSunbeam Tiger, a ‘66 GT350 Hertz car, a‘65 GT350 5S313, and another ‘65 GT3505S467. My good friend Jeff Gilbert ownsboth a small block and a big block Cobra.When I visited him and we gravitated tohis garage, I would drool over his cars.Once, he let me take CSX2106 up to Wil-low Springs for an open track event. Did I

say “good” friend?Shortly after that, he sat me down and

told me, “I don’t know how you’re going todo it, but if you don’t buy a Cobra NOW,you will never forgive yourself.” I whinedabout money and he answered, “You willhate yourself every day for the rest of yourlife if you don’t make the leap.”

My calculator mind started whirring.I could sell 5S467 and maybe the Tiger orBoss and come close to what a small blockcar would cost. So I put the word out. I metsome VERY interesting people in the pur-suit of a Cobra. Some people wantedmoney for information. Others who met meat coffee shops intimated that they had theinside track on “the perfect car.” None ofthis proved fruitful.

I came close one time with a leadabout a Cobra parked under a tarp on theside of a house. I zipped over there andfound the car, exactly as described: underthe tarp. There was a motorhome parkedin the driveway. It turned out that theCobra belonged to one of the Offenhauserfamily. The owner and I pulled off the tarp,most of which stuck to the car. It did startand I drove it up and down the block withthe flat spots on the tires thumping away.When I returned, we went into the mo-torhome. The owner’s wife was veryguarded and suspicious. She thought I wasa cop and refused to sell it to me. Shortlythereafter, Lynn Park discovered the carand was successful in wrestling the carfrom them. He still has it.

Then another of my friends told meabout a guy in Northern California whohad a Cobra for sale. I got the number andspoke with Mike Tangney. He turned outto be a really nice guy who needed to sellthe car at that time. We negotiated backand forth for a while and agreed that Iwould pay him cash plus give him hischoice of either the Boss or the Tiger.

In February of 1994, Mike pulled intomy friend Steve’s shop, towing a trailerwith a Cobra on it. The car looked great. Infact, it was beyond my wildest dreams. Wedid the deal and he headed back up northpulling a trailer carrying a Boss 302.

That night I couldn’t sleep. I wentdown to the garage and just looked at thecar. A real Cobra. MY real Cobra. All of myRiverside memories came flooding back.That melding of the past and the presentwas profoundly meaningful; as meaningfulthen as it is now. As time passed, the Cobrabecame more and more a center point inmy life. It was almost if it had a soul withit’s own personality that meshed perfectlywith mine.

Like many other enthusiasts seriouslyconsidering vintage racing, I began to at-

The SHELBY AMERICAN Winter/2012 27

Some psychologists believe that children are im-printed before they are five years-old. FrankZizzo, age 3, is living proof of that theory. Thisphoto was taken in 1950. Some 45 years later hewould be racing his own #68.

Most drug dealers will give you your first taste of heroin or crack for free because they know that’sall it will take to hook you. The hook was set for Zizzo at Willow Springs in 1993 when his pal JeffGilbert let him take his small block, CSX2106, to an open track day. He experienced an epiphanyand was never the same again.

The SHELBY AMERICAN

After learning that CSX2021 was for sale, Zizzo contacted the car’sowner, Mike Tangney. And the dance began. This is one of the photosTangney sent, and that’s pretty much all it took. Note the Ferrari-likeside vents

Zizzo had his car shipped across the country so he could drive it at LimeRock at SAAC-25 in 2000. Peter Brock caught up with him in the pad-dock and noticed that the engine was a quart low. After topping it off, headvised Zizzo to spend a little more time under the hood. “You can signautographs after the race is over.”

Brock holds the hood latch key used on the very early Cobras instead oftwist-latches. “If I took this with me, your race would be over.” Thethought of losing that key made Zizzo break out in a cold sweat.

One of the first events Zizzo brought the car to was the June 1994 WineCountry Classic at Sears Point. It was billed as a salute to the DaytonaCoupe (four were in attendance) and was also a Shelby American teamreunion. All of the former Cobra guys were given rides around the trackin a Cobra. Zizzo’s passenger was Daytona Coupe fabricator John Ohlsenwho came all the way from New Zealand. When they came back into thepits he was heard to say, “I’d sooner be set on fire under a Daytona Coupethan take another lap with this guy driving.”

Zizzo was providing passenger rides for contributors to Shelby’s Heart Fund. Things were goingwell and everyone was feeling warm and fuzzy until one of the Cobra’s rear hubs chose Las VegasMotor Speedway to help the rear wheel and tire escape. Depending on how you look at it, the dam-age was minimal or horrendous. The car was loaded on a rollback transporter and put in an ap-pearance at the car show on Sunday before heading back to Los Angeles. Carroll Shelby was thereto commiserate with Zizzo, who was still shell-shocked. Shelby recalled that back in the day, notevery Cobra race resulted in a victory. Zizzo asked Shelby if the car’s warranty was still in effect.Just as this photo was snapped, Shelby was advising Zizzo to perform an anatomical impossibility.

At the Route 66 celebration in San Bernardinoone year, Carroll Shelby was invited to be theevent’s Grand Marshall. He was not able to at-tend and asked Zizzo to stand in for him. Theevent’s schedule included a parade, with VIPsriding in convertibles which had their nametaped to the side. Riding in the car that said“Carroll Shelby,” Zizzo smiled and waved to thecrowds, until a number of people began hecklinghim. “Hey—you’re not Shelby!” Zizzo holleredback, “Yes I am. I got a face transplant, not aheart transplant!” After the parade, he returnedto his Cobra and found Carol Connors hoveringaround. She had been attracted to the car like amoth to a front porch light. If the name is some-how familiar, she wrote “Hey Little Cobra.”

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tend open track events. By this time River-side was closed and had been turned intoa shopping mall. Willow Springs becamemy home track. I got to know it pretty welland eventually flogged my GT350s aroundTurn 9 without excavating the desert nextto the track. When Jeff loaned meCSX2106 for an open track event it wasthe first time I ever drove a Cobra on atrack. I can still recall it. It was an amaz-ing experience and the car handled reallywell. It was actually much easier for me todrive than the GT350.

When I got 2021, I knew that the trackwas where both of us belonged. I chose therace number 68 because that was my dad’srace number on his midget. I attended theUniversity of VARA and obtained my com-petition license. And then I began climbingthe learning curve. Over time I broke bothhubs and both spindles on the Cobra. TheBritish metallurgy was abysmal. I hadnew ones made out of decent metal andnever had another catastrophic failure.After twisting the splines off of a stub axle,I converted the car to pin drive. The wirewheels were replaced with some new PhilSchmidt aluminum kidney bean Hali-brands. I also added dual brake mastercylinders for a little extra piece of mind.

In racing, as you prepare your car forthe track, youeventually discover whatworks and what fails. It all becomes partof an evolutionary process between car anddriver. Over time, you begin to intuitively“know” what your car will do in a given sit-uation. You know what every little noisemeans and you know when and when notto push things. I quickly began to feel likethe car was becoming an extension of me.At speed, there is only the present mo-ment. Your concentration is total. Nothingelse exists. CSX2021 was awesome in thatregard. It could literally be steered withthe throttle. Point it and punch it is one ofthe magical qualities of driving a Cobra.You can be in a four- wheel drift at 70 mphand feel that the car is solid and as pre-dictable as a rock.

When I first got 2021 there were anumber of Cobras that would participatein vintage racing in Southern California.Over the years, the number became fewerand fewer. As Cobra prices increased, therisk of racing became excessive for thosepeople. Other than the Cobras attracted tothe annual Monterey Historics, there wereonly a few of us on the vintage race circuit.

After racing for a few years, it was in-teresting to see how my car friendschanged. At one SAAC event at Las Vegas,I was giving charity rides for Shelby’sHeart Fund when a rear hub broke. Thewheel and tire ripped out of the rear

The SHELBY AMERICAN

Jay Russell’s Cobra, CSX2015 [pictured on the right] was prepared to the same basic specificationsas CSX2021. The two cars probably sat side-by-side at Shelby American in Venice as they werebeing completed in 1962. Zizzo and Russell raced against each other frequently, usually changingpositions several times during each race.

When you start vintage racing seriously, one of the first things to go is originality. The 289 raceengine in 2021 is a long way away from concours. But the goal in racing is to go faster and winraces, not to adhere to what was considered correct during a certain time frame when the car wasbrand new. An obsessive tinkerer, Zizzo became infatuated with the Spalding “Flame Thrower”magneto which was popular in the early 1960s—especially on drag cars but also on some sportsracers. He could never get the thing to work without hiccups, so he went to a Vertex magneto.When he opened the hood at a car show or in the paddock, many people who expected to see a dis-tributor car with nine wires coming out of the top would point to it and ask, “What’s that?”

Winter/2012 29

fender, leaving a savage gash in the back.Fortunately, the rest of the damage wasminimal. During the repairs we decided tostrip the paint off the car. Underneath, thealuminum showed the results of more thanforty years of sometimes hard use. I didn’twant fresh paint to diminish my enthusi-asm to continue racing, so I decided to pol-ish the raw aluminum with steel wool (likeShelby had done originally with CSX2000)and keep racing.

No longer were the concourse peopleinterested in hanging around with mypaintless, dented old car. Instead, most ofmy time was spent with other drivers inmy run group. When we got together therewas always a lot to talk about—and noneof it concerned polishing and detailing tips.CSX2021 without paint actually becamenotorious. People would come up to me andask, “How can you do that to a real Cobra?”I found that I was really enjoying the neg-ative attention, to the point where I wouldbring the car to shows so I could sit next toit in a folding chair with my feet up on afender, smoking a cigar. I would tell peoplethat it was only an old race car and its pur-pose was to go faster—not look good. A cou-ple of times at the track when I had a tirerub problem, I took a knock-off hammer tothe fender. People standing around werewincing like they could actually feel thepain. It was too much for a few and theywalked away shaking their heads. The carstarted to look like a junkyard dog—mean,ugly and nasty.

Trust me, looking at a Cobra is verydifferent from racing one. They are cer-tainly wonderful cars to appreciate fortheir appearance, and the history theymade makes them even more special. But

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it is also a car that, after some seat time,leaves you with a feeling about what itdoes and how it does it.

My friend Jay Russel has CSX2015. It

was invoiced in 1962 along with CSX2021.Jay is a great driver and we’ve had a lot ofgreat times on the track. I think that thebest moment I’ve ever had racing was at

Buttonwillow, out by Bakersfield. Jay andI were on the last lap of the race. We camearound the final turn together and we bothjust punched it. There we were, twogeezers in 1962 Cobras, headed for thecheckered flag. It was a helluva drag race.I remember pushing the loud pedal ashard as I could and hearing his side pipesblasting, just inches from my door. In theend, my transponder made it across thefinish line first. It was quite a moment—in part because it may never happenagain.

Despite dents and dings and brokenpieces of engine, suspension and axles,CSX2021 has been a part of me for a verylong time. When I turned 60, back in 2008,I decided to retire 2021 from racing andget it cherried-out and painted. I had got-ten to the point where I was paying moreattention to avoiding contact with othercars rather than charging into Turn 1 andletting the chips fall where they may. Nev-ertheless, I cannot conceive of going out tothe garage and not seeing it sitting there,filled with memories and looking meanerthan a Junkyard Dog.

The SHELBY AMERICAN

CSX2021 had side-draft Webers when the original owner raced it in 1963. When Zizzo decided to take it off the track and restore it, he began lookingfor a correctly-numbered original 260 cubic-inch short block. He figured the chances of turning up a Weber side-draft intake and carburetors wasabout the same as finding a vegetarian in a hot dog-eating contest. But that didn’t stop him from looking. When he saw one on Craig’s List he nearlyfell out of his chair. A Chevy guy had a complete set-up that he got as repayment for a debt. He had no use for them and was happy that a buyer ma-terialized. Zizzo reports that the side-drafts work better on the 260 than down-drafts did on a 289.

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