Some automobiles are iconic by nature. Others gain extra clout because a famous woman cruise around inside them. The 1976 Cobra II fits the bill on both accounts. Charlie’s Angels fans will remember Farrah Fawcett cruising around in this blue-and-white beauty. Learn more about this special breed of Mustang when you read the excerpt below, pulled from Art of the Mustang, by Donald Farr, with photos by Tom Loeser.
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1976 Cobra II
Like many young men of the 1970s, Shawn McClure was mesmerized by the sight of blond bombshell Farrah Fawcett climbing into her 1976 Cobra II in the popular TV show Charlie’s Angels. The image of the white-with-blue Mustang stuck with Shawn through the years, and 35 years later he began his search to acquire one just like it.
Oddly enough, it was Jim Wangers, best known for his marketing of the Pontiac GTO in the 1960s, who put some excitement into the Mustang II, which debuted in 1974 as a return to the Mustang’s original proportions. In the early 1970s the Mustang had grown to intermediate size and Ford president Lee Iacocca, who originally conceived the idea of a four-seater sporty car in the early 1960s, wanted to return his pony car to its roots. Obviously, the Mustang for the 1970s needed to compete against Toyota Celicas and Datsun 240Zs, not Camaro Z/28s and Hemi ’Cudas.
Although John DeLorean, Russ Gee, and Bill Collins get the credit for dropping a 389-cubic-inch engine into the Pontiac Tempest to create the GTO, it was Wangers who built the mystique around America’s original muscle car. Wangers promoted the GTO to the youth market by working with Ronnie and the Daytonas on the popular record GTO and also made a deal for the Monkees to drive a custom GTO on their TV show. Wangers’ promotion of Pontiacs, which included the 1969 GTO Judge, transformed the General Motors division into one of the top American performance car companies of the 1960s.
But in the early 1970s, as Pontiac struggled to cope with increasingly stringent insurance and emissions regulations, Wangers left General Motors to form Motortown Corporation, a coach and accessories company that scored a juicy contract with Pontiac to build a Can-Am version of the LeMans. With the 1974 Mustang II in Ford showrooms, Wangers approached Edsel Ford II, then on Ford’s board of directors, with a cosmetic concept for a Cobra II model in 1976. Eager to add some spice to the Mustang II’s image, Edsel thought it was a great idea.
At a facility near Dearborn, Mustang IIs were converted into Cobra IIs with parts manufactured and installed by Motortown. The 1976 Cobra II recaptured some of the old Shelby magic with LeMans and rocker panel stripes, hood scoop, blackout grille with Cobra snake emblem, and ducktail rear spoiler. Even the available color combinations resembled the earlier Shelbys: blue with white, white with blue, and Hertz-like black with gold. For a touch of modernization, additional dress-up equipment included louvered panels over the quarter windows and, for the interior, brushed aluminum dash and door panel inserts. The 13-inch wheels were either the Mustang II’s standard silver-on-black Rallys or the optional slotted alloys, both with black “coiled snake” center caps for the Cobra II.
Conceived as a limited-edition model, the 1976 Cobra II surprised even Edsel Ford II by selling 25,259 units, no doubt aided by the exposure on Charlie’s Angels. The model proved so popular that Ford moved production in-house for 1977 and 1978.
Shawn McClure admits that he was fascinated with the Cobra II that Fawcett’s character, Jill Munroe, drove in Charlie’s Angels and initiated his quest to locate one in 2011. “I did an Internet search and immediately found one for sale,” Shawn says. “It was the right color and in good condition.” Shawn learned that the seller’s grandmother had purchased the Cobra II new and drove it sparingly but never in the winter; it had only 32,000 miles on the odometer. “It was my lucky day,” explains Shawn, who purchased the Mustang in its survivor condition and later equipped it with Mini-Lite-style four-lug wheels. Today, you’ll find Shawn using his survivor Cobra II as a weekend driver around San Diego.
Art of the Mustang
Photographer: Tom Loeser
Text by: Donald Farr
Get an up-close-and-personal view of Ford’s most beloved car, sure to please any Mustang fan.
The Ford Mustang is America’s most iconic muscle car. With over 50 years of production and some 10 million cars built, the brand is recognized and admired worldwide. This lavishly illustrated book, full of gorgeous studio photography, walks the reader through more than 50 years of Mustang history, focusing on the most interesting and popular models.
From the first six-cylindered Mustang of 1964-1/2 through the heavy metal Boss and Mach 1 versions to today’s all-new 2015 Mustang, Art of the Mustang is a detailed visual overview of Mustang’s greatest hits, including anniversary and pace cars, high-performance models, SVO specials, and Shelby’s high-profile offerings.
Photographer Tom Loeser’s stunning “light-painted” images are given context by informative text hitting the high points of each featured car, while period ads and brochures help round out the story. It’s the closest, clearest look you can get of these ponies without seeing them in person.
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