Sports Car Digest has an extensive library of automotive magazines from the 1950s through present day. We think you know why, but we keep these decaying magazines for reference, nostalgia and to torment ourselves about the cars in the classified advertisements.
If you are like us, we’re sure that you have also dreamt of travelling back into time with money to spend on cars. But alas, we cannot. Therefore, in what will become a semi-regular painful exercise for Sports Car Digest and its readers, we will feature the deals that got away and the asking prices that may make you weep.
We will begin this therapeutic journey with an A.C. Cobra 427 S/C found in the January 1974 Road & Track with a $10,000 asking price. Offered for sale well before Cobra replicas existed, this is one of the 31 competition cars that were slightly detuned and made street legal, thus called S/C for semi-competition.
Today, within the Cobra hierarchy, the S/C series are second only to full competition in terms of price. For reference, the September – December 2008 Cars That Matter price guide suggests a $1,500,000 – $1,900,000 for the A.C. Cobra 427 S/C.
To put that into perspective, had you actually purchased it in 1974, your $10,000 Cobra would have appreciated at roughly 17% annualized over 34 years. Not bad for something you can drive and enjoy.
If you have a classified ad you would like featured, please email a scan of the ad to [email protected]. Further, please feel free to share your tear-jerking or blissful (if you bought and held) stories with us via e-mail or the comments section below.
[Source: Road & Track]
Thanks for the kick in the nutz. Keep ’em coming – I deserve it.
My Dad turned one down for $6,900 in 1968. I told him he was a fool and I was right.
I had the chance to buy the same AC 427 dual holley Cobra side oiler twice. Once in 1968 for $6k and again in 1977 for $18,500.00. Wife wouldn’t let me buy it. Showed her a Barrett Jackson sale Cobra that went for over$1.m and said “I told you so”. She replied “You wouldn’t have ever sold it anyway”!
We have heard many reader stories that make us grimace, but this was twice on the same Cobra. Ouch. Thanks for sharing.
By the last two responses, it looks like we can roughly establish a $6-7k price range for a Cobra in 1968. Was that the bottom of the market?
In 1970 or so I bought a nice 289, chrome wires, CSX 2318…asking price $5,500 got it for 4,500…call me crazy. Found it in AutoWeek magazine. Many 427’s (6 or more) and a few (3-4) 289’s roamed the area around Fresno, CA at the time.
That is the lowest we have heard for a Cobra. Incredible. Very, very well bought!
I should have bought CSX2318 when Munschy sold it but at the time I was happy with a 911S. Who wanted a car with no top and only 2 seats?
You can at least take solace that you had a 911S at the time. Certainly no shame in that.
I was just reading an account of a man who sold a 289 Cobra for $9000 in Spring 1975. He ended up putting the money toward a Ferrari GTO advertised at $29000 that same year. Unfortunately, he opted to buy a Daytona Spyder instead for the exact same price. Oops……….
I identified the car pictured above a number of years ago, and it turned out to be a street 427 Cobra with some owner-added modifications. The owner must have felt that justified his calling it a “427 S/C,” but it wasn’t one of the few originally built as such. OK for him, but it sure complicated things for those of us trying to unravel history.