Crushing on a Cobra

My Dad loves sports cars.

As a young adult in the Service, he raced stock cars, and in the mid-nineties, my Mom surprised him with a Porsche 911.  It was love at first sight (for both of us), and so began my love for all things fast, loud, and beautiful too.

Through the years we've shared a mutual joy: sunny days on roller coaster road, talking shop (chips, shocks, tires, exhaust), and getting on the highway to open it up; nothing beats the feeling of being sucked to your seat!

And like any good Dad / Teen relationship, there were moment I'm sure he'd rather forget:

• when they left for Rome and I took the car out to test the 0-60.  Just shy of 4 seconds (around 3.9).  Not bad for a kid, but the blown piston gave me away...

• Getting permission to take the car to the store.  He figured I meant to the bottom of the hill.  I should have clarified; I meant the downtown Bellevue QFC  (about 8 miles away)  ;)

• More speeding tickets than I can count (I won't even get into all the "experience" I've had with accidents)

• Bringing my own car to the track for the day... which resulted in a new set of tires.

• My first car accident, 6 hours after getting my license.  (I felt an early need for speed...)

• Getting a call from WSP at 2am.  "hello sir.  are you the owner of a 1982 Mercedes 300SD?"  (as a parent now, it chills me to think of getting a call like this.)  Apparently some lady (read: serious party pooper) called in to report me driving over 120 mph down Southbound 405.

For the most part my Dad managed the teen years well, and both his blood pressure and car survived.

Now, fast forward to last summer when he started talking about Cobra's and told us this story: He was 19 years old, gassing up his car at the station on Rainier Ave when a man pulled up in a royal blue Cobra.  It was beautifully cared for, meticulously maintained, and had a roaring engine no kid could help but fall for; and that was it.  From that moment on, he knew he wanted that car someday.

Soon the talks turned from color preferences to dealer searches, then last week we received an email with this picture attached:

"Guess what Gpa found!"

For Christmas Kevin and I gave my Dad a Shelby Cobra coffee table book.  I noticed my parents look at each other with a secret smile when he opened it, but I didn't press the issue.  

Come to find out, they had purchased the car a month before and were waiting for a good day to bring it home 

(one thing to note about my Dad: he will not drive his sports cars in the rain.  period.)

So the car sat at the dealership for two months until last week when he finally brought it home.  Sunday we went to the house to see it for the first time... and now I understand why he fell in love.  It's truly a thing of beauty.

(Can I take it on the lake road for a quick 0-60?!)

Speaking of car crushing, I think we have one starting early...  

Here's a note I got from my Mom last week:

When Abigail saw Dad's new car in the garage she first wanted to sit in it, then she went inside to her toy room to sit in her own red car.  After a few minutes she got out and started to push her little car towards the door.  I helped her get it through the door then she continued to push it down the hallway to the stairs.

I finally realized she wanted it downstairs with the other red cars so I carried her and the car down the stairs and she pushed it the rest of the way to the garage.

You can see the result in the picture below - just the way she wanted it!

That's my girl!  

And Dad, you just let me know when you want me to take it for a spin...   :)