Jason & Wendy's Cobra Pages

1965 Unique Motorcars 427SC - Events Page

Event: Deep South Cobra Club (DSCC) 2002 Annual Meeting Date: April 12-14, 2002 Location: Southern Automotive in McDonough, GA This is my shortened version of a recap of our annual meeting as written by our club's president, Jerry Rowley. Below that are pictures from the weekend. Some can be clicked on for a large scale version. The "Shortened" Report: The 2nd annual DSCC meeting was held in McDonough, GA and hosted by Southern Automotive (S.A.), which is owned and operated by Susan & Bill Parham. They specialize in Ford very high performance power plants. People started to arrive on Friday afternoon to drop their Cobras off and to register for the meeting. Susan Parham and Elizabeth McFarland spent the day in the office making out "name tags" and collecting monies for dinners, etc. Over 100 people checked in by Saturday morning. Friday evening there was a Welcoming Party hosted at Southern Automotive by Doug Reed of Superformance South (New Orleans, LA). Doug provided a big batch of Cajun Chicken Jumbalaya and finger sandwiches. Saturday morning started at 8:30 A.M. with cars lining up in the parking lot for a car show. Forty two of the forty five cars that came were on display despite the intermittent rain that persisted most of the day till after 3 P.M. Besides our club's 100+ people, spectators came all day in the rain to see the cars. Included on display was a 1977 A.C. 427SC Cobra (with recent rebuilt S.A. 427 engine), a GT40 Spider replica (very rare indeed), an original Shelby 350GT Mustang and about 39 various make Cobra replicas, four of which were 289 FIA models. Many replica makes were represented including, but not limited to, Unique Motorcars, Superformance, Hunter Cobras, FactoryFive Racing and Everett Morrison. All possible engine and transmission combos were on-hand from 302 Ford 5.0 Mustang engines to Stroked 427 S.O. w/dual four barrel carburetor manifolds. Even a couple of "Bow Tie" powered cars were there! As owners and spectators alike toured the display of super cars, the show room was abuzz with displays of S.A. wares and collectable Ford engine parts. Bill Parham was kept busy showing his display and explaining the history and purpose of each item. Amongst the display were a pair of overhead cam 427 heads that were built special at Ford for the NASCAR type circuit. Other special manifolds and examples of various big block components were also part of this special array of Ford and aftermarket parts. Several complete engines were also shown during the "open house" at S.A. One completed engine was also displayed on the S.A. test stand being "run-in" before being delivered to a customer. Lunch time came and all went inside to partake of a great BBQ luncheon hosted by S.A. for all DSCC club members and their guests. After the luncheon a Poker Rally was scheduled, but, do to the persistent rain, the club opted to have the seminars that had been set for Sunday morning. An interesting technical talk on shock absorbers was given by Jim Hiland of Krupp Bilstein of America. After the lecture by Bilstein, Dennis Olthoff held a seminar about the basics for performance driving for Cobra replicars. Dennis stressed the safety aspects and discussed the set up of cars for the track events. Dennis recommends figure eight skid pad setups for basic performance road training. Both seminars were well attended and well received by all present. About 4 P.M., after the ballots were turned in for the car show, people started to get their cars ready to return to the hotel for a rest before the dinner meeting. A cocktail party started at 7:30 P.M. Everyone relaxed and spent some time "bench racing" talking cars, and enjoying the cameraderie until dinner time. Dinner was catered by the Holiday Inn Hotel Staff after cocktail hour was over. After dinner, Jerry Rowley called Ruble Moore to the microphone and Jerry and Ruble presented the trophies from the car show (we didn't win anything). The club then held their annual meeting business. We can only hope that subsequent annual meetings go as well as this second one did, in-spite of the rain. It proves, once again, that the most special aspect of the hobby is the fantastic people involved, more than the cars. Pictures from Friday, April 12. Pictures from Saturday Morning, April 13. Pictures from Saturday Lunch, April 13. Pictures from Saturday Dinner, April 13.