2019 Cobra Jet program in jeopardy ?

[Jesse Kershaw]

Originally Posted by D.Johns

The only way the Cobra Jet program came into existence was their ability to make the cars and sell them at a profit. The program was nearly killed before it even began when initially a different engine was proposed to be used that was built by an individual’s company(who posts on here). That engine was going to be up on price and not run in the fastest class. However in that meeting Wolfe spoke up and said what about the GT500 engine how much does that unit cost us to make? That blower in the FRPP Catalogue, how much is our cost on that? Ronzello what class would that put us in running Stock Eliminator? Alright let’s do that instead.... Kershaw also busting in exclaiming that they hadn’t made the same mistake as they did with the “GT40” trademark and had the rights to use the “Cobra Jet” name again.
proposal accepted because it was shown to be profitable. Remember this is 2008 just after the giant financial meltdown. A time when Ford sold nearly every brand and took out massive loans leveraging the blue oval itself under Mulally/Fields One Ford plan. You weren’t going to get anything through if it wasn’t world class leading and was profitable.

This is essentially correct but the details were slightly different as I recall. I apologize if this is hijacking the thread but the CJ came to be from really two simultaneous proposals converging.

Brian Wolfe who was at the time director of another group (powertrain or engine, can't recall the exact title) was pushing on FR for a sportsman entry into NHRA. Mike Pustelny was trying to steer the big 3 together and had a proposal he crafted. I do not believe the brass at Ford Racing took this seriously and really wanted it to go away. Wolfe pushed the FR management and they sent a representative, but it wasn't me and I wasn't included in the discussion at all. This was odd because I was the lead interface for NMRA/NMCA and because I had been pushing around a drag car powerpoint for years.

There were a few meetings before I was involved at Wolfe's office so I cannot give first hand details on what happened but it's my understanding that they decided to put the GT500 in the NHRA guide and Ronzello would race it. Ford Racing would be the middle man to get Jimmy a test car to do this. Later this became the famous black CJ convertible Ronzello and Wright built as a CJ prototype.

Without knowing these meetings were happening I sent Wolfe my powerpoint on the Cobra Jet to get his feedback and help. I had already worked with the Ford trademark lawyers to ensure we actually had the name. This idea of a turn-key drag car was something I had been working on since the 2003 Cobra and it drew inspiration from many sources. Evan Smith was a big help to me as was Roger Pohlman who worked at the FR warehouse and owned one of the original lightweight cars. Many others gave me insight as well but these two helped fill in many blanks so when I put together the powerpoint it had substance. But even with substance and a pretty solid business plan I wasn't getting noticed. Everyone I put it in front of brushed it aside, I thought Brian could help me edit it for executive speak because he was a drag racer and had influence.

Wolfe got back to me within 15 minutes with a note essentially saying "I'm setting up a meeting with you and your boss". 5 minutes after that my boss was at my desk asking why I sent Brian Wolfe a note. But he knew the powerpoint/proposal had been made to him for at least a year so I presume he didn't want to connect the dots to the meetings he was having with Brian Wolfe, and I by accident connected those dots. To be fair the FR director at the time had a clear edict that drag racing was John Force and anything else was not to be considered so it's not a shock my boss wasn't entertaining the idea if his boss was telling him not to.

The next NHRA sportman meeting was in Wolfe's office. attendees as I recall were Ronzello, Wolfe, Andy Slankard, Jamie Allison, Rob Deneweth, Larry Ferrin and myself. Prior to this meeting I think they had talked about maybe doing a car but they had no roadmap to it, my powerpoint I believe gave them a direction and basis for discussion.

The CJ proposal did include a naturally aspirated 3v engine for 2008 model and a blown 5.4L for the 2010 model. In hindsight the proposal sounds crazy but at the time I believed the only way I could get a program approved was with the 3v engine because we had 50 cars worth of 3v parts in inventory or on order. Prior to the CJ, FR did the FR500S and it was a disaster. I know that's an inflammatory term to use but it's the right term. Half of the 75 FR500S's sold at a loss and they had already ordered parts for 50 more! Bodies, engines, headers, wiring, etc. all insotck or on it's way. Prior to Wolfe throwing his support behind my proposal I believed the only chance to get the car approved was to consume those parts and make a play that would allow them to not scrap those materials. The engine as propose was not a stock 3v but rather a 5.0L based off the Boss5.0 block and CNC heads.

In the meeting Wolfe did call this engine out and say it was a bad/dumb idea (Brian has always been blunt with me when he thought I had a bad idea, and he's usually correct). He asked Deneweth or Ronzello the cost of the GT500 engine (which I am sure he already knew) and within a few minutes it was decided that this was the engine we would use. Andy Slankard turned to me and asked if I was ok with that because had I said no I think he would have pushed back. I concurred it was the better decision. I had to hold my poker face because inside I was grinning, this was always the engine I wanted in there but didn't think it would fly.

After that it wasn't a slam dunk the car would happen but wheels were slowly turning. This was probably March or April 2008, FR was doing some work but feet were dragging. Mike Pustelny was helping us but the FR management still hadn't bought in. We were working on it enough to keep Wolfe satisfied but I suspect the plan was to slow roll it long enough that we couldn't make timing on a 2008 model and then scrap the program with a shrug and "we tried".

Then in May or June Wolfe called me and told me that he was coming over as director. I was told to keep it to myself until it was officially announced. When there was an FR staff meeting called I knew what it was for so I kept my eyes on a few people to see their reactions and saw terror flash across their face when they heard he was coming. There was no more slow rolling this program, it was going to happen! I recall one manager saying something like "we're probably going to have to send the motorcoach to NMRA races now"

Wolfe lit a fire, worked the whole group hard, and we delivered a car I'm very proud of to this day. There's so many stories about the hard work and some luck that brought us the success we got. And all the credit to the customers that bought the cars and raced them. Had no one bought-in where would we be?

2009 was a hard year in the performance aftermarket, many businesses were shutting down and FR made money with Wolfe keeping us on track. It might sound a bit arrogant to say but I don't think the CJ would have happened without the lucky timing of the FR500S flop making bodies and plant parts available, Wolfe's leadership coming to FR and me having a plan already in the works. Those 3 things were the lucky alignment IMO. That's not to discount the efforts by anyone else but those were major hurdles that might not have otherwise been overcome in the short time frame we had.