Hank Williams was a decorated World War II hero who had taken part in the invasion of Normandy Beach, and was also a medical professional and a jazz musician who played drums. An Austin-Healey had been his original mount, but it was rapidly becoming outclassed on the track. He originally planned to replace it with a Corvette, and so went to his local Chevrolet dealer.
This was March of 1965, however, and Williams was a Black man at the height of the Civil Rights movement. Not a single salesman at the Chevrolet dealership would acknowledge or approach him. He left without a word and drove straight to the closest Ford dealership, Norman Ford in Pomona, CA. There he found both a young salesman, eager to make his first sale, and a Shelby 289 Cobra, chassis number CSX2227 — one of the last leaf-sprung Mk II versions, finished in Princess Blue.
It may have been fate, but it was still not a seamless transaction. The exuberant salesman wrote up a sales agreement and Hank paid him a deposit on the spot. When he returned to complete the sale and collect his Cobra, however, the car was missing; the sales manager informed him that not only was it no longer at the dealership, but it was never supposed to have been sold in the first place, having actually been on loan from another dealer (or so the line went). Hank calmly responded that he had a signed contract for the Cobra, and that they could either honor his contract and produce the car within 24 hours, or he would return with his lawyer. The Cobra magically reappeared in short order, and Hank took delivery of his new car.
Hank’s racing career with the Cobra was legendary up and down the West Coast. Man and car were together in nearly 400 races (394, by his count): SCCA, Solo 1, rallies, slaloms, and private club events. He became good friends with several luminaries of the scene, most prominently Carroll Shelby himself. After Shelby won at Le Mans, he appeared at a California race wearing one of the team shirts from that event. Hank literally talked Shelby into giving him the shirt on his back, earning him the well-deserved and celebrated nickname that would persist for the rest of his years: “Snake Charmer.”
As reproductions and Shelby’s own continuations began to flood the scene, Hank was very proud that he had always owned an original Cobra and acquired California license plate “NO KIT” to advertise that fact.
The “Snake Charmer” Cobra is sold today from the Hank Williams Trust, still in Hank’s name on the original 1965 title, in the original envelope. Following Williams’ passing, his Cobra was exhibited at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles, CA — further testament to its significance to automotive history.
(Introductory description courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.)
