Tara Browne's Psychedlic Cobra

289, FIA & Daytona topics
Old Boy Racer
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Re: Tara Browne's Psychedlic Cobra

Post by Old Boy Racer »

Blimey - built in air bags!!!
Robin
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Roger King
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Re: Tara Browne's Psychedlic Cobra

Post by Roger King »

Those aren't airbags Robin, they're offensive weapons. Well, maybe not offensive exactly...
...but if they are airbags, I think I can see where you connect the pump NO, STOP IT

Just the thought of a new crash hat for £10.99 makes me weak
Old Boy Racer
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Re: Tara Browne's Psychedlic Cobra

Post by Old Boy Racer »

Crash hat? What crash hat? Where?
Robin
Marsh
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Re: Tara Browne's Psychedlic Cobra

Post by Marsh »

For those of you who were interested in this car, I've updated the history on IMDCB, so thought I would share it with you.

COB6107 is more accurately a British model AC 289 Sports, rather than a Cobra and was supplied new by HR Owen of London, originally delivered in Svecia (bright) Red with black trim, with the London CC issued registration number GYK768C. The car survives to this day in good health and lives in the UK, though it spent much of its' early life in the 'states, leaving the UK in 1970 and not returning to these shores until the early part of this century.

Today, it now sports slightly less trippy paintwork and is currently finished in a dandy shade of Rolls Royce metallic purple, with matching trim and now carries the period Surrey registration number KPK392C. First owned by Guinness heir The Right Honourable Tara Browne, who was the inspiration for the 1967 Beatles song 'A day in the life', following his fatal accident in December 1966 at the wheel of his Lotus Elan in Kensington - 'he blew his mind out in a car, he didn't notice that the lights had changed'. There is a suggestion amongst some quarters that Browne was in fact killed on the way to the Robert Fraser's gallery to view the newly customised car for it's inaugural showing to the public, but this is not substantiated and sounds a little too romantic to be true.

According to the SAAC, the car was delivered on 11 November 1966 and if that is true, Tara was killed barely a month later on 18 December. I would question the chronology, as other 289's with later chassis numbers appeared to have been delivered much earlier than this one, in the summer of 1966, which seems to be a more likely scenario for this car. Mind you, the sequence of cars being built and registered by small volume manufacturers such as AC were open to glitches and perhaps the truth will never be fully established. The AC owners club hold all of the original build records, so they would be able to provide the definitive answer to this question.

The Cobra is seen being wheeled out of the window of close friend Robert Fraser's gallery in Duke Street, Mayfair and had been created by artists Douglas Binder and Dudley Edwards, along with their manager David Vaughan, known collectively as B.E.V. This was in fact the second car visualised by the collective; the first being a 1960 Buick Electra convertible, registered LLO2D - images of which are available on the web, but more famously featured on the cover of The Kinks 1966 album, 'Sunny Afternoon', with the band members sitting in it. There also exist photo's of both the Buick and the AC together, presumably the magazine shoot mentioned below.

The Cobra was photographed by Lord Snowdon in and around Mayfair and at nearby Primrose Hill and was featured at the time in magazines Paris Match and the American fashion and lifestyle publication 'Look'. Gallery owner Fraser, Aka 'Groovy Bob' was also a central member of the art/rock and roll elite in the period 1966-68 and is often credited as being the inspiration for the 1966 Beatles song Dr Robert, from the 1966 long player Revolver. He art directed the cover of Sergeant Pepper and suggested the Beatles recruit Peter Blake to bring the cover to life. He also gave Paul McCartney a small Magritte painting of a certain fruit that became the inspiration for Apple Corps. Outside of the Beatles, Fraser was exceptionally close to the Rolling Stones and featured in the notorious drugs bust at Richard's Sussex retreat Redlands in February of 1967 and he was sentenced to 6 months hard labour for his involvement. At this precise moment of the 1960's, Fraser was at the very epicentre of rock and roll royalty.

Little is known of the car's fate immediately following the death of Tara Browne, which begs the tantalising question; where did it reside between 1967 and 1970? It would have been a difficult car to conceal, given its' appearance, though it's highly likely to have lost this paint finish pretty quickly, as the fad that was psychedelia passed all too briefly and many cars that were given 'the treatment' in period were unceremoniously blown over in more sober hues and then sold on. In cultural terms, this is one of the most important early 'art cars' of the psychedelic period of 1966/67, alongside John Lennon's Phantom, which happily survives to this day with almost original JP Fallon paintwork and is currently being shown by Rolls Royce in their 'Great Eight Phantoms' Exhibition.
427 'side oiler' in 1965 Street trim
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