Essex Wire Company was a Detroit based Co. that produced wire for all sorts of applications, Ford being their biggest customer. They sponsored a very successful 427 Cobra and at least 2 GT40's in sports car and endurance events.
The GT40, #1048, was driven by Peter Revson and Skip Scott at Spa qualified 3rd on the grid and won their class in the Sports+2000 division. Their other car #1010, was driven by David Hobbs, Jochen Neerspach, Augie Pabst and Alan Rees. Pabst and Rees never got to drive in that race due to a fan belt breaking.
They also entered the 1966 Le Mans race with two cars. Revson and Scott partnered again in #1048 with Jacky Ickx and Jochen Neerspach handling the driving chores with GT40 # 1001. IIRC, the was a show car from Ford loaned to Essex for the event. Records have it that neither car finished the race where the factory GT40 teams swept the field.
There was another effort for Le Mans in '67 where the Revson and Scott GT40 #1026 caught fire and burned in practice. It was later rebuilt. As I understand it, they never made the show.
Regarding The Cobra entry, which I understand, was the most successful Cobra in competition, I found this article about the car.
"...The Essex team initially competed in races sanctioned by the U.S. Road Racing Championship (USRRC) with two cars: the Shelby Cobra 427 (model CSX3009), which promised deadly challenges to the dominant Corvettes, Ferraris, Porsches and Chaparrals, and the Ford GT40, which was the talk of the tracks.
In successive road races throughout the season, the Cobra, sporting the distinctive Essex paint job, performed "like clockwork" at Pensacola, Elkhart's Road America 500, the Bridgehampton Double 500 in New York, Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, Times Grand Prix, Riverside, California, the Stardust Grand Prix in Las Vegas, Vineland, New Jersey, Lime Rock, Continental Divide, and at Nassau, the Bahamas.
The Team fondly called the snow white Cobra "Ollie the Dragon"; however, because the 427 had the scary habit of belching about two feet of flame through the intake on the hood. Team Leader Scott laughingly recalled that if you didn't keep throttling up, the big Weber downdraft carburetors would erupt in fire. Dick Thompson still remembers that the "Cobra was beautiful in the straightaway, but because it didn't have much in the way of brakes, it was always hairy in the turns." The car was so powerful that difficulties with tires being too small or its lack of aerodynamics were not important. Ed Lowther once commented, in fact, that the car was so good that "I can start the engine on this car, put it in gear and go to the men's room, and it will win the race by the time I get back!"
The drivers of the Cobra in the 1965 circuit were first-rate and world class. Dr. Dick Thompson, a Washington, D.C. dentist was a semi-pro who drove some of Carroll Shelby's early Cobras. Not long after he was recruited by Skip Scott to drive for Essex, he drove the race at Riverside, California. Ray Heppenstal, the Team's crew chief and master mechanic, souped up the carburetion on the Cobra for this race so that Thompson could open it up to over 150 mph when he came into the long straightaway. Dealing with the sharp turns at the end of the straightaway without brakes was "always interesting." Ed Lowther was another highly respected semi-pro who drove the Cobra throughout 1965. Like the other drivers, Lowther started racing for the fun of it, competing in '66 sprint cars" shortly after World War II. While trying to build his construction company in the Pittsburgh area, he drove stock cars and midgets. In the late '50s he drove Corvettes with Dick Thompson on the Gulf Oil team. As he won more races and his reputation grew, Skip Scott recruited him to race the Cobra with Dick Thompson in several key contests. Lowther fondly remembers the calm, professional teaching by Thompson. For Lowther, the formula for success in this Cobra was that everything was stock - no special designs or equipment - and this equipment, including the Essex Wire throughout, held up better than all the specialized gear. Lowther eventually built one of the most successful construction and supply companies in the Pittsburgh area and continued sports car racing until 1984, when he finally went back to midgets as a hobby which he still enjoys today.
"The late Walter Probst, Essex Chairman of the Board, recalled that Essex responded enthusiastically to the opportunity to sponsor the Ford Racing Team. This was a means for promoting not only Ford's products, but also a host of specialized wires and wire assemblies produced by Essex. "It seemed a great way to share a promotional opportunity," Probst remembered, "and Paul O'Malley, Essex President, took the challenge and turned it into a winner for both Essex and Ford."
Fred Krammer, Essex Account Executive to Ford, was put in charge of the project and oversaw the purchase of the automobiles, their preparation for racing, and the recruitment of Team Essex. Jim Kress, Essex Public Relations Director, saw immediately that the biggest challenge for Essex would be to make sure both the U.S. and the World viewed the racing circuit newcomer as a serious contender and a winner.
To organize the Essex team, Krammer turned to Skip Scott. An outstanding 23-year-old driver from Paoli, Pennsylvania, Scott had been recognized as Rookie of the Year only a few months earlier. Scott had first worked with the Carroll Shelby racing organization in California. He apprenticed under Ken Miles, one of the finest race car drivers in the world and the second driver Shelby hired to test the new Cobra. One Essex executive recalled that Scott was "a driver who would go any distance just to be able to race--the sort of guy you wanted at the head of your team!"
Dr. Dick Thompson, one of the first Essex drivers and a regular with the Shelby organization, noted that Scott "was a good businessman and a great promoter. He really put Essex and its machines on the world racing map."
Scott, who is retired today, remembers the excitement of being given the opportunity to develop a world-class team. "Fred Krammer," Scott recalled, was terrific. Every time we needed something--even entirely new wiring from Essex--he would see to it that we got it and then--this was real important--stayed out of our way so that we could win on the race track. And we did!"
By the end of the 1965 season these drivers had managed to win an overall national Fourth Place for Essex Wire in U.S. road racing competition, a remarkable feat for a team in its first year. Essex chose to move onto the International Grand Prix Circuit for 1966 with the new Ford GT40, abandoning the Cobra. The Essex team Cobra 427 was eventually sold to Ed Lowther, who went on to win numerous races, finishing first at Riverside and Daytona and winning a national championship in 1967. This particular Cobra, known affectionately as "Ollie the Dragon," was, in fact, the winningest Cobra ever made.
I'm putting together a complete history about these cars for my friend, for his upcoming birthday. I was looking for some more info or at least other sources where I could find history on these Essex cars. A nice color photo of the Cobra would be cool too.
Thanks in advance...
Now that,s a GREAT colour scheme.It,s the first time i have seen a colour shot
