Taxonomy
Elapidae — fixed fangs, neurotoxins
16 entries
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Book I
Shelby Cobra
The word that arrived before the car did
A Texan with a bad heart put an American engine into an English roadster and then, according to the only witness, dreamt its name at three in the…
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Book I
Shelby 427 Cobra Super Snake
Two built. One of them ate its owner.
Shelby took the most frightening car he had ever sold, bolted two superchargers to it, and built exactly two. He kept one. The other one is the…
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Book I
Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe
The snake that grew a shell to go faster in a straight line
Six were built to solve one problem: an open Cobra could out-accelerate a Ferrari and could not out-run one down the Mulsanne. Peter Brock put a…
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Book I
Ford Shelby Cobra Concept
A resurrection performed at a motor show, then quietly abandoned
Ford built a running aluminium Cobra with a 6.4-litre V10, showed it in Detroit in 2004 to an audience that made a noise like a congregation, and…
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Book II
Ford Mustang SVT Cobra
A horse wearing a snake, which nobody has ever satisfactorily explained
For eleven years Ford sold a car whose bonnet said Mustang and whose flanks said Cobra, an act of zoological confusion so complete that it has…
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Book II
Shelby GT500 Super Snake
One was built. Shelby wanted fifty. The price made it a species of one.
Built to destroy tyres for Goodyear in the Texas heat, the 1967 GT500 Super Snake was meant to be the first of fifty. It cost too much. Exactly one…
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Book II
Ford 428 Cobra Jet
Not a car. An engine that became a promise.
The Cobra Jet is the only entry in this book that has no bodywork of its own. It is a cylinder head philosophy that Ford has been re-issuing for…
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Book II
Ford Mustang Cobra R
Sold without a radio, without air conditioning, and without a back seat, to people who had to prove they could use it
Three times, Ford built a Mustang with the sound deadening removed, the rear seat deleted and the stereo left out of the parts list, and required…
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Book II
Ford Falcon XC Cobra
A falcon and a cobra on the same car, in a country with more venomous snakes than any other
Four hundred were built to clear a stock of leftover hardtop bodies. Ford Australia painted them white with blue stripes, numbered them on the…
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Book II
Ford Torino Cobra
A large flat car with a snake on it and no intention of turning
Ford applied the Cobra name to its mid-size Torino, fitted the 428 Cobra Jet as standard, and sold the result to people who wanted the snake but…
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Book II
Ford Mustang Cobra II
A snake made almost entirely of stickers
In the depths of the American malaise era, Ford sold a Mustang with racing stripes, a bonnet scoop that led nowhere, a rear spoiler, a cobra badge…
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Book II
Ford Fairlane 500 Cobra
The cheapest way to buy a snake in 1969
Ford took its plainest mid-size body, installed the 428 Cobra Jet, deleted almost every comfort, and undercut everyone. Rubber floor mats. Bench…
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Book VII
Mamba — unclaimed
The fastest snake on earth, and no car will touch it
It is not black. It is grey-brown, and the name refers to the inside of its mouth, which it shows you first.
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Book VII
Taipan — unclaimed
The most toxic venom ever measured, delivered by an animal that would rather you left
The inland taipan holds the record for the most toxic venom of any snake measured, and has never been reliably recorded as killing anyone, because…
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Book VII
Asp — unclaimed
Three letters. A queen. An entire empire changing hands.
The shortest available serpent name and among the most loaded. Cleopatra is said to have died by the bite of an asp, though which animal that word…
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Book VII
Krait — unclaimed
Bites people in their sleep, painlessly, and they do not wake up until it is too late
The krait is nocturnal, its bite is often nearly painless, and a substantial proportion of serious envenomations occur while the victim is asleep on…