SOLVED: Araknid #18 - Exner's 1964 Mercer-Cobra, built by Carrozzeria Sibona-Bassano of Turin

[araknid]

Four part question:

1) What is this?
2) Who designed it?
3) Who built it?
4) When was it finished?

One point available for each part.

[Facel]

1) Mercer Cobra
2) Virgel Exner and his son Virgel jr
3) American Copper Development Association
4) 1965

[araknid]

Well, 2 out of 4 (misspelling of Virgil, notwithstanding).  ACDA was not the builder and the source I have has an earlier date.

I'll award the points when it's all solved.

[Facel]

1963

[araknid]

nope

[bentleybob]

Carrozzeria Sibona-Basano on a Cobra chassis (number CSX2451) sold through Shelby American in February 1964.

[araknid]

Carrozzeria Sibona-Basano on a Cobra chassis (number CSX2451) sold through Shelby American in February 1964.

Correct.  Although, this is a one-off car and not available for sale.  But, it did, in fact, use an AC chassis (even the correct one is noted).

Two points for you and two points for Facel.

Funded by the Copper Development Association and built by Carrozzeria Sibona-Bassano of Turin, the Mercer-Cobra was finished in late 1964 and whisked off to a world tour promoting the CDA. It has since appeared in the pages of Special Interest Autos (SIA #39) and graced a number of noteworthy collections, and now RM has announced that it will go up for sale at its auction in Monterey next month with a pre-auction estimate of $800,000 to $1.2 million. From the auction description:

"In the case of chassis number CSX2451, the Copper Development Association's president, George M. Hartley, spied the Exner concepts on the pages of Esquire and contracted with Exner's company to complete the design and have it built. With Ghia in financial trouble, Exner looked elsewhere for craftsmen capable of faithfully rendering the Mercer's design features in metal. Brooks Stevens recommended Carrozzeria Sibona-Bassano in Turin. The company had been established by Elio and Emilio Bassano around 1962, but its capabilities and prestige were substantially augmented in 1962 when Pietro Sibona, one of Ghia's master metal workers, joined them.

Exner and his son and business partner, Virgil M. Exner, Jr., completed the design utilizing a chassis from AC Cars in the U.K. to which Sibona-Bassano faithfully and accurately adapted the design. Cobras were popular choices for specials builders and movie studios, as their series production and Ford-based drivetrain kept costs down. The ladder-frame construction was adaptable to almost any special bodywork and easily lengthened for specific appearance. AC easily pulled chassis off the line before bodies were mounted and supplied them in nearly ready-to-run condition for rapid modification and construction; in the case of the Mercer-Cobra, the chassis was lengthened to 108 inches. Surviving period photographs which exist in the archives of the Henry Ford Museum show the clay model of the Mercer-Cobra in exceptional detail. Also in this collection are patent applications for the design of the body, as well as dramatic photos of the senior Exner supervising the design process. This collection of documents also indicates that the project was quite lucrative for the accomplished Exner; though the Cobra underlying the Mercer cost $2,800 with a total delivery price to Turin of $3,019 and the agreed price with Carrozzeria Sibona-Bassano for the delivered coachwork was $10,400, the contract with the CDA was for a total delivery price of $35,000."

[araknid]

More pictures of this interesting beast:

[araknid]

 It has since appeared in the pages of Special Interest Autos (SIA #39):

[Arunas]

This is how all (most of) the puzzles should be solved - full info and superb pictures. Nice stuff!