Allen Grant, a Ford Racing Legend, will be a Featured Panelist at "Meet the Legends"

Another Cobra-centric Meet the Legends

panelist is Allen Grant. Allen began racing an

AC-Bristol in Southern California. The AC was

later the basis for the AC-Cobra after Carroll

Shelby began manufacturing the cars with Ford

V-8s rather than the two-liter Bristol engine.

Wanting to be closer to the racing action, Grant

took a job at Carroll Shelby’s Cobra works as a

$2.50 per hour mechanics’ helper with the

understanding that he might get to race a Cobra.

Grant didn’t know that several others in the

shop had been offered the same deal. Shelby recognized his talent and drive and he was

soon working in the office. There, he had dealer contact and convinced Coventry Motors

in the San Francisco Bay Area to sponsor him in a Cobra. Coventry sold the largest

volume of Cobras during their production.

Grant’s thought was that if he could do

well, he could convince Shelby to add

him to the works team. His first race for

Coventry was Santa Barbara in

September 1963 and he won both the

preliminary and the main. The car and its

tow vehicle had beautiful yellow paint

jobs with stripes that were designed by

Grant’s roommate and race helper at the

time, one George Lucas. Haskell Wexler, the two-time Oscar-winning cinematographer

was involved in racing at the time, and Grant introduced Lucas to Wexler. That led to

Wexler writing a recommendation that helped Lucas get into UCLA’s film program.

Wexler certainly never regretted that recommendation.

Our Meet the Legends Panel is together at another event. Allen Grant is on the left, with Peter Brock (blue shirt) and Bob Bondurant at the right. The younger man is Jason Stinson, a principal at a Silicon Valley startup, Renovo Motors, which makes what may be the world’s fastest electric street car, a Daytona Coupe with electric power.

Allen Grant and George Lucas take a victory lap in the Coventry Motors Cobra.

After more wins in the Cobra, Grant ended up in a Cheetah-Chevrolet for the 1964

season. Finally, in 1965, Grant’s original plan came to fruition and he joined the Cobra

team, which was now armed with the Peter Brock-designed Cobra Daytona Coupe,

Allen’s placings added to the Cobra’s points total which won the team the Sports Car

Manufacturers World Championship.