Ford CEO Jim Farley confesses he remortgaged his house to buy his first sports car – he wanted to be in an exclusive club

FORD CEO Jim Farley spent a lot of time behind the wheel of race cars before taking the helm of America’s largest automaker.

When he saw a Shelby Cobra barn costing $100,000, he took extreme measures to protect it.

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Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor Company, loved cars and racing long before he became CEO.

In 2020, he told Autoweek that if he was elected CEO of the automaker, he would have to keep racing, as being behind the wheel was how he relaxed.

“I told Bill (Ford) that I would love to serve the company in this new position, but I need to be able to hustle,” he said. counted the exit.

“It’s my yoga.”

His passion for racing began when Farley was working as a marketing professional for Ford Corporate and saw a listing for a Cobra after it was found in a barn a few decades ago.

The spark of racing turned into flame and Farley needed it.

Since this was long before he became a millionaire, the fanatic took extreme measures to secure the car.

“That was before I had kids,” Farley said during her video interview on SmokingTirePodcast.

“I was part of the Cobra Club and I had a Road Cobra that I kind of mortgaged my house to buy. Presumably it was a real Cobra, a barn find, you know, and I bought it for about 100 grand.”

While he acknowledged that buying the car may not have been the wisest thing to do, it ended up being worth it.

“It was the most expensive thing I ever bought and it must be valuable,” he said.

Now, a genuine Cobra is ultra rare, worth millions.

Shortly after his passionate purchase, a club member fell ill and recognized Farley’s deep-rooted passion for the brand, cars and racing.

“I had a friend at the Cobra club who had one of the original USRC racing Cobras and he got sick and was going to pass away, and he called me and said, ‘Jim, I like you, and you really understand cars and you understand the history of these cars and you know if I don’t make it, I want you to buy my Cobra,’” Farley recalled.

“I said, ‘I don’t have the money to buy a USRC Cobra,’ and he said, ‘Okay, I want it to go to the right person, just sell your car and give the money to my wife.’ “

It was the most expensive thing I ever bought and it must be valuable.

Jim Farley, CEO of Ford

He continued to say he couldn’t afford it, but his friend kept pushing for it to happen because there was one thing he had never experienced.

“He said, ‘I really want you to get the car ready because I never raced it because I never had the opportunity after I got sick.'”

Farley ended up taking the car and racing it at Road America, where he scored his first Cobra victory after enrolling in Ford’s racing school.

The 1966 Ford Cobra 96A is one of his favorite cars, he still races at the Trans Am Speedfest and during the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Driving the car, Farley achieved several victories and secured the same number of pole positions, proving that he is not only passionate, but also talented.