It’s got a cracking story behind it, even if the duo didn’t fare particularly well in the race itself.

The yarn’s such a ripper in fact, it’s spurred Wayne and John Swadling to roll their own Cobra out as an almost-exact replica at this weekend’s Gnoo Blas Classic Car Show.

“It’s basically our tribute to Orange motorsport and its history,” John Swadling said on Thursday, as the replica rig’s windscreens were being fitted.

Swadling enthusiastically tells the story of the Parsons-Rabold machine’s build, in a nutshell, which started when the former walked into the latter’s workshop at Powerhouse Performance on Peisley Street and said “I’ve entered us for Bathurst”.

“It was about three months before the race and they were going to run a Holden Torana A9X but they were told they could only enter if they did so in a Ford. There was too many Holdens,” Swadling said.

“They couldn’t buy a new Falcon, but there was a Cobra that had been rolled that Paul Watson from Bathurst bought under the deal that [Parsons and Rabold] could only race it if they returned it to Watson as a road car.

“They only had about eight weeks to build it so they were working all day and night, and all these locals around Orange dropped everything to help. Britt’s Smash Repairs did the panel work, all these locals like Ross Preen and John Cane. 

“They borrowed the gearbox and [differential], they had the fuel tank, roll cage and other bits and pieces from the A9X.”

But then when they arrived at Bathurst on Wednesday, September 26, 1979, they weren’t allowed to take it on the track anyway.

The pair had a world of trouble passing the car through scrutineering, in fact the body of the machine had to be narrowed – among other things – for that to happen.

It did, and they entered practice on the Friday.

Then it rained and although they got a few laps in on Friday and then Saturday, they had no qualifying time and were on the verge of missing out anyway.

“That night Tom Rabold actually slept in the car and officials woke him up saying ‘you’re starting last, 63rd’. They were actually really lucky to even race,” Swadling laughed.

“They passed 14 cars in the first 18 laps or so but they got to about lap 35 and had issues with the engine overheating, so they were in an out of the pits.”

Eventually the duo were forced to retire after lap 38, before heading back to Orange for what Swadling said was apparently “one big celebration”.

The Parsons-Rabold Cobra stayed in the Watson family, serving as a reliable daily driver until it was restored in the late noughties.

Time constraints seem to be a trend in terms of this Cobra, too.

“We’ve only had a week to get ours ready for the weekend so that’s a bit similar to the guys way back then, a mad rush,” Swadling laughed.

“It’s just such a great story. Barry Parsons will be there on the weekend, you know, a lot of the guys that were involved will be there. We’re going to put our own Cobra out and put them side-by-side.

“We’re really excited for it.”

The 2018 Gnoo Blas Classic Car Show kicks off on Saturday and runs on Sunday as well, with special guests Simona de Silvestro – Supercars’ first full-time female driver – along with motorsport legends Fred Gibson and Christine Gibson.

The Swaldings will also be showing Albert the Albion double-decker bus as they normally do, a vehicle which has an epic story of its own.