Fred Henson had a vision of the Cobra Jet that he wanted.

He then gave renowned car builder Mike Roth, the owner of MR2 Performance in Lebanon, Ind., the time to make it happen.

 
Fred Henson had a vision of the Cobra Jet that he wanted.

He then gave renowned car builder Mike Roth, the owner of MR2 Performance in Lebanon, Ind., the time to make it happen.

The end result is Henson now has a true treasure in his "Texas Twister" Cobra Jet.

“I’m a Ford dealer and in 2010 I decided to build a body and originally it was going to be a Stocker,” said Henson, a car dealer in Madisonville, Texas. “I got to talking with Mike Roth and I told him let’s go for a Super Stock (car). Of course, Mike being the artist that he is, I didn’t want to tie his hands. I wanted him to express himself on the car however he wanted.”

According to Henson, Roth worked on the car from 2010-2014, and he laid off of it for a year to complete other jobs he had and they also had to wait on the motor to be built by Charlie Westcott.

“I’ve never seen a race car like that,” Henson said about his Cobra Jet. “It’s unbelievable and way over the top and just shows the caliber of work he (Roth) does. It’s absolutely amazing the work that was done on that car.”

Henson did have his Cobra Jet on display at the U.S. Nationals recently in Indianapolis, but he has yet to make a pass down the dragstrip in the car.

“It ought to be plenty fast,” said Henson, who competes in NHRA’s Division 4. “What we are trying to do now is figure out a date when we all can get to the track, and hopefully between now and the end of the year we will be able to do that.”

Roth acknowledged Henson put no restraints on him when he was building him his Cobra Jet.

“He wanted the baddest Super Stocker there could be,” Roth said. “A Super Stock car is a lot more work than putting chrome stuff on. If you really know what you are looking at, it is not a factory car by any means. As far as pushing the envelope, we kind of went above and beyond. The goal on this thing was to make it look like it was so clean and sanitary and well done that it is like a factory-built car or a concept car or a show car. It’s over the top, but it is also kind of understated in places. It looks really good. I’m not going to half (a**) a car. This wasn’t a car I was doing on a deadline. Fred was the perfect customer. I put more pressure on myself than he ever put on me and that’s why it turned out the way it did. I would say it is a masterpiece.”

Roth said Henson’s Cobra Jet should run around 7.90s at around 175 mph down the quarter-mile.

“It should run with the best of them,” Roth said. “We might make some test hits in it this fall and then bring it out in the spring.”