The Double Venom Spring Fling (DVSF) had its beginning shortly before Christmas of 1999. DVSF later became the London Cobra Show (LCS). It all began when four Cobra loving friends, Gary Osborne, brothers Dave and the late Dan Semko, got together with Ed Combs, at Ed's house near London, Ohio. The reason for the meeting was for a pre-holiday celebration. At the time, Ed's wife Diana just happened to serve the group some of her chocolate chip cookies. Later, Dan would state on the Club Cobra forum that - “Ed's wife made the best chocolate chip cookies in the world.” As you can imagine, that comment led others on Club Cobra to say that their wife was the best cook. Each year, the LCS features a chocolate cookie contest in honor of Diana Combs and the Chocolate Chip Cookies she baked and served to Dave, Dan, Gary and Ed some 20 years ago.

Eventually, the comments on Club Cobra led to a suggestion for a Cobra family picnic during the spring of 2000. It was decided that the picnic would allow everyone the opportunity for a cook-off, to see who actually did cook the best tasting food. From that small picnic of 20 or so people, it became a full-fledged International Cobra Event in 2001 that the guys called the Double Venom Spring Fling. The name came about, due to the fact that Ed Combs owned a Viper V-10-powered Cobra.

As the event was becoming much larger than they had anticipated, the expenses would be more than the four friends wanted to cover by themselves. These expenses were for such things as food, entertainment, police escorts, and insurance to cover potential liability. The question the four friends asked themselves was how much should they charge. As they did not intend to make money from hosting DVSF, they settled on an amount sufficiently large to cover the expected expenses.

As the number of attendees continued to increase, the expected income was likely going to surpass the actual events cost. So the friends decided that if any money was left over, they would donate it to some charity so no one could accuse them of making anything off the show. Next, they needed to decide on the proper charity. After much discussion, one of them happened to mention that Jenny Smith, the daughter of Dave Smith, owner of Factory Five Racing, had Cystic Fibrosis, so CF became the charity of choice.

The first DVSF had approximated 300 Cobras in attendance with almost 400 Cobras for DVSF II, with 300 plus for each of DVSF III and DVSF IV. The show is still said to be the largest gathering of replica Cobras in the world and is considered to be the “Crown Jewell” of replica Cobra events.

In 2002 a decision was made to raffle a replica Cobra as a way of raising additional money for CF. The group called their fund raising efforts – Team Jenny - in honor of Jenny Smith.

Prior to DVSF IV, Ed's daughter became gravely ill, which weighed heavily on him. Unfortunately, between his daughter's health issues and with the event now being so large, the friends decided to end their efforts with DVSF. It was at this time the Ohio Cobra Club, a 501(3)(c) non-profit and tax exempt organization, took the event over and it became the London Cobra Show in 2005. Since the beginning, the venues have remained essentially the same and Cystic Fibrosis has remained the club's charity of choice.

The London Cobra Show gives homage to both England and Carroll Shelby. London, for England which was the home of AC Cars, builder of the car chassis and body and Cobra for Mr. Shelby, as he combined a Ford V8 engine with the AC Cars chassis and body to give us the Shelby Cobra, that we all have come to love.

It is great pleasure to be able to say that over the years, many great friends have been made, thanks to the show. In addition, the show and raffle has allowed donations of $1,423,000 to help the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation fund research into developing medicines to fight CF.

The Ohio Cobra Club would like to thank everyone that has made a donation or has purchased raffle tickets for helping support the research that is working to find a cure for cystic fibrosis! Please visit The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation website, for additional information about CF.

The Ohio Cobra Club and the London Cobra Show are governed by a Board of Directors that consists of seven non-paid, volunteers. You may contact us at info@ohiocobraclub.com or if you wish to contact a board member directly, please see the contact tab.