Gone very far to the Dark Side

13 minute(s) of a 189 minute read

Agree on one handed driving since they are all MT's that could lead to no handed driving.

That said this is typical of those installed:

Side pipes are very loud under load but can be manageable at cruise RPM's. Used a '67 StingRay with 4" hooker side pipes, same as you saw on the SCCA cars, but with muffler inserts, they shake out for the track, as pretty much a DD for over 20 years. I bought mine directly from Hooker Headers but they also sold them through GM as a Chevy Performance Products item with a heavy markup.

No problem on hot drinks; I like coffee more than soda.

Heat shielding is up to the builder. I used two styles. Thermo-Tec, (Summit Racing) is a space-age aluminized heat barrier is made up of woven silica with a flexible aluminized finish is capable of withstanding radiant temperatures u to 2000F.

This is on all the outer surfaces that face heat, firewall, transmission tunnel, foot boxes, etc. Areas where the heat source is close its doubled up. Also the inside of the side pipe heat shields are lined with it.

Reflectex (Home Depot) has two 94%+ reflective layers of aluminum film bonded to two internal layers of heavy gauge polyethylene bubbles. This has been placed under all surfaces that have carpet on them.

All the rest of the weather facing sheet metal surfaces has been sprayed with black truck bed liner.

3-25-2015

11's will come in time. Car only has 27 miles on it. First off need to get it to a gas station before I am walking around with a gas can in hand.

The whole system needs to be checked for leaks & misadjusted items. We paint striped all the bolts when the alignment was done but need to run in the coil overs, then mark them. They will take a set over a few weeks & need to be redone. Some items need to be re-torqued then safety wired after a number of heat/cool cycles.

Been slowly trickling in coolant as the engine purges trapped air. That looks pretty much done. Had some weeping from hose clamps that needed to be tightened but the also seems done.

Brakes are rock solid but take a lot of pedal effort (no power assist) Might move the seat up a bit to get more leverage.

Shaking down a home built is a lot more labor intensive then bringing a new car from the dealer. Driver also needs to be brought up to speed on the car before the car can get up to speed.

4-4-2015

Some of the Triangle Cobra Club @ this months Coffee. Group meets the first Saturday of the month usually 8:30am. Today was 10AM because of the weather.

4-5-2015

Found this picture. Typical 289 V-8 found in most original Cobra & a Coyote.

4-21-2015

Thought this might interest some. Factory Five with 600WHP at VIR. Trevor is a mechanical engineer & has a lot of work in the car.  

FFR3842, 363ci/600hp, AFR205's, Wilwood 6/4 piston Superlites, Koni DAs, Magnesium bellhousing and Tilton Triple disk clutch, GF5R dog ringed 5 speed, 3link, VPM sway bars, Hoosier A6s, CCW forged wheels, wings, undertray, diffuser

Most normal bodies are limited at the fastest part of the track. They get scary (front gets light) & start to run into a lot of drag.

Or down date depending on your point of view

Found the pads to be too aggressive for DD in town. Pads are not getting hot enough to function the way I want them too. One of the guys suggested its because the car is so light & the brakes are designed for a 4000lb car. The pads are not heating enough to be in the optimum range.

Am trying a more street oriented pad & see how it goes.

4-30-2015

Swapped the normal sealed beam headlights for modified Lucas replica Tri-Bar units. They are modified to use Halogen Bulbs & the lenses are duplicates of the 50's early 60's style used on British sports cars.

Also did the MK-IV license plate mod. Since its a British car body the plate mount is for the wide long English style plate. The first 3 versions of the trunk had a hump in them to accommodate the rectangular US standard plate.

When they developed the current MK-IV body they molded it as it came from the original car. This causes the plate to cover the trunk latch. Some guys go with an electric latch but I liked the Tee handle. Mod consists of cutting a slot the plate light lenses & moving the internals around a bit. Its sealed against the weather with clear silicone.

No its not positive. Car has a Ford Racing Mustang 8.8 Traction Lok LSD 3:55 rear axle mounted on a 3 link assembly + Coil overs.

5-2-2015

3rd on a roll with a hard throttle press & the 3/4 shift if you are accelerating quickly. Just like the Beach Boys song Little Duce Coupe although this car is quicker than my 33 was.

Unlike my turbos the Cobra had instantaneous power. Tires are almost 13" wide but the car is so light its very easy to break them loose. Am backing off the throttle & slowing the shift right now till I get to a place where I can have some play time to work out driving it properly

5-3-2015

Since I will not be tracking the car before the fall your question pronpted me to do a quicklook into instead of making an unsupported WAG.

Performance Numbers, Car & Driver Magazine:

"The vehicle tested was powered by a modest 325 HP small block Ford 302 engine with an 8.8″ Ford rear end with 3.55 gears and Factory Five 3-link suspension. " Same as mine but I have 446 horsepower at the wheels

Performance
0-60 in 3.6 seconds
0-100 in 9.0 seconds
1/4 mile in 12.3 seconds @ 113 MPH
70-0 braking in 181 feet
Skid pad lat G – 1.00
Curb weight – 2,162 lbs.
Price as tested – $32,109

You can see how without horsepower, test car was 325 at the crank, the car runs into an aerodynamic wall in the second half of the quarter mile.

With slicks if you are brave, dumb?, this might be something to try:

5-31-2015

My grandson took two quick clips for his classmates dad who is thinking about building one.

Have not done much with youtube but found I still had an account with some vids in it. This might be of interest to some. A few light aerobatic maneuvers. Have some with a lot more content but not sure where they are.

Have no idea why they double up.

6-6-2015

Had 13 or 14 cars at the Club meeting this morning. Nice weather is bringing them out including some new ones. Just a wee bit noisy when we are all leaving.

7-19-2015

FWIW or not worth. Did the first tracking of the Cobras mileage when I got fuel on Thursday.

Car just crossed 600 mile mark. Filled the last time at 400. Took 10.2 gallons to fill to the same point in the filler neck (don't have a nozzle restrictor). 90% of the driving was short runs 5/7 miles with a number of stops requiring a run up through the gears, limit 3500rpm.

One for 40 miles mostly in town, main streets 45mph limit with traffic lights. 60mph cruise in 5th is 2100 RPM.

Just swapped over the Torque App interface to the Cobra from the 435. Will try to get some mid throttle runs in to start checking performance. Not the best but better than a stopwatch & speedo measurement.

Putting together a CAI using the Oil Cooler inlet in the fascia. Waiting for the molded part that fits to the opening & adapts it to a 5" tube that will run back to a home made air cleanersurround box.

7-26-2015

FUN SUPERMARKET RUN.

Had an Orange Lambroghini follow me out of the local supermarket parking lot. We did 7 Rat Races on the way home. I was in front so I had a built in advantage since I got to make the start.

The Bull was never able to make up the initial spread & kept losing ground till I started to slow down.

Was hoping to get him in front for a few runs but before we got to a place to switch he turned off into his subdivision with some light flashes & wave.

Lots of fun, pretty safe location & no suicidal top end speeds. His subdivision is only a few blocks from mine so hope at some point to get a picture of both cars together.

Was fun - Based on pictures it looks like a late model Gallardo LP 550-2 - but in this instance he was under a lot of handicaps.  

Its about 1500lbs heavier, has more horsepower but less torque, needs a lot of RPM with a power power peak at 8000rpm, reacting to me instead of an even start. Side by side I would expect to beat him through 62MPH since they are rated at 3.9 seconds.

Expect it would be very close at the end of the 1/4 one way or another with the Lambo running a faster terminal speed. The Gallardo would win a 1/2 mile airport run with better aerodynamics.

8-14-2015

The Triangle Cobra Club here in Raleigh is going to run the Tail Of The Dragon in October. Have decided to upgrade brakes before hand with 13" front & 12" (Picture)Ford Cobra SVT multi-piston calipers. Using Hawk HPS & HPS+ street track day pads.

Also while the car is jacked up am building a CAI system using the oil cooler air intake on the front fascia. Have the Intake Vent to 5" flexible duct finished & a prototype (read crude) air box base finished. Will run for a week taking AIT's using the X4 tuners real time logging system

If proves to be worthwhile in keeping the AIT's down will redo the base then finish the sides & top. Cardboard is used to simulate the panels the cut into sheet aluminum. Have a small 3ft metal brake to shape the sheet metal. Exterior of the box is covered in Thermo-Tec insulation to keep heat soak down.

8-15-2015

Long winded:

The issue is not so much the tires but aerodynamics. The Cobra is a virtual brick trying to push through the air once the speed gets up into the 130's. At that speed the sleak Gallardo with more power is just beginning to roll.

In the 1/4 the Cobra will get there first but the Lambo is already going faster & will have a better MPH. In a 1/2 mile run he will be long gone.

One normal guy car that will/has outrun the Lambo in the 1/2 mile are the full bolt-on BMW 335's running Terry's JB4 systems. They dyno in the 500 whp range.

The Cobra, Dave Smith's, was about .01 second behind the Gallardo at the Las Vegas road course where Hot Rod magazine ran their tests. The course is short, about a mile, with no long straights which keeps top speed down & rewards mid range acceleration.

At VIR'S main course 4.1 miles with two longish straights, one up-hill, the fast Cobra guys are in the 145+ range before they have to brake. Those cars have aerodynamic enhancements but the guys will admit they can be scary.

World record for a Cobra, original & replica, is 198mph. Dick Smith was clocked at 198.47 at Daytona during the 1967 SCCA/ARRC Nationals.

Gordon Levy, real nice guy, who builds engines for a lot of the FFR cars was clocked at just over 181 mph at Willow in an FFR replica.

I have been up to 135mph indicated in MEXICO & it was very very interesting. Old Chinese curse, "may your life be interesting" That said the whole thing start to stop was under 1/2 mile.

Seat of the pants, bad thing so its not official, suggest 0-60 in 3.2. Really need to get off my butt & setup the Torque app for some better than butt, no pun intended, timings.

This has been posted before. The Dave Smith's red roadster is the car I copied. Both are the same except my rear tires are optimized for acceleration & his for road racing.

Really neat thing is how well the FFR home builds with a 5.0 Ford V8's can stand up to a $200,000+ exotic with a 5.2 V10.

EDIT: Not sure why the vid posted twice, DUH