RE: PH Heroes: AC Cobra

[Captain Beaky]

The original article said:

Little more than the engine was left after the car caught fire, but the owner ordered it to be rebuilt from his hospital bed, before selling it to Leach who fitted it with his now famous COB 1 number plate (which incidentally started life on a Mini).

I saw the COB 2 plated Cobra at Austec once. Very very nice and sounded great. I didn't get chance to talk to the owner (and I had already been deafened by the tuning of a friend's Griff anyway).

[varsas]

Prefer the look of the 289, people wouldn't know what it was and it's still fast enough. Possibly handled a bit better too, with the lighter engine? Not sure if i've ever seen a real one...

[collateral]

smash said:

Woah! I meant Oli S who wrote the PH Heroes review probably only gave 8/10 for the Cobra cos he didn't get the real experience from driving one! We all know it should've scored a perfect 10!

IMO the rating is a bit of a waste of time. The only cars featured in the section are all legends so rating them seems somewhat redundant to me.

[fatboy18]

[quote=smash]
I bought the first cobra I went to see - then promptly blew the engine (lost 50% of the piston skirt on one cylinder) followed by shearing the output shaft in half on the Toploader box racing a bike! Expensive lessons learned (sods law I had the 'weak' '64 Toploader!). Ended up respraying the car completely, retrimming, deblinging - should've just bought the right car in the first place! My heart still hasn't learned it's lesson as my latest Noble P4 purchase proves . . .

Now I know where your comming from Did the same thing myself, Went to look at the car in a dealers, Once they managed to start it up the noise was fantastic, almost straight through pipes!! Went for a test drive it was smoking rather badly but all rashional thoughts went completley out of the window Bought it there and then! I used to like driving it in the evenings, when you changed down through the gears, flames, crackle, and fantastic engine noise used to come from the side pipes

[dotdog]

ok..so which is reckoned to be the best kit to buy then??

[Miguel]

varsas said:

Prefer the look of the 289, people wouldn't know what it was and it's still fast enough. Possibly handled a bit better too, with the lighter engine? Not sure if i've ever seen a real one...

Funny you should say that people wouldn't know what a 289 Cobra was. Well over ten years ago, I was at a small auto show at a local mall here in the US. One of the cars on display was an AC Ace. As I looked at the car, I could hear people talking about it, and no one seemed to have a clue as to what it could possibly be. One person even mentioned the Cobra, but from his conversation, couldn't make the connection between the cars.

One thing the article doesn't mention is that the later seven liter cars have an altogether different chassis made by Shelby. So it's not just a matter of coil versus leaf springs in the back, but a whole new frame. In England, they also sold some of the new chassis Cobras fitted with the 289 instead of the 427 or 428 that all later chassis had in the States.

Miguel

[Tony427]

dotdog said:

ok..so which is reckoned to be the best kit to buy then??

How long is a piece of string?

Are you going to build it yourself, or buy ready built/ secondhand? Whats the budget? Track day car or cruiser? Authenticity important or bling? Boat anchor cast iron V8 or modern EFI V8? Distributor at front, at back or no distributor at all? Underslungs or "burnt flesh" sidepipes ?

I'm building my third AK so I'm biased but there are other kit manufacturers out there.

Cheers,

Tony

[runt]

dotdog said:

ok..so which is reckoned to be the best kit to buy then??

Depends on the budget, are you looking to build or buy a completed car,you'll be spoilt for choice with maybe a dozen UK kits, then of course which engine, type of use you're looking at; road, track, or both..

Paul.

ETA.. Tony beat me to it!

Edited by runt on Monday 7th April 21:49

[fatboy18]

dotdog said:

ok..so which is reckoned to be the best kit to buy then??

Well it seems to be a buyers market out there at the moment! Theres plenty for sale on PH. My advice would be to go to a few club meets have a good look around. Personally in the current climate if you have the cash available you could make some silly offers, leave your phone number and see what comes up The book by Ian Sent called Cobra Replicas covers most of the european kits, and is worth a flick through. I would also talk to Peter Jones of the Cobra rep club, he's full of tips and information on cob's. As others have said on here, its all a question of budget! My prefrence was the Dax as I liked the interior layout and the wider air intake in the hood, Also the engine is set back close to the bulkhead which I think ballances the car better. But as ive said thats just me! Good Hunting

Edited by fatboy18 on Monday 7th April 22:57

[Chainguy]

Any opinions on the Gardner Douglas machine?

I'm hopefully going to be off this work contract and onto something that gives me more time next year, and I'm serious about putting a car together. The GD kit gives me a semi in the looks/PR side of it, but real world?

Any opinions welcome please

[smash]

varsas said:

Prefer the look of the 289, people wouldn't know what it was and it's still fast enough. Possibly handled a bit better too, with the lighter engine? Not sure if i've ever seen a real one...

The 289 is the real reason the cobra is such a legend, it's successor the 427 wasn't particularly succesful as I understand. Your tastes are always changing I guess but my fav is currently the 289 FIA (by a gnats!)

[dinkel]

289's:

Bryants HEM6


Bernard Peruch's small block thunderbolt.

[fatboy18]

Chainguy said:

Any opinions on the Gardner Douglas machine?

I'm hopefully going to be off this work contract and onto something that gives me more time next year, and I'm serious about putting a car together. The GD kit gives me a semi in the looks/PR side of it, but real world?

Any opinions welcome please

As I said in my earlier post, have a look at the book Cobra Replicas, The book gives you a breakdown of most of the big players in the cobra rep market. I have a friend of mine who works in a garage up north, his boss has built 2 or 3 GD's which I beleive he sells on. As far as im aware these are nice cars, but as I also stated earlier its a question of Budget!

[dinkel]

How much or an original Cob, how much for a decent rep . . .

It has to have an 8 in though . . .

[fatboy18]

Speak to Rod Leach about originals, I reckon the nearest to original cobra rep has to be Hawk cars, they make replicas of the Ace and 289 they are also the european agent for the aluminium bodied Kirkham 289FA and the 427SC COBRAS...Start at 18k and go from there! Hawk cars are normaly at the Detling Kit car show in kent,which I think is this weekend comming!

[dotdog]

ta for the tips..

[Chainguy]

fatboy18 said:

Chainguy said:

Any opinions on the Gardner Douglas machine?

I'm hopefully going to be off this work contract and onto something that gives me more time next year, and I'm serious about putting a car together. The GD kit gives me a semi in the looks/PR side of it, but real world?

Any opinions welcome please

As I said in my earlier post, have a look at the book Cobra Replicas, The book gives you a breakdown of most of the big players in the cobra rep market. I have a friend of mine who works in a garage up north, his boss has built 2 or 3 GD's which I beleive he sells on. As far as im aware these are nice cars, but as I also stated earlier its a question of Budget!

I've now ordered the book, and looking forward to a good read. At the risk of sounding gauche, the budget is not a question or a problem, as with everything I do I just want to be the best I can. Also, it needs to have a donkey like this in it to be the real deal (in my eyes):

http://www.proformanceunlimited.com/specs/460_514_...

With the £/$ ratio, it'd be madness not to, and having seen a similarly equipped Cobra replica rip the living ar$e off a tuned up, big turbo'd 911 around a track a few years back, it sounds like a recipe for giant killing fun for around £30k all in.

[runt]

That 460 block would have featured in a full size sedan ie Mercury Brougham, Ford T-Bird etc in another life, its extremely heavy so in a Cobra replica, steering/balance will be compromised, many many V-8 options available, but that one might not be your best choice; boat anchor!

Paul/runt.

[Chainguy]

runt said:

That 460 block would have featured in a full size sedan ie Mercury Brougham, Ford T-Bird etc in another life, its extremely heavy so in a Cobra replica, steering/balance will be compromised, many many V-8 options available, but that one might not be your best choice; boat anchor!

Paul/runt.

Thanks Paul, appreciate the heads up. I always thought it really needed to be 8 litres and above for a Cobra rep, hence why that choice. Also, as I say, I say a Cobra rep years back with an 8+litre in it utterly rip the head off everything else it was tracking against. Hence why the love for them

Edited to say, I'll look at this bad laddy then:

http://www.proformanceunlimited.com/specs/428_525H...

Edited by Chainguy on Tuesday 8th April 21:09

[dinkel]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?mem...

Wayne has a 460 Torino in . . . Not a bad drive at all!