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Old 01-12-2011, 12:05 PM
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Buzz Buzz is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: St. Lucia, West Indies, WI
Cobra Make, Engine: Unique 427SC 383 stroker
Posts: 3,767
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On Cobras with a traditional rear-braced roll bar, the support leg generally gets in the way of a reasonably functional folding top. My car has a froward braced bar and I have on occasion folded the top, frame and all, back to rest on top of the rear cowl, rear of the top snapped in place and the whole thing held tight by three velcro straps run between the lift-dot fasteners. It worked ok, but really only serves to allow you to take the top along without using up the trunk space.

Erecting it from that position is marginally faster and easier than pulling it out of the trunk as the rear is already snapped on and you don't have the PITA of wrestling the frame/bow assembly through the eyelets in the underside of the fabric. It's convenient for trips in iffy weather, but looks ugly and I rarely ever do it. In fact, I rarely bother to take the top with me at all. Its just as easy to pull over someplace where you can shelter out the shower and use the tonneau cover on the car.

Having said that, I see no reason why a creative person couldn't design a workable folding top assembly for a Cobra. Heck, if you have a forward braced bar or no bar at all, you could go whole hog and cut an opening hatch in the rear cowl and have a top that disappears completely from view!

Quote:
Also, If there are any other suggestions for things to look for in a car that will be driven as much as possible, I would love peoples opinion. For example, are their certain manufacturers that produce a car that can merge with authority yet still feel like you can spend hours in the car without needing back surgery?
Cobras are by nature bare bones, white-knuckle, crap-your-pants and laugh out loud kinda cars. There's not much else to compare them to - that's how different they are. Any decent Cobra will merge with authority, but unless you are a small-framed fellow, the thin, low back seats and the low sills/cowls preclude any possibility of real creature comfort.

People do put high-backed seats in and some manufacturers stretch and distort the body shape to get more room, but you are then driving less of a Cobra and more of some other thing. As for the way these modifications look, I'll keep my opinion to myself (**choke**barf#%) (just kidding guys)

Bottom line - if you have to make so many modifications to a Cobra to make it palateable to you, then as was said above, you may want to shop for something else already designed with your needs in mind.
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Last edited by Buzz; 01-12-2011 at 12:22 PM..
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