It’s always fun anticipating something either on the door step or in the mail box. Yesterday was one of those days. I’ve been looking at either making or purchasing a “correct” style shift lever for my car to replace the Hurst Indy lever installed in the car when built. I was perusing Mark Reid’s Kirkham thread over on ffcars.com and happened to notice he appeared to have a replica t-handle shift lever he wasn’t going to be using that would be a direct bolt-on for my TKO, so after a PM/Paypal exchange I had this (Thanks, Mark!):
This is what I had before….the Hurst Indy shift lever:
I plan to further adjust the T-handle lever’s height a bit. It’s a little long as supplied for my application.
So I mentioned in another thread that I was going to look into making a set of “competition” pipes over this Winter….and by “competition” I mean “open”, no baffles. I have no other reason for this than to bring more “hooligan” into the driving experience. My goal for the end of this week, was to have the transmission removal procedure complete so that I could road test. Since it was effort to put the pipes back on, I decided I would do my road test with the open headers to get a feel for the level of obnoxiousness of open pipes.
So to set the scene, buy the time I had the car down off the jack stands and the shift lever installed, it was after dark. I warned the family that I was about to make a lot of racket after poking my head in from the garage and then proceeded to push the car out into the driveway.. Easing down into the seat, I flipped over the battery cut-out switch, got the accelerator pumps squirting, and hit the starter. It had been a few weeks since starting the car, so it coughed and farted a bit, but it eventually caught and the un-baffled explosions coming from the 3” collectors proceeded to echo off the surrounding pines. The air was cool and the night was dark, so with a flip of the main beams, I headed out the drive and down the neighborhood road to the main road.. The engine was still getting used to the fact it was combusting fuel by the time I made a left onto the dark, cornfield lined stretch of asphalt. After that, I just couldn’t hold back the smile on my face. Up through the gears at a full song, the 347 was making such an obnoxious, socially irresponsible noise, yet it was frenetically exhilarating. …..and the deers? Loud pipes save lives. That socially irresponsible part does give me pause though when considering the use of baffles in my “competition” pipes. I can always use ear plugs, but there’s going to have to be an experimentation period to get to a dB level of perceived acceptability – a subjective argument for sure.
So after pulling in the garage, I put the car to bed and headed in to the dining room where my wife and two little girls were eagerly awaiting a sample of their first efforts with a new Easy Bake Oven. My oldest, now nearly 6, is doing a fantastic job with her reading, so we made it into a little celebration. For her, it’s the dawning of an expanded world, and for me, a Cobra that’s back on its feet.
Cheers!
- Allen.