[Tommy]

As we seem to be wandering off topic a bit, I'll add two things. First, when power and traction get high enough, something in the driveline has got to give. For a street car I prefer the weak point to be the tires. I'd much rather have to back off the throttle to keep the tires from breaking loose than to twist an axle. . . Second, I find it hard to believe that anyone who buys a Cobra doesn't have an ego with regard to engine power and performance, even if they never actually make use of all of it. For example, peak horsepower makes a difference in performance only at wide open throttle when approaching the car's maximum speed. Before that it is torque that defines performance. Yet many Cobra owners who will never approach maximum speed have paid an extra $20K for an engine with a big dyno peak HP number just so they can talk about it with friends and strangers. . . Is that a wise use of money? Probably not, but it is very much the way most of us on this forum think. Cobras are immensely impractical cars so it is completely sensible that those who own them want impractical amounts of engine power.

Mark Donohue said, "If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower." I doubt his quote would have been remembered if he had said, " .. you don't have enough traction."