[eschaider]

Something that hasn't been spoken to very much in this thread, other than Tom above, is the effect of Trailing Torque Oversteer, what Tom called Trailing Throttle Oversteer. Trailing Torque Oversteer is what happens when you get off the throttle and Trailing Throttle Oversteer is what happens when you injudiciously get on the throttle. Both occur in turns.

Years ago when I was even dumber than I am today, a friend and I were in his Pinto with his newly swapped 351 Cleveland. He was getting after it in first gear when I decided to have some fun. I reached down between the seats and grabbed the emergency brake lever and yanked it up, momentarily loading the front tires and unloading the rear tires. The pinto swapped ends and we were traveling backwards smoking the tires under full throttle. It was pretty exciting for all of us — not to mention pretty stupid.

Although our Cobra's have 50% to 52% of their weight on the rear tires, on a 2400lb car that is only about. 1250 lbs, in round numbers or 625 lbs per tire. When you down shift or brake for a turn you shift a significant percentage of that weight to the front tires, unloading the rear tires. If you have a 'typical' replica engine in your Cobra, it is somewhere north of 450HP. A rear tire with 400 lbs or less down force has no chance whatsoever of hooking up that power and just like my friend's Pinto will swap ends on you in a New York minute, if not quicker, gloriously smoking those tires.

In your Cobra if you attempt to downshift without paying attention to rev matching the engine to the car speed in the new gear, the weight transfer and the engine braking torque applied to the rear tires will cause them to loose traction and just like my old friend in his Pinto you will find yourself looking the wrong way while you car is going the other way — it is Trailing Torque Oversteer in all it magnificent horror. BTW this frequently terminates with a crash!

Why all the words? With a manual you can disengage the clutch and with a little luck allow the car to regain some of its balance. You can even judiciously employ the brakes to get the car under control. With an automatic you need to put it in neutral to get the same vehicle control back. Putting a car in neutral at speed and out of control is not a natural thing for most drivers to do. Pushing in a clutch is.

Auto's can make the car enjoyable for in town motoring and highway cruising. As you begin to push the edge of your car's performance envelope, wherever that edge is, you will find yourself further and further out on the thin ice and eventually that ice will break. Traveling backwards at speed with the rear tires smoking will scare the daylights out of you the first couple of times — this is by almost any standard a bad idea.

The manual transmissions are actually the 'safer version of the car' to drive, if there is such a thing.