[What'saCobra?]

"... you guys don't seem to quite get it, do you?"

Excuse me?

i am not quite so sure i understand what you are getting so tight about or either that i don't comprehend what you claim we don't "get".

If you mean to infer that ALL Cobras were 427's you surely know you are in serious denial about the far more 289's, not even mentioning the 427's that never were 427's but actually 428's. (Part of Shel's truth in advertizing campaign?)

If you mean the 427's were quicker on the track than the 289's, you should explain why the SCCA required the 289's to remove their Weber carbs and drop back into B production, so they wouldn't continue to harass (and pass) the A production 427 Vettes and 427 Cobras everywhere but Daytona and Sebring...

If you mean plastic copy cars, which are not real Shelby or AC Cobras, of course, that 's a different matter altogether and you may well be correct that most have very large (and very heavy) engines, even occasionally genuine 427's, but must often some sort of 428/385 series or something. Actually, about half of the plastic fantastics have never been completed, so it's hard to measure what people intended to do before they ran out of money, skill, plans and ideas all at the same time...

i don't think the small block cars were particularly unobnoxious, or unexciting, at least not to Corvettes and GTO's that encountered them in the 60's and 70's and had their buttinskis wiped. Many sb cars had great sound, but it's true that very few 289's had side pipes, and most that did were genuine race cars or certainly seriously evented.

i don't seem to recall them being quiet or subdued, but sounding pretty nice turning 7000 rpm in even high gear on street/race engines. i used to run a twin side-piped (Belangers) hot 289 on the street, with no baffles, and it was great and seriously wild.

But, then i grew up.

Seriously, what prompts you to pisour on someone else's parade, just like you harassed my good friend Nik about our "flailing around"? TK asked a very good question about which it is not so easy to get together a precise answer. Perhaps you have some information or insight about the FIA documentation of 427's you would like to contribute to the discussion? Perhaps you raced them in Europe at the time?

Why would you get tight about Trevor's experience and thoughts? i suspect he has driven more real Cobras than myself and i would imagine that qualifies him at least as an experienced opinioner.

You must certainly recognize that his street car is one of the best handling and driving toys ever built and that also forms the basis of some of his opinion. i am sure you have inquired as to what he drives, right? He deserves some gracious space for his views and doesn't need either your brow-beating big block bluster or even my justifications of his experience. Read the book.

Neither he or i would tell any 3rd party to ignore or discount your views. Even still. i thought this was an open forum. Of course, if you are now Tom's Director of Marketing you have a responsibility to tell him that these idea's are not in K company's interests, but i would then wonder why you would use this public forum with which to lend your instructions to his ear.

More likely, TK can form his own investment decisions, but is uncommonly interested in various views. Somehow, i find it hard to believe he needs a gate-keeper. How many other real Cobra Engineer types frequent these climes?

Personally, i haven't ever found it necessary to scare the women-folk and the chillin's with a lot of noisey rhetoric or cars to prove myself, but put it on the race-track, where it belongs.