[What'saCobra?]

Swell! What a fine story about the lady ACEer. Who was she and does she still breathe? What a heroine!

The mallet thingy could well be so, though vaguely apocryphal. I've seen them using the mallet and leather bean bags on hinges and lids during normal construction after Brian took them for his test circuit.

An additional 100in3 from the first 260 FORD likely created an additional 100ft.lbs. of torque on the somewhat lightly gusseted original ladder frame designed for perhaps 120 ft.lb. in total. Nearly a 50% overload does not bode well for maintaining the initial geometry. Which is why the chassis got upgrades, by AC, at AC and designed by AC, as well as suggestions from the SA organization and their subsequent race experience. Some upgrades only happened at the tracks in the USA and later in prep. for Le Mans and the Targa and never even made the street production cars.

You all likely know that the vertical spring towers in both the front and rear were seriously strengthened in addition to an upgrade to the larger Salisbury specification rear axle. You may not have noticed, unless you are here a while, that the Daytonas had a rather complex "bridge truss" under the aly gearbox covers, surrounding the transmission, that ran from the rear upright to the front upright, increasing frame stiffness very significantly. Very cool.

In europe, even FIA 289 roadsters might contain this structure (I've seen one for sure), since it was approved on the FIA Daytona chassis as a mere "variance"; not unlike the hugely different and very unique aero body of Pete Brock fame, which was also just considered a variance of the type of 289.

Ferrari fumed about the Daytona shape being approved, but he had no success with his complaint. HE was entering a few GTOs himself, way under the usual minimum quantities. Normal behavior for il Commendatore. To keep from losing the World Manufacturer's Championship to Shelby, he had the Monza race organizers cancel the race. But, that is another bigger story.

Yep, CS just couldn't stand it that AC got ANY credit for anything at all. His disrespect for others efforts is rather legendary, including those of his own people, who excelled despite they frequently had to go around him. But, we know he had his hat in hand when he went beggaring for credit and completed chassis from the Brits.

They only added engines and transmissions, for pete's sake.

But, they raced the cars and did that so very well, it made it possible to retail the street cars, despite the fact that there were many occasions of bait-and-switch on whatever engine spec you might actually get. I suppose no one cared if they got either a 427 or a 428? Don't you believe it! The 428's were considered a serious sign that SA was going downhill and pushing any old FORD stuff.

CS was bailing on instructions from FORD and he could care less to screw with these mothers that wouldn's sell anymore. Why? Perhaps because of the 428 bait and switch, for one thing. Had the right opportunity arrived over the transom, an insurance claim would have solved the inventory problem.

But, as we know, the SC was born out of this adversity. Everybody knew it was a kit of bits, but it was at least interesting and they only had a hundred or so to dump. Not all were SC's, of course. They would push whatever the dealer/buyer would gulp.

These bits were the leftovers from the early attempt to make 100 race cars to safisfy the FIA requirements and homologate the 427 for FIA competition, in the production category and not just in the far more competitive Sports Car (think of Sports Race) that they couldn't possibly win.