[john chesnut]

Very interesting thread. Weight is obviously a huge determining factor in final performance. Of equal importance is the suspension design, gearing, open or locking diff, tires, driver, and how much you are willing to abuse the car to achieve the ultimate time. As speed increases the horsepower required to over come aerodynamic drag goes up exponetially. If your car tops out at 150 you need to approximately double the horsepower to make 200.
I never considered the Cobra to be about drag racing. I want a great handling, accelerating, steering, and braking car. The lighter the weight the better the potential to excel in these areas you have. To reach that potential you need to have a torsionally stiff chassis, the proper suspension geometry and other parts. You can have all of the horsepower in the world and still have a car that is fairly slow and drives like crap.
I run fairly low horsepower in my cars, about 400hp at the crank and can beat most high horsepower cars in the drags but where they excel is on the road courses. To me, that is where the fun is! John