Quote:
Originally Posted by Excaliber
...Man, wasn't Peter Brock something when "back in the day" with a limited understanding of CD he designed the Coupe!
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Ole Pete was one sharp dude. He actually did a great deal of personal research into airflow and clean automotive design before he implemented it in the real world we know as the Daytona Cobra.
He studied the work of Professor Kamm quite thoroughly before the Daytona design was put to chalk on the floor and plywood on the chassis. To have the insight and also the where-with-all to go from concept to real world vehicle while part of an active racing effort is extraordinary. To do it in 90 days is unbelievable!
The concept and actual car design are a testament to both the vision and also just how far ahead of the pack Peter Brock was in those years. To knock on the door of 200 mph in that type of vehicle in the middle sixties speaks volumes about just how good those hotroders that took on Ferrari and the rest of the European racing elite really were.
Three other men played pivotal roles during that brief but intense development period. One was Shelby's Chief Engineer Phil Remington who could make anything out of almost nothing and one was Ken Miles who shook down and sorted the bugs out of the concept car that became one of the actual race cars.
Ken Miles was one of those very special drivers that had enormous talent, stamina and the ability to put into words what he discovered driving the car. Peter and Phil would take those cockpit reports and translate them into design refinements that continuously improved the car.
The Daytona exceeded everyone's expectations but not right out of the gate at the first track test. It took about a thousand miles of Ken Miles test driving and the third man John Collins who would ride shotgun without a seat to get the bugs worked out. When they were about done Ken lapped Riverside with a 183 mph pace that no one believed especially Ken, when the crew told him the car had a 3.73 (reported) ring and pinion.
When the axle ratio was verified back at the shop that was all it took. The new Daytona would go to Europe to do battle with Ferrari. By the time they got to Le Mans the last few reliability problems had been sorted out and the 180 mph Ferraris had a 196 mph Daytona to deal with on the Mulsanne straight.
Peter Brock's design came within a whisker of 200 mph in 1964. Impressive by any standard and a testament to the skills and ingenuity of those hotrodders from Southern California who wrote those special pages of automotive history.
A much better rendition of the Daytona and the rest of the Cobra story is on the Snake and Stallion DVD from Spirit Level Films.
Ed