Cobra upside down in a creek

[Karlo]

Looks like a Kirkham?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5go88jT5lCI

[Great Asp]

Originally Posted by elmariachi

Any Cobra upside down in a creek is sad situation. But especially a polished Kirkham.

Go to Pep Boys and buy all the Chip Foose power-balls and polish you can!

Glad the guy was not hurt bad.

E

[whichonetodrive]

that really does look like the car at the autorama, wow to bad but the damage doesnt look all that bad.

[Ralphy]

Reporters tried to go to the owners home and get a follow up story. However all they came up with, was with this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99P4Grmq8vA

[jwd]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I'm willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Apparently there was no harm done other than to the car and the driver's ego, so I'm willing to call it a broken carb return spring that locked him at full throttle. Who knows? He might have saved lives by carefully pointing his car in to the creek in order to avoid others.

If it was that simple, push in the clutch. Dah!!! I saw a great skit on you-tube about run away Prius'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ4PtafRB9c The bottom line -put it in neutral or turn off the F--King key. Maybe to expect something that simple is interfering with God's plan with weeding out the stupid ones.

[Maurice Butler]

Originally Posted by jwd

Maybe to expect something that simple is interfering with God's plan with weeding out the stupid ones.

That Darwins theory, and God don't make junk everybody has a use - even if we don't recognise it or appreciate

[392cobra]

Originally Posted by Maurice Butler

That Darwins theory, and God don't make junk everybody has a use - even if we don't recognise it or appreciate

“If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning.”

Catherine Aird

[CBattaglia]

These cars are so damn powerful and tricky, I often say to myself when I feel heavy footed "Calm down Chris, lets not make the news tonight"

One bad decision is all that it takes. Thats probably what happened here.

[jhv48]

I'll bet he flooded it!

[DMArlington]

My son and I witnessed the accident and were the first one’s on the scene. We were at a College Formula SAE racing event at UT Arlington and heard the unmistakable roar of a big block and tires squealing on the road near the event. I looked up in time to see a Cobra spin off the road backwards, disappear over the embankment and saw a huge splash.

We sprinted to the accident and saw the car upside down in the creek as the driver popped up out of the water. We made certain that he was ok, that no one else was with him and then helped him out of the creek. He said he had punched it and his foot got stuck between the throttle and brake pedal. The worst part, he explained with his head hanging down, was that the car was not his!



The owner turned out to be a local businessman that I know who had added this Kirkham 427 KMS/SC to his collection recently. He had asked one of his employees to drive it to the competition to park and display as a conversation piece.....the trip ended one block too short.

The professor that organized the Formula SAE event made it to the scene and is a good friend of the owner, so he made the call to let him know what happened. The owner is a great guy and his concern was for his employee….he said the car could be rebuilt or replaced. I volunteered to stay and work with the recovery company.

The first wrecker driver to arrive said it would not be a problem to drag the car out of the creek. I explained that it was a Cobra and that there would be no dragging involved. He said that it was just a car to him, so I told him to get on the radio and get someone out there with whatever equipment necessary to get the car back on its tires without further damage. A huge wrecker showed up and then the owner of the wrecker company came out to run the recovery.



They did a very good job and the owner was patient with my requests...put pads under the lifting chains, lift it slowly to keep the water weight from buckling the panels, don't let any body panel touch the ground (while they were flipping it end to end).......



I was amazed at how little damage there was to the car. One wheel had a portion of the lip broken off, the underside of the headers and frame were scuffed (but not badly), the trunk latch was bent, the front fender behind the driver’s front wheel was buckled and the windshield was broken. I'm sure that there is water damage to the electrical equipment, and some of that will need to be replaced. If they got the water flushed properly from the engine, trans and rear end there should not be permanent damage to any of that. I expect that there is other damage that will be found upon detailed inspection, but overall the Kirkham looked good considering what it went through.



All in all, it could have been a lot worse. The driver was not injured and the polished aluminum body was gleaming in the sunlight after they took an unexpected swim together!

DM

[Hydramada]

July 12th:
http://jalopnik.com/5584303/200k-pol...s-in-the-drink

July 13th
http://jalopnik.com/5585798/how-to-wreck-your-300k-polished-aluminum-cobra


Amazing how that Kirkham gets more expensive every day!

[HI Cobra]

DMArlington - thanks very much for posting the pics and details of the Kirkham's swim. Good thing you were there or it never would have come out looking that good. If the driver had big feet and/or big shoes it wouldn't be difficult to get tangled up with the pedals if you weren't used to them. I wear
size nine shoes and got Puma driving shoes which are skinny and make it easy.
I tried driving it with regular shoes and the pedals were close enough I had to turn my foot sideways to miss stuff. My Kirkham's pedals are like the original's
- as in close. Glad the driver wasn't hurt but I bet he is major bummed out.

[Woodz428]

Originally Posted by David Biele

Glad nobody got hurt, I just wish our Kirkhams were worth 150-200K That would be nice.

That may be what 40 some percent of the people thought was funny. I liked the "shiny silver kit car" line myself.
I see that Chevy is going to offer an option on the new 'vette that allows the owner to build their own engine...supervised of course. Will that now be a "kit car"??LOL. It looks to be close to 6K to assemble your own engine. If that's what it cost to assemble your own engine, it must be outrageous to have one of their highly skilled "technicians" do it. But shouldn't you get a discount??

[Igofastr]

Have "Sandwich" fly out with his tools...the body will be good as new by lunchtime.

[badrich]

The first thing I did when I purchased my Cobra was to do a thorough visual inspection, then install dual throttle return springs. Ask me how I knew to do this. Rich

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by badrich

The first thing I did ... install dual throttle return springs. Ask me how I knew to do this. Rich

Uhhh, you were hoping that the extra spring would help rip your foot back when it got wedged between the brake and throttle pedal?

[Jerry Clayton]

how many times at the car shows do you see guys with flip flops???

[pjmoore2003]

So once you achieve takeoff, a smooth water landing is best , preferably right side up

[RodKnock]

Originally Posted by Jerry Clayton

how many times at the car shows do you see guys with flip flops???

Hey! I wear flip flops.

[Dwight]

Thanks DM for the story and the pictures.

Dwight