First drive.... world's largest hood scoop Cobra comes alive!!!

[750hp]

There's light at the end of the tunnel, and it's as bright as the new LED shift light that OZVENOM recently installed for me.

I DROVE MY CAR TODAY!!!!!

Well, I put it in gear and drove it out into Scott's backyard. A combination of a twitchy throttle pedal (or operator), moist grass and a fully locked "spool" rear end led to the inevitable loss of traction on the lawn. I'm sure that Scott and his wife Ros will see the funny side of their new trench eventually. Never mind Scott's voice on the video calling out to "Do it again!"

While it won't be of much direct consequence to all you guys in the US, I have to mention the time and effort that Scott (OZVENOM) put into this car over the last two years. Specifically, the last two weeks have been an intense effort to get the car completed and on the road. He has a business to run - Venom Custom Fabrications - and he has made himself available to work fulltime on my car, quite possibly at the risk of losing other customer jobs. I literally would not have seen this project through to completion without Scott's efforts, and for that I am forever grateful.

Not grateful enough to let his own twin turbo, all wheel drive quad cam Cobra project beat me on a racetrack, but very grateful nonetheless.

I have uploaded about 12 other photos into my Gallery.

[RACERAL]

I have been looking around at some of you guys cars and motors from down under.. YOU GUYS ARE NUTS... what the heck would you guys be like if you could get your hands on the stuff we have acess to... cool , very cool... pop the hood on that sucker

[M & M]

Only one problem......... your steering wheel is mounted on the wrong side!



Nice ride, be safe!

Mike

[4RE KLR]

I was thinking the very same thing!

I see you managed to use your Cobra for a tiller to!

[KobraKarl]

Great concept, and beautiful execution !....................one word .....rhinoplasty

[Buzz]

Awesome machine, Craig! I can't wait for you and Scott to get these 2 monsters out on the track for a good flogging so we can see how they perform! Great work.

[Cal Metal]

Shades of Mel Gibson in the "Mad Max" genre.

[Excaliber]

Mad Max about covers it all right.

Those Aussies are a twisted bunch.

....that is one killer Cobra!

Ernie

[wilf leek]

Great news Craig, how the heck do you see the road past that scoop?

And BTW - ignore the barbs about the steering wheel being on the wrong side - looks fine to me!

[CSX 4027]

Nice color. Looks great. Very different.
Does that run on gas or Yeast??

[KobraKarl]

Steve , thats a tough one , but on the track i'll bet you are "toast"!!

[CSX 4027]

Toast with marmalade with a spot of tea.

[750hp]

RACERAL - the way the Aussie dollar exchange rate has dived over the last couple of years really hurt me. In the time it took for the motor to be shipped from California to Australia, the exchange rate fell by 10%. That meant the amount of taxes and duties payable rose by the same amount. The government charge you based on the US exchange rate at the time of the parts arriving.....

M&M and 4RE, If you have a look at my photo gallery, you'll see my central dash layout. If I got the steering location wrong, at least the gauges look the same from the left or right hand side! The steering wheel is a quick release unit - maybe I should mount a second steering column on the left side so that I don't feel out of place when I ship it to next year's Fling. Wilf's on the right track though - it looks fine just the way it is.

Wilf, put it this way - I was going to get Scott to lay the seat back a little further until we realised how high the scoop sat It's funny - I think of it as a scoop, but where does the scoop finish and the bonnet start?!?!?

Karl and Steve - very funny! Nobody told us that we shouldn't mix self raising flour with fiberglass resin....

Cal - The Mad Max Cobra - I like it. This supercharger is rotating all the time though. No Hollywood style "clutch-driven" blower for me!

Buzz - I'll know how it feels on a racetrack within the next week or two. There's a track about 20 minutes from home that you can pay $70- and have access to the track for half a day. We'll hopefully head out there and do a full and thorough systems check, play with suspension settings and generally run the diff and transmission gears in, bed in the brake pads and rotors, check the thermal and aero efficiency of radiator / intercooler / trans cooler etc, etc. All the things that would be impossible to do properly on a public street.

Erinie - Maybe slightly twisted, but in a nice way!

Craig

[ac andy]

Looks great Craig, well done mate.

Andy.

[snakeeyes]

Delightfully frightful! I get a lot of comments about seeing around the hood bulge on my Lister--yours makes mine look like a bubble in the paint ...

[Tongue Pirate]

You Aussie's sure spend a lot of dough on your Lawnmowers

[Jamo]

Congrats!

Others have already said--you suckers ARE a crazy bunch.

[Fred Douglass]

Craig,
Truly electrifyin' cullah, mite! However, we antipodal types would have to make TWO alterations: 1) wheel to the left and,
2) since we're in the udder hemisphere, reverse the hood scoop, of course. An OZ friend of mine told me that allayoo from Dow-Nundah with THAT much horsepower HAVE to have the scoop facing aft---ingesting a 'roo could ruin an otherwise perfect drive!

Terrific chariot,