289 street car

[conway]

Anyone have any pictures of 289 street cars with wire wheels ?

Which company makes a 289 street car ?

Thanks, Conway

[casaleenie]

Just a guess, but I'll bet ERA does it.... and possibly Unique..

[snakeeyes]

If you're looking for pictures of CSX2000-series street Cobras, check out Dave Friedman's "Shelby Cobra" book, or Rinsey Mills' new "AC Cobra" book. If you want some shots of a 289 replica in street trim, you can click on my photo gallery.

Bob

[luke-44]

here is a pic of a wire wheeled Cobra from ERA's website

http://www.erareplicas.com/fia/wwcar.htm

[ST]

Shelby American makes a nice little 289 slabside.
CSX8000 series.
http://www.csxinfo.net/289cobra/csx8000/8002/index.htm

[REDSC400]

ERA and Shelby American both make nice 289 street cars. At the recent (early September) Lyme Rock Antique Sports Car weekend, I was able to see examples of both. To be frank, they were indistinguishable from each other from the exterior. Both are glass, both had under chasis exhaust and wire wheels. The owner of the ERA however did spend extra time in finding exact old tires and wheels, a 260 CI engine, and Lucas LU700 headlamps and such. Thus the ERA IMHO was just a perfect reproduction, right down to the short shifter. The only thing wrong with both cars was the paint quality. In fact it was TOO GOOD vs some of the original unrestored paint jobs I had seen on true CX2xxx cars.

The ERA car was a turnkey ERA for the most part if memory serves as was the SA.

The Shelby American was also nice, but lacked the fine detail or attention to detail and also had the SA badge and the ubiquitous Carroll Shelby signature on the dashboard facia. I personally think that the badge and signature detract from the total effect, but hey that's just me. Obviously, the lucky owner liked it that way (I hope). It had repro wire wheels and egg crate grille with full bumpers.

Both cars had perfect engine compartments, all nice and neat, again totally unlike the early CX2xxx's.

Good Luck, the 260/289 roadster street car is a nice project and one I would like to undertake some day.

[Bob Putnam]

Just to be perfectly accurate, the ERA FIA, street version, is not a replica of the Shelby "slab-side" 260/289 car. That car never had flares in street trim. Our car does have some resemblance to several cars from AC (for domestic consumption) that had FIA flares on the street trimmed cars. I think that the Rinsley Mills book had a couple of pictures of those cars.

[conway]

Thanks for all the info and help

Conway

[SPF604]

Unique Motorcars has a 289 model replica. I think a Unique 289 was used by BF Goodrich on one of their tire posters.

http://www.uniquemotorcars.com

[Tongue Pirate]

If one is talking street car I always think slabside. Most of the Companies that make the "flared fender" version of the 289 car make pretty decent cars that can be trimmed out to resemble a nice street looking car. It really is just a matter of personal taste. Good Luck

[Excaliber]

I think the "flares" on the reproduction FIA's are TO smooth. I like the look of the more "angular" seen on some of the originals. Back in the day when they WERE original, not restored with "perfect" smooth fender flares as is common today.

Ernie

[decooney]

The Unique Motorcars 289 / BFG poster car is a FIA version, not a street or slabside version. Unique makes a FIA and 427 SC style. However, because of the way Unique does their FIA fender flaring, you might be able to make their FIA into a hybrid style street car reasonably, but I've not seen one yet with undercar exhaust and the sidepipe cutouts filled. Would be interesting to see how it would turn out.

JCF - John's Custom Fabrication in Coos Bay Oregon also makes a decent slabside. A good friend has one and its a neat little car.

[Cal Metal]

Ask Snakeeyes to post a picture of his JCF. Stunning looking car. They are so clean looking compared to the other FIA/427 types.

[jamvan]

Conway:

Feel free to check out pictures of my street 289 from ERA. My wires are Dayton's (Jag).

jamvan

[snakeeyes]

[snakeeyes]

One more of the JCF. Sorry about the size of these photos but I'm not smart enough to figure out how to reduce them:

[nikbj68]

..don`t forget the HAWK 289. These look stunningly original, as Gerry Hawkridge is well known to be an absolute perfectionist.


I don`t know how you would go about getting one from the UK to the US, but I`m sure it`s do-able.
HAWK are the UK/Europe distributors for Kirkham, by the way.

[Cal Metal]

There was a Hawk for sale on CCountry a year or so ago. It had been built and owned by Hawkridge. The only glitch is that it had a Rover engine installed. From all appearences, it was really a great car. 6,000 miles and some very original components that are hard to find today. It was advertised in Canada. I talked to the owner and gave some thoughtful consideration to buying it. I think it went for around $22,000 (US).

[Tongue Pirate]

Aren't those little cars Cute

[nikbj68]

What is the 'glitch' with the Rover(Buick) engine? Size, originality, unreliability, parts availability?

OK, Everyone would (probably!!) rather have a 289 sat in there, but on our side of the pond, that (or even a 302) is a lot harder to come by.

In it`s defense, and bearing in mind that our Petrol (Gas) costs five and a half bucks per gallon(imperial...of course!), You could quite easily expect to get 30+ mpg on a run and 15+ mpg when giving it some boot.

We laugh in the face of the thirsty 427 s/o brigade and their 6-12 mpg.