What's It Like to Drive 600hp?

[TerrysSPF]

Like many others that have posted, I have had my share of high HP cars in the past, including a Chevelle set up for drag racing that put out about 900HP w/ 4.88 rear. The Cobra is by FAR the scariest car I've ever owned or driven. I've gone through 2 different driving schools (one was a BMW school and you drove your own car, and the other was Bob Bondurant's school where they provided different vehicles.......VERY fun, by the way, and your learn A LOT.)...........NOTHING will prepare you for a 600HP Cobra though. They will turn on you in a heart beat if you aren't carefull. PATIENCE is all I can say to you.........don't just jump in thinking all you have to do is floor the gas pedal if you want to "go fast". Feather it, and take it easy until you get used to it. 600HP.......90 inch wheel base.......low performance 15" tires....... brakes that are too small........all these things add up to TROUBLE. Play nice, and be patient with her, and they can add up to FUN.
Be SAFE and be HAPPY.

[Hal Copple]

i have been face to face once with a 765 hp SPF. I can't imagine how fearful that would be for me to ever drive. A few days ago, drove on a trip, say 150 miles or so, much on wet roads, so i was very very careful with all pedal applications, very dainty, and i imagine a car like mine with a hundred more hp, (i have probably about 450 or so hp, engine), would be like mine on wet roads.

In other words, i had to be so cautious, so careful, that it was taxing and not really "fun" on the wet roads, and i don't think i would enjoy having to drive like that all the time.

I want a little more power, but not much. Always just a little more. A wee bit.

By my car has to idle, cruise, start easily, and so forth, and the more powerful a motor is, the more tempermental it is.

I think anything over about 500 hp in these cars begins to reduce the everyday pleasure of driving them, i guess.

[Cosworth_Ken]

Last December I had a chance to drive a 2003 Lola Champ Car.
The car (with me in it) weighed in at about 1700 lbs. The Cosworth engine was set (boost wise) to 800 HP. Brakes were better than you could ever imagine or ask for.
Had to get on the throttle smooth and careful!
This thing pulled like it was going into light speed!
50 mph to 150 mph took just over 2.3 seconds!
Stopped even better.
Way cool.
My Cobra felt like a dog after that.....
Ken

[clayfoushee]

Very, very wise advice here from TerrySPF, Hal Copple and others.....and even wiser to heed their advice. Do you want a street car or an exhibition vehicle...that's the basic choice? Anything above ~400HP at the rear wheels in these cars is a monster to handle, can kill you very fast, and is much more prone to being a "hangar queen" as we say in the airplane biz. If you want the exhibition thing....just do it in a safe place.

[coyled]

speed 220, your comment about lifting off the throttle in a corner. At least in mine, if I lift off the throttle in a corner, I will get trailing throttle oversteer and the rear comes around faster than the spin caused by too much throttle in the corner. In a corner, you can breath off the trhottle slightly but I would never jump out of the throttle unless I'm allready sideways. Scott

[scottj]

Scott,
How much rear % w/driver do you run?
What did Pro-Shocks put in for valving?
If you don't mind me asking.

Scott

[coyled]

Scott, 52% in the rear with driver, static. The current valving in the fronts are 4 in bump, 8 in rebound. The rears are 5 in bump and 8 in rebound. The minumum is 1 and the max is 9 in both bump and rebound. They added rebound last time and I am considering going with some more as it helped stabilize the platform. Scott

[scottj]

Scott,

They put c5/r7(non-adjustable), front and rear, in mine.

Have you ever calculated your wheel rates?

To get mine to hook up I've got 170# rear wheel rate, 260# front wheel rate and 55.5% rear w/driver.
Scott

[Johan]

I need to get a matched set of shocks too....
I 've got 1 Koni, 1 spax, and two midas air shocks with the rubber things jammed in the springs.
Shocks are often overlooked and underestimated in the performance pecking order. Price a set of new shocks for a race car and see for yourself how important they are.
I would say that if you can understand the above two posts, you arew ready for 500 +horses, and if not, stay with a street motor.

[scottj]

Johan,

I've been running Penske double adjustables on my race car because I can revalve them myself. They are a very consistent shock. I would love to have them on the Cobra but since they almost bankrupt me I have to stick with the Pro Shocks on it. Shocks made a huge difference on my Cobra.
Scott

Scott

[coyled]

Scott, My fronts are close to 200 not including the bar. The rear is right at 200 with no rear bar. I am thinking about going much stiffer in front. I think that the narrow track and low roll center are causing the front of the cobra to fall over on the outside tire while cornering. I want it to turn in better and still get the power down. Pro shocks is pretty good about working with you on shock adjustments. You do have to pull them and send them in though. If I had it to do over again, I would spend the money and get some Penske's. Scott

[TerrysSPF]

Shocks DO make a huge difference on a Cobra, but it might be something W. Mitty would have to wait on after purchasing a new Kirkham and a BB! ;-) Perhaps the Kirkhams have a Shock / Suspension upgrade that you can talk to them about (?).
I have a buddy in Ohio with an older SPF and he has the Olthoff Bilstein's and sway bar. Made a HUGE difference compared to his AVO's. Mine handled better than his did (when he had the AVO's) and I have a BB and he has a SB stroker. Mine came with Bilstein Coil Overs and H&R springs from the factory........but I hear the Olthoff Bilsteins are even better, and is still worth getting on newer SPF's as well.

[Cobranut]

The cars Bill has are Unique's. Ernie built the motors, of course.

The one belonging to Bill Goldberg has a dry-sump small-block stroked to 454ci. It dyno'd at 898 HP, all motor.

Unique's rear suspension seems to handle high HP better than most, but there's still a limit to what is usable.

Originally posted by Johan


This horsepower stuff just kills me. 750 hp (the previous poster) knows what he is doing,and has been doing it a long time, but not everyone can handle that much power in such a light car.
Bill Elliott has a Cobra replica (actually a couple ) in his hanger ( I 'm pretty sure one of them belongs to the wrestler Goldberg),and for engines they have Earnie Elliott 358's and jericos for transmissions. Bill took a friend of mine up and down the runway in it and ATE a set of tires in 5 minutes. I declined when it was my turn for a ride, and Bill said "thank Gawd, that thing scares me, 4th is no better than 3rd".
The thing has sat there for three years now with two flat rear tires. I think it is around 780 hp.
The car will really only transmit a certain amount of horsepower to the rear wheels in a tractable fashion, and beyond that point horsepower is not your friend.
I removed my 13.5 to 1 pistons and changed my cam to make my car more street drivable and allow the use of less octane, and have the added benefit of a more durable, longer lasting engine. Cup car motors last a matter of hours between rebuilds, not miles or years.
My opinion is to plop in a nice durable high revving engine of your choice and don't get caught up in the horsepower wars.
500 is a LOT,
It is sort of like breasts, more than a handful is a waste.
A few comparisons:
A Military Humvee has to tote 34.66 lbs per 1 horsepower
Porsche RSR 4.95 lbs /horse
gt40 mkI 4.94 lbs/horse
500 hp Cobra (3200#s) 6.4 lbs /horse
600 hp Cobra 5.3 lbs. / horse
700 hp Cobra 4.57 lbs/ horse
800 hp Cobra 4.0 lbs / horse
Lola Can Am (1575 lbs., 610 horse) 2.58 lbs. / horse
Porsche 917 Can Am (1450 hp, 1650 lbs) 1.14 lbs / horse.

The rear and mid engine cars take the horsepower great because of weight transfer during accelleration. The Cobra does not have any weight back there, except the gas tank, which on some cars was 42 gallons.

I'm not attempting to cut down the guys with high horsepower cars, because they might dragrace them, or be engine gurus, or know what they are doing. I'm just saying be careful.

[TERRY M KRYSTOFIAK]

600HP IS ALOT OF HP FOR A COBRA. WHILE I HAD 650 AND 640 FTLBS ON THE ENGINE DYNO, HAVE NO IDEA OF REAR WHEELS. MY CAR WAS SET UP FOR TRACK USE AND TOOK SOME GETTING USE TO FROM THE PREVIOUS "STOCK" SIDE OILER. WHEN ON THE TRACK IT WAS REAL EASY TO GET TIED UP IN THE MOMENT A GET ALITTLE OUT THERE. STOCK BRAKES WERE REPLACED WITH SERRIA 4 PISTON AND BARELY CLEARED THE RIMS. INTERIOR WEIGHTS HAD TO BE GROUND DOWN. THIS WAS ON 15" HILLABRANDS. I RECOMMEND IF YOU THINK YOU NEED THAT MUCH HOURES POWER YOU BEST HAVE SOME PREVIOUS EXPERENCE, AND A PROPER ATTITUDE TO RESPECT WHAT YOU HAVE. I TRIED TO EXPLAIN THIS TO THE PERSON WHO BOUGHT THE CAR FROM ME, BUT HE ASSURED ME HE COULD HANDLE THAT AND MORE. IF ANY OF YOU REMEMBER A POST A COUPLE OF WEEKS BACK OF THE COBRA ON FIRE, THIS WAS THE GUY WHO COULD HANDLE IT ALL. ANOTHER NOTE, IF YOU THINK 600HP IS SOMETHING IN 2400#, IMAGINE THAT IN THE FLIP TOP @ ABOUT 1700#. TRUST ME ON THIS, ITS ONE SCARY CAR ON THE TRACK AND MORE THAN A HANDFULL.

[era427tp]

That kind of power gives you religion,any one you want