Power Performance Cobras what can you tell me.

[PHM]

I am looking for any and all info about the Power Performance Cobras. I started looking at the FFR and decided that the doner car concept was great for some people but wasnt going to be cost effective with all the options that I wanted. I figured that the Superformance was a good route to go so I went out to Carlisle for the all Ford show to look at them. The Superformance is a very nice car and actualy got to ride in one there, Backdraft was there but i wasnt impressed, something just doesnt look right about the body. It actualy looks like one of the fenders or headlights is higher than the other. The one kind that I was really impressed with is the Power Performance by Autovision. Thier frame looks wicked and the body looks right. I like the the way they engineered the rear end housing and how simple and rugged everything looks. I actually got to go for a ride in the Power performace as well that day and two things jumped out at me. My feet didnt get warm like they did in the Superformance and it was much easier to get in and out of the Power Performance. I am hoping that someone can tell me the goods and bads about the car and about Power Performance by Autovision if any, before I pull the plug and buy one or the other. Any and all info would be great!
Thanks

[Rickd]

Never heard of Power Performance Cobras. Everyone has heard of Superformance, and they are a known factor in the cobra replica industry, and very well respected for quality, consistency, and customer support through their dealer network. They have built close to 2000 cars, and there are owners with 100,000 miles on a car (daily driver and track time). If I were you and you are trying to decide between "Power Performance" and Superformance - please do yourself a big favor and buy the Superformance. If you're shopping, then try out Kirkham, ERA, and Unique before you 'pull the trigger'. They have all built hundreds of cars that have passed the test of time - track time and highway time. Good hunting. Rickd.

[Got the Bug]

Power Performance is listed onthe spreadsheet of Cobra Manufacturers, but I don't know anything about them.

List of Manufacturers

Superformance is actually closing in on 3,000 cars built....I'll be taking delivery of 2613 soon .

[Tom Wells]

PHM,

I have an E-M with a Power Performance (PP) body, assembled by Fred Gimbel of Autovision.

The short version is that Fred is a straight shooter and the car is high quality.

Fred originally assembled mine as an E-M. After some, uh, severe body damage to me and the car, E-M had closed its doors and could not supply another body. It turns out that PP made the molds at one time for E-M, so Fred got one from them and it went right on as expected.

The PP chassis is very similar to the original E-M, in that it is extremely stout and well made. Only difference I'm aware of is the outriggers are now 4" OD tubing instead of small box-shaped metal as mine is. The advantage of the older design to me was the possibility of the undercar exhaust which I have enjoyed immensely.

Fred's been building this car for more than twenty years so he knows what he's doing. It's a solid car all the way around.

After more than 19K miles (and a couple years rehab, but that's another story) I am enjoying the car - headed for the Fling, er, London Cobra show next week - if you're there, look for a Laser Red/white stripe car, two roll bars and a tan interior. Oh yeah, an automatic and a 521

These are good people and the car is good too.

Tom

[T E Lewis]

Can't say enough good things about Fred Gimble/Autovision. He did a lot of really nice work on my Everett-Morrision. It is my understanding that the guy who makes the Power Performance used to work for EM, and that they are just about the same.

[eschaider]

PHM,

I own a Superformance and I love the car it is everything I hoped for and more. After reading your post, I also looked at Power's website. It appears they have a significant commitment to the business and from the pictures produce a very nice car. Buy an airline ticket and go to the factory, look around talk to the principals and compare mental notes to other manufacturers you have visited.

In the end beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One cautionary note, these cars are not investment grade securities and we rarely if ever get out of them what it cost to build them unless you hold them for a long time and even then a low yeild taxable bond would probably still outperform them. You will however find that two identical cost and quality cars will have different resale prices based on origin i.e. kit car or manufactured roller. Reason? The buying public can wierd out over these things.

Add one more thought to the in the end stuff. This is your car. It only has to please you. Choose one you love!

Ed

[PHM]

Thanks for the response Guys! Please don't misunderstand me I think the Superformance is one hell of a car but I am leaning tword the PP. I was on this site a little while ago and read about some people breaking and twisting up there rear ends. PP offers thier rear end with a 9" ford which I know is very rugged and could withstand just about anything. I dont plan on beating on the car but I'm sure at some point I will take it to the drag strip to see what it will do. I did look at the ERA which is only a couple of hours away but Something about their chasis that turns me off. Being an engineer and looking at how the era is built it just looks like they use alot of 1" tubing and angle iron everywhere for support and it looks like alot of after thought thinking, that being said the end result is very nice. I will be turning Forty in October and because I sold all my cars and other toys when i got married and built our house, In our PRENUP it states that i can get what ever Cobra i want! and i am holding her to it. The point is that once i get the car done I plan on keeping it and passing it down to my three boys so the resale of the car means nothing to me. I just want to build the best car I can for a reasonable amount of money.

[olddog]

I was at the Carlisle show, and I have to say I like the Power Performance frame better than any I have seen (I have not seen them all - far from it).

Although they offer the 9" ford in an IRS. The one I saw was a Jaguar IRS copy. If your an engineer, you need to look at that design closely. The axel is the upper control arm.

[1985 CCX]

Chad at PPM is a great guy and Fred is a straight shooter.

They use a very nicely done frame and accessories. They do use standard Jaguar Salisbury rear as do ERA, CCX, Midstates, and Unique. They are very reliable and will stand up to years of use. My car is doing well with Jaguar IRS at 25years now. (well 22 on the road)

The Salisbury rear is veryy capable of running BB cars......Jeff

[eschaider]

PHM,

A couple of thoughts on the rear end. If you choost to go the IRS route I would encourage you to use one of the many variants of the Dana 44. It could be Jag or Corvette or Viper or whatever you find that you like. The Viper is perhaps the strongest of the group because Chrysler wanted a little more warranty insurance behind 500 lbs/ft of engine torque. With that said its also worth noting that many many IRS Cobras have some variation of the Dana 44 unit under them.

If you go the IRS route, depending on your equipment choice, you ought to use the 1350 spicer u-joints or a set of the 4340 CV joints that some of the specialty shops manufacturer for the rear end. The real benefit of the IRS is the nimbleness (if there is such a word) it imparts to the car when you are driving and enjoying it the 99.99% of the time you are not at the dragstrip.

With respect to the 9" Ford. These rear ends are virtually bullet proof today all the way up to several thousand horsepower which is why you see them in the supercharged alcohol cars as a standard choice. The other reason we like them for drag cars is their pinion center is 1.375 or 1.5 (I forget which) inches lower than any other rear end choice. This lets us put the engine crankshaft centerline closer to the ground.

This is good in a drag car. In a Cobra it produces additional problems. If you use a sprung rear end with an already low pinion you produce some very nasty angles in the drive train when the body rises and the axle pushes downward on hard acceleration.

Most everyday cars have a driveshaft that is about five sometimes even six feet long. The driveshaft in my cobra is 9 inches long. This doesn't mean you can't have a sprung rear end but it does mean that the total travel of the sprung assembly will necessarily have to be either quite short or limited mechanically so you don't pull the driveshaft out of the transmission or get so close to doing so that you still get into trouble.

If you need ultimate strength notwithstanding the above you might want to look at a Dana 60. It will have a near centered pinion for good drive train alignment and it is even stronger than the 9" Ford. The ring gear is 9.75". The penalty is weight, the benefit is brute strength. These are the rear ends Chrysler put behind the four speed Street Hemis.

If you like to build strong and light and are willing to do some hunting there is a special version of the Dana 60 that was made for Blown Fuel racing. It was originally manufactured by Ramchargers who later sold the tooling to Henry's. The center section is made from magnesium with billet steel maincaps to hold the differrential in the case. The assembly is flanged at the housing where the axles enter. The flanging was used for mounting the housing, which makes it easy to put it in our cars. Then you run the IRS halfshafts (use 4340) out to the hubs and you have a truly bullet proof rear end.

For what it is worth these rear ends would take 3000HP launches all year long on 17" wide tires and come back and do it again year after year. We used to change ring and pinions at the 2 year point just to be safe. Never broke one. If you want the strongest this is it. It just takes a little hunting which is all part of the fun in building one of these cars.

In the end I think you will come down to what most of us use which is one of the many Dana 44 variants. By far the Jag is the most common. These things just work. By the way I failed to mention the 8.875 Ford IRS from the Ford Navigators. This is a light weight aluminum housing IRS that is an easy fit to our chassis and Ford goes out of their way selling the individual components through their Ford Racing Parts catalog. You can down load it from the FRPP website.

Not withstanding your intended occasional visit to the dragstrip my encouragement would be to build it as a Dana 44 IRS car. I think you will enjoy it beyond words and appreciate it everytime you turn a corner.


Ed

[PHM]

Thanks for all the information about the rearends. I was also talking to a friend of mine yesterday that drag races quite a bit and he was telling me that there is a real good chance i would only get one chance to see what the car may run at the strip. He said that track officials have really cracked down on light weight cars with big power like the Cobra's and hot rods because they are turning some really good times and the track is requirung a better roll bar and other safety features that would just ruin the look of the car. So in reality the drag strip might be a one time thing. I am also wondering what some of you are actually times you are turning in the 1/4 mile with a 500 hp cobra?

[Roz]

Can someone post a picture of a Power Performance Cobra?