What is with a COBRA?

[Got the Bug]

Originally Posted by big-boss

What is with a Cobra? Why do we like these cars? Is it the hunt for the cool parts? Driving fast? The way it looks? Comrodey with fellow Cobra guys? What do you think?

Me: It is the combination of building the car and succesfully compleating a journey/ experience- voyage if you may.

Big-boss,

This picture of you pulling into the Kirkham open house (in the snow) popped up as a random photo when I opened CC this morning. As they say, a picture says a thousand words.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by Stinson Pilot

I'm sure most of you have read this:

Driving a Cobra Replica

"If you want to just gas and go, and never have to worry about replacing an alternator, or snuggling down the header bolts, or getting a wet leg driving in a rainstorm, or learning how to set your carb float level, or driving in traffic on a warm winter day with "winter gas" in the tank, get a Corvette. "

With a Cobra Replica you have to remind yourself that you are driving a hand made race car on the street. There is no compromise for anything other than pure speed. These cars are brutal and unforgiving, with all the refinement of a medieval battle ax. Like being in a relationship with an exotic dancer, you can never take anything for granted. These cars don't have millions of miles of testing refinement before you get yours. For any trip longer than an hour, you need earplugs, and goggles, and carry Advil and eye drops. You will need to learn to "read" the clouds for rain in your path, and have experience in unwrapping your frozen fingers from the MotoLita. You will experience lady passengers "wetting" the passenger seat when you merge into traffic from an on ramp, and then nearly burn their calf getting out of the car.


You will have all the invisibility of a burning Hindenburg, and flee from underground parking lots when uncountable car alarms are screaming your departure. When you shop, you will remind yourself that these cars get more attention than a dead body in a parking lot.


With a power to weight ratio better than almost every supercar, you will find your 1/4 mile times traction rather than power limited. On the other hand, when you stage, out of the corner of your helmet's visor you will see almost the entire audience lining up at the fence, most with cameras up. If you track on a road course with a Porsche club, owners of expensive German machines will come to the fence to watch you power out in smoking oversteer. You won't even try to start your engine in the garage, but push it out onto the driveway, else your loyal watch dog will croak from the exhaust fumes. If you idle next to other "sports" cars at a traffic light, by the green, their girlfriend will be coughing green phlegm into her hanky, yelling at her date to just go! When you refuel, you might as well prop the "bonnet" open, because you are going to have to show your motor to just about every other guy there. When you order your wings at Hooters, your waitress will whisper in your ear "take me for a ride." When you stop at the red light, the girl in the convertible next to you will invite you to "take my top off too."


When you slowly pass a troop of Harley riders, they will look over and give you thumbs up. When you want to ease out into traffic, other cars will immediately pause to let you go ahead of them. When your engine has its hot, crackling, intimidating exhaust sidepipe aimed right at the flank of the GTO, or the Z28, your exhaust pulsation's slowly unscrewing his lug nuts, the other car will remain motionless, as if the slightest quiver of his car will cause your car to stomp it dead. When you leave it open in a parking lot, and come back to find your sunglasses and cell phone still sitting on the tunnel, it is because your car has sullenly warned those who came over to admire it "touch me and I will rise up here and kill you dead."


When you put that tiny silver key into the ignition, and begin your start countdown, your car will whisper "take me for granted, and I will kill you."


When other drivers just hop in and snap up their belts while backing out of their parking space, you will still have two more minutes before you even get all the Simpson's properly on and snugged down. Pulling up in a Cobra Replica is like landing an F4U at an ultralite convention.


In summary, very, very few drivers want this kind of attention, or can tolerate all that a formidable Cobra Replica demands. These cars are intolerant mistresses.


But remember, there will come a day when you have to hang up your car keys for the last time. And perhaps you want to say then "I did it."

Oh this nails it. I've gotten more thumbs up from Harley riders than I can remember and I've only had mine for 5 months. I describe mine - from every perspective as "4 Harley's" - In reality it makes about the same rumble as about three. In fact, one of the guys that was helping me find a throttle cable was the local bike shop.

I lost two baseball caps in mine in the first three days. No more driving on the highway (streets OK) with a cap, especially in our Front Range cross winds. I found on the Finish Line site a RAF leather helmet and goggles. The only thing I need to find is Snoopy's scarf but I think it is probably the right answer.

When I bought my two BJ Shelby Mustangs my wife told me I should just get the Cobra. I told her about it. No top - can't drive it in the rain. No A/C - can't drive it for long times in the desert (especially to Vegas from Colorado). Noisy, stinky oil smell, etc. Played her Cosby's routine.

When I brought it home she said "Don't you remember all the reasons you said you were wanted the Mustangs instead?" I told here "all will be well". She does like to ride it but still won't try to drive it.

I describe it as "all the fun you can legally have in a chair fully clothed in public".

[kobrabytes]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

Played her Cosby's routine.

Is there a youtube of the Cosby routine?

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by kobrabytes

Is there a youtube of the Cosby routine?

No, I don't think there is. My search for the past couple of years has showed nothing.

It's one full side of the original 33-1/3 album.

Pipes. It's got Pipes!.

And I was going 200MPH down the road SIDEWAYS.

(And from almost a personal experience, the latter is true.)

[Got the Bug]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

No, I don't think there is. My search for the past couple of years has showed nothing.

It's one full side of the original 33-1/3 album.

Pipes. It's got Pipes!.

And I was going 200MPH down the road SIDEWAYS.

(And from almost a personal experience, the latter is true.)

Here's the clip of Cosby on Leno. The picture is bad, but the audio is fine. I think the 200MPH clip is floating around. I'll see if I can find it.

http://www.fquick.com/videos/viewvideo.php?id=4967

Here's another link:

http://www.erareplicas.com/427/mpg/billcosby_200mph.mp3

[Ronbo]

It's visual appeal is darn near universal.

Driving one requires a special kind of mental illness, assuming you survive the first attempt and self-preservation doesn't kick in.

Two wrongs don't make a right, 'bout a dozen of them is a whole other matter...

[YerDugliness]

For me it's the purpose built nature of the car....they weren't meant to be a luxury auto, rather the originals were unlikable in many ways, but they did what they did so well that they became legend in the racing field. Every time I fire mine up and hear those sidepipes, I can imagine what it felt like to be standing on one side of the road and hear the announcement: "Gentlemen, start your engines!".

It's like being a part of history, it's the hiccups and the belches as it gets warmed up, it's the impatient struggling of the engine against the confines of gravity and air resistance, the way I catch people staring as I drive by, the young schoolkids who ride their bikes by to see me working on the car.........it's not just one thing, it's EVERYTHING!!

Dugly

[RedBarchetta]

I like driving a vintage race car on the street...with license plates. 'Nuff said.

-Dean

[427 S/O]

That was me!, couldn't take my eyes off it! and wanted one 'real bad', course I didn't have a pot to piss in back then.....

Originally Posted by PFSlim

The first cobra I saw (that I can remember) was my brother's 428FE Premier Motorsports car. I fell in love right then and there and decided that someday, I had to have one. Only a few months left to go on my build, then no more dreams. Just drives. Can't wait!!

Paul

[CobraBoy]

I am not yet the owner of a Cobra. I first became acquainted with the phenomenon that is the Cobra via a kit car guide that a school friend handed to me when I was fifteen years old. From that moment, the Cobra became part of who I am.

The car has a reputation. It is simply the baddest, fastest, Ferrari-eating, Corvette-slaying, fire-breathing monster of a barely disguised road-going race car ever conceived. Its like will never be seen again because safety legislation will not allow it. That fact alone is enough for me to want one.

Then there are the aesthetic factors; the look of the car is the perfect combination of beautiful, female-esque curves and sheer aggression. The chassis is an obsolete design - it was when the car was new - but it is certainly capable. The engine and transmission are the epitome of brute force and muscle over finesse. The interior is spartan and functional, yet attractive in its simplicity.

And the noise... Well, once I heard an American V8, I knew I 'had racing gasoline in my veins!' A Cobra, once heard and felt through your ribcage and the ground, is never to be forgotten. I can still remember where I was when I first heard a tuned, Tunnel-Port FE the first time; it was in a Ford J4 (GT40 Mk. 4). And when I saw and heard a Contemporary Cobra with a 428 FE under its hood at the last motor sport event ever held at Crystal Palace, south London, that was it for me.

A Cobra with a big V8 has been my ultimate ambition since I first laid eyes on a picture way back in my formative days. Enough said.

Paul

[puppster]

When I was a kid growing up in the 70's, we had a radio flyer wagon, it was a horrible 60's green/gold color (not even the nice red color) I remember riding down hills in that thing, trying to steer with the handle that was pulled back into the wagon with me, but at totally the wrong angle to have any control over the front wheels. It was a thrill everytime, whether I ended up flying out and into the grass, or if I made it across the finish line in my mind. It was pure fun. You could do alone, or with your best friend, it really didn't matter.

[kobrabytes]

Originally Posted by Got the Bug

Here's the clip of Cosby on Leno. The picture is bad, but the audio is fine. I think the 200MPH clip is floating around. I'll see if I can find it.

This should be required watching! Thanks for posting these!

len

[Ronbo]

Most of the album clips got taken off a few months back...

I'd imagine Capital Records(?) or Bill himself told YouTube to take 'em down.