Peoples thoughts on Australian Kits

[albanycobra]

Or on the flip side you could buy an older Cobra and restore it. The emissions rules have been slowly getting more restrictive. A lot of older Cobra's were built during a period where emissions were less restrictive even to the point of carby engines. Even if the 2nd Cobra doesn't have the engine you desire, you can swap to any other engine of the same emission level. This is certainly the easiest way to build a big block Cobra and the only way in VIC.

This is very true. I am doing exactly that with a 1991 Westfield I bought.
It was registered with a 2ltr Escort motor and went over the pits back then with a side draught 45mm DCOE weber....try doing that now.....I have pulled the Escort motor and fitted a turbo charged 4g63B motor with Motec M4 ECU.

I have retained the required Emissions at time of rego which was a Charcoal cannister. So I guess I'm fully legal Officer.....

[400TT]

Originally Posted by albanycobra

I have pulled the Escort motor and fitted a turbo charged 4g63B motor with Motec M4 ECU.

Dave you are one extreme individual, I can only imagine the power to weight ratio. Now that's what I call an engine upgrade.

[DaveW]

i thought Harrisons was the FFR ?, is there another way to do a RHD FFR ?

[DaveW]

OK answered my own lack of knowledge, had a look at their website again and they do their own but are also agents for FFR,
Has anyone done an FFR RHD conversion ?

[albanycobra]

I have a done a RHD conversion on a Coupe which is basically the same chassis as a Roadster. You use a Cortina TE/ TF steering rack and a few bits from summit....a bit of welding and you have a RHD FFR.

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[albanycobra]

Dave you are one extreme individual

Ha ha ha I know, maybe I'm my own worst enemy.... Actually I want to ditch the 4g63 and fit a 13B turbo bridge port rotary motor. I just can't get the acceleration I'm looking for from the 4g63. I have a hybrid T3/T04 ball bearing turbo ,15psi boost ,full forged internals and ARP every bolt you can and still I just want more.....She spins the wheels 1st-2nd-3rd but I want more...and I think a 450hp Rotor will do the job I want in my 650kg Clubby.

[DaveW]

Dave, what about pedal box and mastercyls etc did you just mirror mountings on the other side, and for engineering, does the rack have to go through any special treatment or is it a RHD version of what would normally fit in the coup.
Pics look great by the way

regards

Dave

[albanycobra]

No special Engineering as you only have to redrill one hole to mount the rack in the same location as original. The TE Cortina rod ends fit into the Mustang uprights with little spacers that extend the rack (something the Clubman Boys do all the time with their +100 cars so getting them was easy.

I used a Falcon steering column, but you can use any Aussie column. But yeah I just mirrored the left side with pedals and such. The kit comes with Wilwood pedals and mastercylinders which are quite universal. No serious frame mods. All very easy and I had no troubles registering the car as FFR fit approved side intrusion and so on.....

[DaveW]

Albany,
What sort of shipping costs did you incur or did you get the kit locally?
Did you have to supply any engineering data to engineers to prove chassis soundness and adrs etc ?

[AC-460]

Here's a cheap car couldn't go wrong
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/AC-Cobra-427-...1%7C240%3A1318

[albanycobra]

The car FFR builds pass's most of the Engineering required in WA.
Actually I had no problems except changing a master cylinder from 3/4 to 5/8.

My cost to bring the car into west oz $8800 this included all fees and charges. A friend just brought one in and I think it cost just under 10k as the dollar has slide a little since then.

[boxhead]

Originally Posted by AC-460

Here's a cheap car couldn't go wrong
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/AC-Cobra-427-...1%7C240%3A1318

I agree that it looks like a lot of car for the price.

Just not sure if it comes with testing requiremenst and side impact as per ADR requirements.
Also I suspect you would need to remake engine mounts, as I think he is reffering to old cast iron 350 chev motor (wont pass emissions), but not a big job to modify mount locations.

[boxhead]

Originally Posted by albanycobra

The car FFR builds pass's most of the Engineering required in WA.
Actually I had no problems except changing a master cylinder from 3/4 to 5/8.

My cost to bring the car into west oz $8800 this included all fees and charges. A friend just brought one in and I think it cost just under 10k as the dollar has slide a little since then.

Is that shipping cost only or was that purchase and ship?

[albanycobra]

The complete kit cost is approx $21k US I think and $8.8k to bring it into Australia nothing more to pay.

[NASSTY]

Originally Posted by wishfullthinkin

WOW.

My final question for today is about engines. Because i can source a lot of engine parts ( i could build an engine from a bare block ) am i going to be restrained by the law? By this i mean are vic roads going to can me because i don't use a built motor out of a donor car?

G'day wishfullthinkin and welcome to the forum.

I went through the rego process a year ago in Vic. The easiest route to rego in Victoria is:

Choose an engineer and have a long chat to them. They're not all the same and they all interpret the rules slightly differently.

Engine wise you're restricted to late model donor engines. So either Ford 5.4 or Chev Ls2. If you are to built your own engine then you will need to have it fully tested for emmissions which is prohibative. A donor engine has already been certified by the factory so a simple static emission test is all they need for rego. Cheap and easy process. I think it cost me $50 and 1/2 hr.

Lastly, the cost of engineering varies significantly if the engineer wants to test the chassis or not. This depends on whether they have engineered the same kit before, the said kit is largely built to the same specs as the ones they have previously tested or whether the engineer is prepared to rely on another engineers testing, assuming the testing/drawings are made available to you. This is perhaps the main reason to go with an Aust product. An overseas product may easily pass engineering but if the engineer wants to test it then it will be more expensive to pass. The difference may be anywhere from $1000-$2000 to at least twice or more if the engineer wants to do a full set of drawings/tests.

Happy hunting!

[stiffy]

Hey Wishfullthinking,


I agree totally with NASSTY, I was at the engineers again yesterday (Enkleman's) the same one NASSTY used and alot of other Cobra builders.

They know the cars and they are easy to deal with. There are alot of great kits available now, come and look at them in the flesh, they all have for's and against it depends on the style you are after. I have a Ford powered Cobra and a Chev powered Daytona, they are both great engines, unfortunately the Chev was the only option as there were size issues (but what an engine stock).

Good Luck


STIFFY

[NASSTY]

Just to clarify, I didn't use Enkleman's in the end as they hadn't certified my kit before. Instead I used an engineer who had. It kept the whole process as straight forward as possible.

Cheers

[Aussie Mike]

I used Enklemans. Absolute pleasure to deal with. Took a lot of the stress out of the whole process. Give them a call before you spend anything on a kit to find out where you stand.

Cheers

[boxhead]

I can give Enklemanns a thumbs up, I spoke with Andrew today, I am doing my car through them via a second inspector based in Alice Springs, they have been willing to work with this and as they have seen the brand of my car (Classic Revival) numerous times with other people, they have advised me not to worry about getting anything checked until ready to present as a complete car, and then they will do that via the guy out here.

So my body is going back on in the next couple of weeks and time to reassemble.
And a note to other builders out there, I have a VIN number supplied to me by the MVR, they advised there is nothing required from engineer to get a vin?
They used the chassis number as stamped by my supplier as refferance that it is for my actual car, but he said the number is issued to a person until the car is ready, so you may be able to get your vin earlier rather than wait for it after you have done the engineering side, just a thought?

[gjkrv8]

Originally Posted by boxhead

I can give Enklemanns a thumbs up, I spoke with Andrew today, I am doing my car through them via a second inspector based in Alice Springs, they have been willing to work with this and as they have seen the brand of my car (Classic Revival) numerous times with other people, they have advised me not to worry about getting anything checked until ready to present as a complete car, and then they will do that via the guy out here.

So my body is going back on in the next couple of weeks and time to reassemble.
And a note to other builders out there, I have a VIN number supplied to me by the MVR, they advised there is nothing required from engineer to get a vin?
They used the chassis number as stamped by my supplier as refferance that it is for my actual car, but he said the number is issued to a person until the car is ready, so you may be able to get your vin earlier rather than wait for it after you have done the engineering side, just a thought?

Me too I used Enkelmans and they were great to deal with.

Dave, Regarding the "getting your VIN early" I think that might be a NT MVR thing. I am still waiting on mine from Vic Roads. Although I had the Eng done mid Dec, so with XMAS in between who knows how long it will take. I unsure of whether to try to contact them or not, just incase the "squeaky wheel" gets moved to the bottom of the in tray.

Rgds

Gregg