Retired Bracket Racer SB For Sale?

[Art Colley]

Hi to all!

Been a long time since I have been on the site, and it's nice to come back.

But I have an issue that has me somewhat confliced. Family issues require that I put both of my cars up for sale.

One is my locally very well known "Cobra65", a car origionally built in the late '80's strictly for the purpose of bracket racing, where it had a pretty long run. It was retired in 1994, and refreshed in preparation for the '96 season, but was again retired. Since then we have finished it out as a street/show car, and used it primarily for fundraising for children's causes. It still possesses a really terrific, high dollar and very well detailed 383 build up, and consistently ran sub 12's (emphasise consistent).

See http://www.cobra65.org/hardcore99.htm

Or see our entire site at www.cobra65.org.

The other car is a relatively rare '91 Corvette ZR1, with the fabulous Lotus LT5 OHC engine, world record holder. Mine is one of the few remaining that has not been raced or modified, and is still in virgin condition.

seewww.greatvettes.org/vettetree01.htm, or the whole site at www.greatvettes.org.

I can't see selling the Cobra for less than about $30k. It can still beat the snot out of all the others in Baton Rouge, both big block and small block, because it was really built to do what it does well.

The ZR1 has a market value of about 35k (sold new for over 70k, the ZR1 OPTION being $32,600 alone!).

Is anyone here interested in the Cobra (or the ZR1)? Or if you know someone, I would appreciate comments and any interest.

Regards,

[justa6]

I have a question for you. I'd like to know if you ever dyno'd your motor and what your "Bracket" car weighs? Is it an automatic?

Reason I ask is it seems to me that a 383 bowtie Chevy should run a lot better in the 1/4 mile. I mean the far end speed not the ET. Were you running slicks? I just finished (Sept) my V6 powered Cobra and its best run has been 10.8 (MT ET streets) at 124. I think our motors are probably close in Horsepower but your car must be heavier.

I'm NOT screwing with you but trying to figure out why? My car weighs 2550 with me in it ready to go. I'm trying to get a handle on why so many high horsepower Cobra's run the times they do.

Regards,

[Jeff Frigo]

Bob:

I asked myself the same question. I a$$ backwards the quater mile time and came up with 340 HP. Look at the cam specs., very small, almost stock like.

[Art Colley]

I understand the nature of your question. You are absolutely right. Cobras are aerodynamic bricks, as you well know, and the launch is so important. That happened to be the best ET recorded for this car, in street dress, and on pump gas. I have other time slips with higher end speeds, but lower ET's.

In the same setup, it has a flying mile recorded of 149.

In the particular bracket this car ran in most of the time (all over the midwest, and as far south as Baton Rouge!). 12.000 was the best ET allowed. So the trick in bracket racing is to be super consistent, and be the "last starter", and run the other guy down and not break out. Obviously in this run, that happened. It may have been a "test and tune", I don't remember.

Yes it is an auto, interestingly, a B&M 700R4, a trans not usually favored for drag racing, but in this light car, a perfect combo. The car raced at 2600#, and sometimes had ballast. I am not familiar enough with current NHRA rules to determine if that was a class issue or if it makes any sense.

It sounds like you are lighter, and that would not surprise me, as the EM, especially older ones, are regarded as heavy. And of course, the replaica ladder tube frame is not much help, cause the motor really torques it about. It has a Ford 9' rear, well locked down, and has Mosler Engineering gears and axles (OEM axles were not allowed with spools at sub 12 sec times).

Even as a street car, today, and very much NOT tuned for racing, the car is a blast to launch, especially with an unsuspecting guest. The front end gets so light the steering is really marginal for about the first 50-75 feet.

Tell me some more about your car as well. You realise that so few Cobras are really raced in contemporary Drag racing. And by the way, when the original Shelby American DragonSnakes held the NHRA record, it was with an ET of 11.89 in 65.

So both you and I do better than the original.

If you like engine build ups, read that first link. By the way, I am convinced that if the car were preped today, it would be faster, because the one thing absent in the racing days was the MSD distributer and electronics. It had a crude (very nicely blueprinted, but crude) HEI before. Now we have both the full race MSD locked out distributer, which is essently unusable on the street, so we use an MSD vacuum advance distributer, and no timing computer on the street. I really wish someone would campaign the car again, with some of the later technology we added in 1996. It won't be me, because although I still love to drive, I stay out of competition, as I lost my left leg in winter, 1995. That's why, even though it was made ready in 1996, and with the improvements, it never raced again.

Let's see, you have a V6 Buick? (I am afaid of losing this message if I look back). I have heard really stunning performance numbers from that setup in a Cobra. Tell me more (and help pass the word about mine, please).

Regards,

[Art Colley]

To Jeff,

Yes the cam specs are very mild, "almost stock". I idle in gear at almost 18# vacuum. That's what makes the car so responsive in a street scenario, and is also one of the reasons we use the vacuum distributor. All of my numbers were from 1994 and mostly older. Like I said, I really wish I could see what some one with skill could do today, with the more advanced ignition we now have.

It would have to be run again to find out about the end speed. I seriously believe (and always have) that the HEI distributor was the weak link, especially at the top.

BTW, I am impressed you guys noticed... This is the first time anyone has asked.... I always found it curious that no one asked.

[justa6]

Art, thanks for not taking offence at my question. It was asked only to learn from folks that have been doing this for a lot longer than me. Your car ran VERY well in street trim.

As far as my efforts. I'm running a Buick V6 with a 4 barrel carb. Its the race version of the Street Grand National motor. We dyno'd the motor at 473HP at 7600RPM. Its very streetable but certainly doesn't have the low end torque of a big V8. Max torque was 390ft/lbs with 11.5 compression.

Since I started this project I kept trying to figure out why most Cobra's I see don't seem to run as fast as they should. Weight vs HP. As an old drag racer you know there isn't any magic to any of this stuff. Its HP/Weight/launch that count. Needless to say combination plays a huge role also. ie making all the parts work together.

We just started trying to get the combo on my car straightened out. I believe that the best the car will ever do is probably 10.50's or so. The 60' time of 1.48 can be improved with bigger tires. Currently I'm running Mickey Thompson ET STREETs which are 26x8x15. I'm going to go to 28x10's next time we go.

Any pointers or ideas from either of you would be greatly appreciated. The car has a Tremec 5 speed with a very tall Overdrive. Because of that I switched from 3.50 gear in the Ford 9" to 4.10's. They made a tremendous difference in the overall feel of the car. The little 274" motor "loves" the deeper gears. The 28" tires will mitigate them slightly but the improved traction will get the 60' times, hopefully, down to 1.30's. Or at least that's the plan. The car also needs to be able to Road race and autocross so I use 17" wheels and tires for that. Also I can only run DOT tires hence the Et Streets and not regular slicks.

I also use the MSD 6al ignition but my MSD distributor has an operational centrifigal advance/ no vacuum as I don't think this motor has enough to make it worth while.

As far as fuel goes I run street 93 octane with 10% toulene mix which gives me a true 97-98 octane which is plenty for the compression I have. At the drags I just put about 5 gallons of 116 on top of the street gas.

Lets see what else...Shift like comes on at 7400 with the rev limiter set at 8200 which is very safe for this motor.

As I said I'd like to compare notes with you guys to try and not make mistakes that others may have the answers to. That's what I really like about this forum. There is so much talent out there to learn from.

I've included a picture of the motor so you see the "mini" motor.

OOPS: the upload didn't work so go to "View my Photo Gallery" on the left side of the page and you'll see them there.

Regards to you both,

[Jim Gunther]

Holy Cow!

I always thought your car was a Turbo!

Sweet set up.

PS: Do you get to 5th gear in the 1/4 with the 4.10 gears?

Be well,

[justa6]

No I finish the 1/4 mile in 4th gear at around 7000 RPM. At least I think its there as the shift light doesn't come on in 4th but its close. The car is really fun to drive with the Buick powerplant but its even more fun to see someones reaction to a V6 with a 4 barrel carb. They say "Its really nice" while they think "why would anyone put a V6 in a Cobra?"

Which was the point of doing it in the first place. I knew that the motor would make nearly 500hp in street trim as they made up to 535 in Busch racing (14-1 compression) we used a mild circle track cam and smaller ports in the intake and heads. They are still HUGE though. About the size of a rectangular port Big Block Chevy.

Anyway its really been fun to build the Cobra and a LOT of fun to surprise the V8 guys.

Regards,

[HPNUT]

I know this is and older post, but at what track did they let you run 10's with just the "Cobra" roll bar?

HPNUT in Ohio

[justa6]

Hi, I go to Reynolds Georgia which has a 1/4 mile track. They will let you do pretty much whatever you want on Test and Tune days (or nights). I will NEVER put a cage on my Cobra and its really fun to bring my Grand National or Cobra and enjoy getting them "tweaked" without having to ruin them with a cage.

Also you can run at Run & Gun without a cage.

I could care less about classes and "dial ins" I just want to enjoy my car and try and improve it.

Regards,

[Art Colley]

Hi, HPNUT,

My car raced throughout the midwest, mainly Ohio (interesting since you are there).

When it raced it had a roll cage. When we retired it, we put the older "cosmetic" bar back on.

Interesting note. The new owner is taking it back out of competition and using it for racing. So I had to dig around and get the roll cage for him.

I can't wait to see how the car does.

Regards, Art