Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by 1ntCobra

David,

Are you going to bringing this artwork to SAAC-33 so that thousands of us can check it out in person?

As soon as the car is done, it will go to the customer. We do, however, hope to be test driving it at our homecoming that is coming right up.

David

[David Kirkham]

Here you can see the side door sils going on. This is another one of the keys to the stiffness of the chassis. Here you can also see the cowl "hoop" and the door pillars have been mounted on.

[David Kirkham]

Here you can see the the beginnings of the driver's foot box and the pedal assembly coming together.

[David Kirkham]

Here is a close up of the pedal box. This is actually the first pedal box attempt we made. After we finished it, we weren't happy with it because one of the problems a Cobra has is the brake and clutch master cylinders are close to the side pipes. In the latest version, we flipped the master cylinders around. I will post those pics soon.

[David Kirkham]

The steering column support is now in place. We made the steering column adjustable up and down, just like an original car. As you can see, all of this structure is quite robust. You don't want your steering attachment points to move around (unless you like slick spots on your seat).

[David Kirkham]

Another view that shows the steering column support, door sils, and tunnel support uprights.

[David Kirkham]

Here is an overall view of the build to that date. (We are actually much further along right now.) You can see here how all the parts are fitted together and how everything works together. We made all parts to have as much "dual-use" (or even triple-use) as possible. 1 part is almost always lighter and stiffer than 2 parts that are bolted, welded, whatever together.

[1ntCobra]

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

As soon as the car is done, it will go to the customer. We do, however, hope to be test driving it at our homecoming that is coming right up.

David

After all of the development work on this beauty, I think you should build a copy for yourselves. And then bring it to SAAC-33 and other places you show off your cars...

[David Kirkham]

The driver's foot box is now coming together.

[David Kirkham]

Here is another one of those "dual-use" areas. The foot boxes on this car are stressed. You can see we also milled a pocket into the front of the foot box to accept a bearing to support the front of the main steering shaft. If you can believe it, the original Cobra front steering shaft support was made out of FELT! No wonder the cars were "interesting" to drive. Also, in this photo you can see some really ugly looking motor mounts. Those are just mock up motor mounts to make sure everything fit. The real motor mounts are really quite cool looking. I will post pics in a later post.

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by 1ntCobra

After all of the development work on this beauty, I think you should build a copy for yourselves. And then bring it to SAAC-33 and other places you show off your cars...

That will be entirely up to the customer. You can rest assured I will ask; but, it is really up to him. He is really quite nice to work with; I really don't know what he will say or think.

David

[David Kirkham]

This is a shot of the top of the foot box. This part was later changed. But this shot gives you an idea of how thick the plate is we started out with. We hogged out the under side quite a bit, but we needed the thickness to achieve the stiffness we wanted in the pedal box.

[David Kirkham]

Here we are testing the fit of a Keith Craft aluminum monster. You can see we used the Quick Time bell housing. It is quite small and light.

[Jamo]

A shame to cover it with a body.

[David Kirkham]

Here you can see the floor pans going in. Notice the front of the passenger foot bot box is all hogged out. We started with a 1/2 plate for the front of the foot box as it is a stressed structure in this Chariot of Fire. On the side you can see the "X's" milled into the door sills. Hoofa, those are the areas we decided not to cover up with carpet.

[1ntCobra]

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

That will be entirely up to the customer. You can rest assured I will ask; but, it is really up to him. He is really quite nice to work with; I really don't know what he will say or think.

David

So this car is really meant to be a one off? And not like a ultra expensive top of the line model that anyone that just hit the lotto could order from you?

I thought your billet engine block was part of the development of this car? Is that a one off too? Or perhaps could some of this technology be offered as options to normal customers?

[David Kirkham]

Here is a shot of the driver's side floor pan. The chassis "main rails" are 4 inches tall, just like an original car. I say "main rails" because the structure is somewhat like an airplane with longerins and ribs. The floor is connected to the top of the rail and the belly pan is connected to the bottom of the rail to make a very strong box like structure. The stressed tunnel adds to the stiffness and the tall door sils add as well.

[David Kirkham]

1ntCobra,

The billet engine is indeed part of this project. We are just working on finishing the car right now and then we will move on to finish the block. I lost my main programmer to MIT graduate school and I had to train a new programmer!

The chassis is indeed as of now a 1 off. The billet blocks will be sold to customers, however, when we finish and test them out.

David

[David Kirkham]

Another floor pan shot. Notice the markings to cut out clearance for the ebrake handle...it is hard to think of everything when you are making parts that all have to fit together.

[David Kirkham]

Close up of the driver's foot box. Notice the big "X" on the left side of the picture. That will be left billet in the car with now carpet to cover it up.