42 gallons vs fuel cell

[What'saCobra?]

Prompted by a beautiful picture of a historic 42 gallon tank placed in the rear of new a Cobra at the Kirkham eBay search site thread above, i wonder about your thinking regarding the obviously high safety risk using these highly exposed thin skin tanks.

Seems to me if you are creating a hangar queen for shows etc, the risk is very low and the historic accuracy is very high. i like it and have had them on originals and continuations.

But, if there is any road use mit sturm und drang, spirited eventing or sport/club racing, informal or not, the risk is real. Is it worth the risk, particularly to newbies that don't yet understand the under/oversteering nature of these cars with high power and cold tires?

Not looking for regulations, mind you, since the SCCA has the item well under control, if you wish to get real serious. Just your thoughts.

Some years ago, while planning to run a Lotus 18 Formula Jr. in VSCCA, i neither wanted to drive seriously with that old aly fuel tank over my legs, nor change-up to an ugly cell. There is very little extra space available in a Formula car, of course. i paid a pretty fair penny to have a custom flexible cell installed within the original unit, but with modern fittings, etc. It was quite OK and i never needed to "test" the installation, but felt confident in the installation and look.

My own CSX has the beautiful original 42 gallon tank in the garage along with the nice Connolly-covered seats, but a proper new steel cell with a flexible bladder of fewer gallons in the front of the boot/trunk, mounted quite low. Of course, that design places the fuel within considerable protection from/with the surrounding roll bar supports and braces, frame/axle components and rear lid/frame/supports.

Of course, there are very few accidents and fires (and with current fuel prices, there are likely to be even less in the future!), thank goodness. but...

What d'ya think today?

[mpanten]

I have the fuel cell, I like the look of the original tank better, mine is a square box visible under the car. That being said it does give me a great deal of comfort knowing I have the cell rather than a thin metal box holding all that fuel so close by. Its scary enough sitting at a stoplight without having to worry about bursting into flames.

[What'saCobra?]

yep, the big old tank looks great. Especially when AC used to machine finish the entire big tank with turned circles about an inch or more of diameter.

My modern fuel cell is filled by opening the boot lid, so the old flip-top fuel cap is inop and just for show. But, i like the modern bits a lot, also.

There is no way i would trust the old flip-top from shearing off in a turn-over. In the day, with real big tanks, i used a flush aircraft installation on the right fender just for safety. After all, if you think a roll bar is necessary, surely securing the fuel cap is equally important?

[Mark IV]

V,

So long as the configuration can be returned to "stock" without any major re-dos, I would go the fuel cell route. The 427/MK III tank configuration was "iffy" at best (and thus the return to the 289 location on the AC MK IV for federal compliance).

A ten to twelve gallon cell could be mounted forward keeping weight down, polar moment reduced and give enough range to be useful.

I say do it...............................and my decisions are second only to the "International Cobra Czar" and he seems to be hibernating recently (although he has awoken on the ACOC site).

[What'saCobra?]

Yep. i like the small cells. Few sprints are more than 15 laps or so at max and a half-gallon a lap or so. Of course, in the day, the Targa, Nordsclieff and USRRC events were a LOT longer and pretty big tanks were necessary to be at least competitive.

Should i go look at the acoc stuff?

Breathless in Boca

[bobcowan]

Another consideration is weight. Big tanks weigh a little more than a similar smaller tank. Fuel cells tend to weigh more than tanks. And fuel weighs about 6# per gallon.

I have a 22gal Fuel Safe cell. You can really only get 18 gallons in it. On a steady cruise, I can drive about 300 miles on one tank. That's about 2.5-3 hours or so. By that time, I'm ready to stop and take a break anyway.

[What'saCobra?]

You just reminded me about a little ditty i did in the early seventies, during the alternate day fuel crisis. Living in NJ and being conservative, i had no political friends that could help me on the off days and i also had a squirrelly driving schedule.

i would flip a set of plates on the Big Tanked car (2137 if i recall), fill-er-up on forty gallons, and transfer any evenings i ran short using the electric fuel pumps and a little hose extension or two. Worked fine. Did it outside, because we had a gas water-heater in the garage, if i recall.

There was at least one good use of the big tank. Cannot think of any more.