Club Cobra Gas-N Exhaust  

Go Back   Club Cobra > General Discussion > Shelby and Racing History

Keith Craft Racing
Nevada Classics
MMG Superformance
Main Menu
Module Jump:
Nevada Classics
Nevada Classics
MMG Superformance
MMG Superformance
Advertise at CC
Banner Ad Rates
Keith Craft Racing
December 2024
S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31        

Kirkham Motorsports

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
  #1 (permalink)  
Old 02-28-2004, 06:35 AM
computerworks's Avatar
Senior Club Cobra Member
Visit my Photo Gallery
Lifetime Contributor
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Northport, NY
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, KMP178 / '66 GT350H, 4-speed
Posts: 10,362
Not Ranked     
Default This Month in Cobra History - February

This Month in Cobra History - February

We can't let a February article on Cobra History pass without featuring a major milestone in the SA trek to the World Manufacturers Championship...

... the racing debut of the Daytona Coupe at the Daytona Continental in 1964.



This was the new car design that was instrumental in bringing the trophy home in 1965. The beginnings of this design is an amazing story and a cornerstone of Cobra lore.

After racing in the 1963 season, it became stunningly apparent that the open roadster design was not going to cut it at the high speeds of the European circuits, including Lemans.

Pete Brock was the driving force behind this new design. he approached Shelby about a streamlined version of the Cobra for this competition. Brock remembered Shelby being quite offhanded about the project, but gave him the go-ahead without much discussion. Ken Miles and Phil Remington added their technical expertise during the development stages. Brock had a vision for the smooth fastback design; Remington helped with the chassis engineering. Ken Miles talked Brock into less windsheild rake than he wanted, knowing that, in a 12 or 24 hour race, it was more important for the driver to see better. With this change, Brock tried to get some of the smooth shape back by moving the high point of the roof backwards, giving the car a strange, unfamiliar humped, sinister look.

Aluminum work was done by California Metal Shaping and the car was completed at the Shelby facility. John Olson was the primary fabricator, working out many of the small, finishing details. He became the crew chief for this car, CSX2287.

At one point, Shelby brought in Benny Howard, a noted aerospace engineer to give an objective, scientific opinion on the car. After crunching the numbers, Howard said it was all wrong and would never hit the desired speeds with the current horsepower. Brock told CS otherwise...to trust him that it would work.

It did.

Preliminary track tests by Brock showed the car ran cooler than the roadster because of the hood ducts, the brakes ran cooler and the car not only ran faster than anything they had, but was far more stable.

The Daytona Continental in February 1964 was the car's racing debut. The car almost passed tech inspection, failing because of rear tire exposure... so a quick "field-fix" was fabricated - riveting a flare panel on the lower edge of the rear fenders.

Dave MacDonald and Bob Holbert were to be the drivers for this race, shown here posing with CS before the race.



Quite a debut it was... After 8 hours, they were leading the field overall, setting a lap record of 2:08.2 at 106.98 mph.

Bad fortune hit them, however... and they nearly had a terrible tragedy.

When the car pitted for a fuel stop, they noticed a red-hot differential, with gear lube leaking severely. John Olsen dove on the pavement to see what was wrong and squirmed under the rear of the car.

There were two fuel fillers, one at the top of each rear fender. The fuel poured into the one on the left and air was vented out the right-hand one. When the tank filled, fuel spewed out the right filler and down the side of the car, puddling on the pavement. When the fuel trickled down the side and back, it hit the red-hot differential and the whole damn thing burst into flames.



A crew member quickly grabbed Olsen's ankle and jerked him from under the flaming car; three extinguishers quickly put the fire out. John was seriously burned, but not critically. Most of the car's hoses and rear mechanics were badly burned... CSX2287 was out of the race, even though the crew pleaded to try and fix it up to get back into competition.

The cause of the problem turned out to be the Bendix pump that was used to drive the diff cooler; the pump motor failed and the rear succumbed to the overheating.



A neat postscript was that the car was repaired back in California and returned to Florida the next month for the race at Sebring, where the same driver team won the GT category and took 4th overall.

(...more to follow later)
Reply With Quote
  #2 (permalink)  
Old 02-28-2004, 08:36 AM
Dwight's Avatar
Senior Club Cobra Member
Visit my Photo Gallery

 
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Florence, AL
Cobra Make, Engine: RCR GT 40 & 1966 Fairlane 390 5 speed
Posts: 4,511
Not Ranked     
Thumbs up

GREAT, I'M WAITING FOR MORE
__________________
''Life's tough.....it's even tougher if you're stupid.'' ~ John Wayne
"Happiness Is A Belt-Fed Weapon"
life's goal should be; "to be smarter than inanimate objects"
Reply With Quote
  #3 (permalink)  
Old 02-28-2004, 01:20 PM
Rick Parker's Avatar
CC Member
Visit my Photo Gallery

 
Join Date: May 2001
Location: California, Ca
Cobra Make, Engine: NAF 289 Slabside Early Comp Car with 289 Webers and all the goodies. Cancelling the efforts of several Priuses
Posts: 6,592
Not Ranked     
Default

Forgive me for asking but who is the person with Mc Donald & Shelby??

Rick
__________________
Rick

As you slide down the Banister of Life, may the splinters never be pointing the wrong way
Reply With Quote
  #4 (permalink)  
Old 02-28-2004, 08:27 PM
computerworks's Avatar
Senior Club Cobra Member
Visit my Photo Gallery
Lifetime Contributor
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Northport, NY
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, KMP178 / '66 GT350H, 4-speed
Posts: 10,362
Not Ranked     
Default

Quote:
Originally posted by Rick Parker


Forgive me for asking but who is the person with Mc Donald & Shelby??
That's Bob Holbert. He became a regular team driver for Shelby in April 1963; ran with Dave MacDonald and Ken Miles. Drove internationally with Porsche before joining SAI.
Reply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 05:27 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0
The representations expressed are the representations and opinions of the clubcobra.com forum members and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and viewpoints of the site owners, moderators, Shelby American, any other replica manufacturer, Ford Motor Company. This website has been planned and developed by clubcobra.com and its forum members and should not be construed as being endorsed by Ford Motor Company, or Shelby American or any other manufacturer unless expressly noted by that entity. "Cobra" and the Cobra logo are registered trademarks for Ford Motor Co., Inc. clubcobra.com forum members agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyrighted material is owned by you. Although we do not and cannot review the messages posted and are not responsible for the content of any of these messages, we reserve the right to delete any message for any reason whatsoever. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless with respect to any claim based upon transmission of your message(s). Thank you for visiting clubcobra.com. For full policy documentation refer to the following link: CC Policy
Links monetized by VigLink