Cobra #3170 and 200 mph.

[Cobra #3170]

Originally Posted by twin turbo

Any chance we can talk you into driving your car at the Mojave Mile or Mohave Magnum (1.5 mile)? I would sure love to see an original Cobra break that 200 mph barrier and you have the right set-up to do it. Someone's bound to do it soon in a replica. I know that Virgil Benton went 199 the last time around with a big tailwind. Have you thought about it?

Thank You for the vote of confidence but that is one goal that I would never attempt. I am already too old to even think about it and I would never ask any one else to risk their life doing it. These cars have no real protection so if there were an accident the driver would likely not survive. Of secondary importance is the car itself, I don't want to risk totaling an original car and making my widow penniless. I am confident the car could do it even with the poor aerodynamics with just a rear end ratio change. I had it up around 170 and it was quite stable with the stock street nose wing.
We are working very hard on it right now trying to improve autox handling, I was going to do an update here when we are done. I know this will make some Cobra people very unhappy because of aesthetics but we are trying 19" wheels now in an effort to improve performance. We are testing 19x12 rears this weekend vs 18x12 to see if there is an advantage. I plan on pulling the engine after the Goodguys Scottsdale event in November. The redo will involve destroking it, new EFI, redoing the valve train and heads with a goal of 9000 rpm and less torque with possibly more hp. The crank will be much lighter and piston speed will be equal so we should get better engine acceleration and more range in gears.
I will post all that data when the engine is complete and dynoed.
Side Note: My Co-driver just won the 2016 SCCA Solo II Super Street National championship in my 991 GT3. He defeated a new NSX, several new Z06's and a whole bunch of Porsche's. We worked very hard developing a set up for the Porsche over the last 3 months. We can now concentrate on the Cobra again.
The GT3 is a really great car but we have found that the Cobra is still 1 to 2 seconds faster in an autox and that is with the secondaries of the throttle body wired shut to cut down on wheel spin. Both cars run similar 200 tread wear street tires. If we were on race tires the Cobra would really stretch the gap to the Porsche.