Sorry, this is going to be a little long. I am just about done building my car so I have been looking for my next project. It may be another Cobra or not. As part of the process, just one of the issues I have been evaluating is seating position in the car. It’s tougher for bigger guys to fit in these cars. What got me on to this was I have a friend that has a Kirkham and I was riding in it at the track one day and I noticed that I sat lower in his car than mine. This made it so you are not having to look through the top bar of the windshield. Anyway after doing some measuring I found the difference in this case was the cowl rolled up higher from the doors than mine by about 1 ¼” right in the middle of the seat. This caused me to start looking at other manufacturers and how their bodies and frames differed. An example of which I was at a car show recently and there where two Shell Valley cars next to each other. I guess over the years they had used two bodies, so one rear deck cowl ramped up quicker than the other, making it look like the driver was actually setting lower in the car. This also affects things like how the roll bar looks. I then ran across a You Tube video on Pacific Roadsters that sparked my interest of how the various manufacturers address the issue or not.
I then started contacting the major companies and asked for specific measurements of their cockpit, and most of them sent them to me. I got to tell you that was very enlightening. I then started searching for pictures of these manufactures frames to see if it was the body or frame that was causing the difference in the measurements. Lone Star even did a You Tube video on all their measurements. I would highly recommend that anyone that is looking at building a car go through this process. It’s not just if you fit but where your head is for taller torso guys. Being 6’ 2” if I had gone through this process I would not have bought the car I did, even though the measurements are very similar to some of the major brands. In the end I found the two major factors were either a dropped floor pan or a body that has a cowl that ramps up higher. I am not going to go into all the other factors that effect which is best but I like the frames that are strong and have no cowl shake. The ones that when you go over a dip in the road the gaps do not change in the doors. No question in my mind that for a ladder frame ERA has one of the best, but there are others that are very good to.
Over the years I have e-mailed Barry McGill,
Fiberglass 34 Coupes and Cobras by McGill Manufacturing, who use to be partners in B&B, which is the car I own. He had asked me what I would improve with the car if I could. I really respect companies that do this. Another company that did this was Hurricane, which has resulted in a better car. I had sent Barry a list of items, and then got onto this issue. He said he was interested, and I had sent him pictures of various ways to accomplish the seating. I have never bought anything from Barry nor I have I met him is person.
I guess he took this issue serious and had been working on improving his frames to get a better seating position. A few days ago he sent me some pictures of what he is doing to improve the Cobras he builds. One thing for sure, he is an excellent welder and fabricator, and I really respect the guys that actually work with their hands.
I think anyone that is in the market should consider this issue when evaluating brands. These are the pictures Barry sent me of how he has dropped the frame seating down 1”, while maintaining a very strong frame.
