[Tommy]

My comments are more generic than specific to your car, but maybe you'll find something helpful here. ... I had a carburetor clearance problem in one of my cars (non-Cobra) and discovered the following.

1. The most critical dimension was the distance from the top of the carburetor to the inside of the top of the air cleaner. A drop base air cleaner can allow a big filter, but if there isn't enough room for the air to make the turn into the top of the carburetor, it can affect performance.
2. The air cleaner is merely the top of the engine/heads/intake manifold/carburetor/air cleaner assembly. Lowering any of these relative to the frame can increase clearance between the air cleaner and the hood.
3. For example, you can lower the engine mounts, change to heads to lower the intake mounting level, mill the intake, or remove any unneeded material from the top of the carburetor.
4. You can also gain clearance by raising the hood/body relative to the frame.
5. Making all the changes to just one item (i.e., raising the body) may introduce new problems.
6. Making multiple small changes may produce the best result, but it requires the most work/money.
7. If clearance is ok except when the engine moves under power, you can modify the engine mounts to restrict engine movement.