folks, after nearly 6 weeks, my 2003 Shell Valley Cobra finally arrived on Thursday afternoon from Cashiers, NC. I'm the 2nd owner. Visually the car looks great, but performance-wise/drivability wise, well the car certainly needs work. The car will NOT see a track day (mainly because right now it's not very street worthy, much less TRACK worthy). My real intention in getting the car is just to enjoy wonderful Saturday's and Sunday's cruising Maryland's back roads and maybe strafing a few apexes. Maybe an occasional meet up with folks or low key car "show". So nothing serious. Just want to hear the V8 and blast around a bit. An occasional A-hole burnout will be mandatory. Peeling out will be constant, except around infants, expectant/young mothers and Johnny Law.
First order of business are the anemic brakes. Yes I've discovered the discs aren't 'powered' but geez, these brakes are ... well ... <pick any adjective for lethargic/horrible>. I'm hoping a rebuild/cleaning of the calipers, along with some magic brake pads will awaken the brakes. (I'd just as soon put sintered iron pads on and destroy the discs to get good brake performance). I'm just not up to a Wilwood brake upgrade at this time...
The clutch is a killer. Long, long throw and massive amount of push needed. I can't imagine why this clutch is so hard to push in and why the pedal travel is SOOOO long? (As for the amount of force needed... I just can't imagine there's any kind of performance clutch in this little 302 motored car. so it's a huge mystery right now.
Suspension? Does the car actually HAVE a suspension? Not sure what the issue is but on smooth pavement the car rattles and vibrates like a city bus with 2,000,000 miles on it. I can only wonder. Fortunately this car came with the optional tubular A arms, so I'm hoping that makes it easier to address the shutters / rattles.
The motor is ... well .. umm ... there's a motor in the engine bay. It's a 1979 302 0.060 over with 1895 iron heads. A Edelbrock intake sits between the heads and some kind of Weber carb tops it off. Supposedly there's an Elgin .280 cam. I have no ideal if that is the intake duration or cam lift. The motor revs leisurely, protesting from idle. It'll rev but really doesn't want to. That's a winter project. On the plus column the car does have a shortened 9"Ford rear differential. Ratio? Don't know.
The last major *itch is the non-adjustable seats set all the back to the rear compartment wall. I'm guessing the original was very tall, but the seats are BOLTED down directly. They aren't on adjustable racks. Funny, the owner bolted blocks of wood on the clutch and brake pedals with this configuration.
One item, that's NOT a *itch is that the car didn't come with a tonneau cover. Should I be going with a SVC tonneau or go to a local upholstery shop?
Anyway any assistance / suggestions are very much appreciated. I know there's a ton of good information here and I'll be searching away. Send me links or give me the Cliff Notes version of how to fix/address!
BTW my weekend camping trip to Watkins Glen for the SVRA Vintage Grand Prix was fabulous. Friday weather was breathe taking. Only two Cobras showed up, a FFR (which I think was a promo car to sell FFR) and another kit in the show field that I couldn't find the kit manufacturer for). The racing was fantastic. The Saturday weather very, very nice, except rain on Saturday night. Sunny Sunday, highs in the mid 80s.
Many, many thanks in advance for any assistance, guidance, suggestions, etc
Cheers! DaveK