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CONSTRUCTION
This is the 6th Arntz Cobra ever built. Steve Arntz was one of the earliest builders of “Kit Cars”. Some say he started the whole industry. The frame was designed and built by Ron Butler. He was one of the original mechanics/engineers with Carol Shelby’s race team. The main members are massive 4” by 3” rectangular steel tubing. It has a 2” round steel roll hoop behind and in front of the cockpit. The frame places the engine 9” back from it’s location in original Cobras. The body is also very strong at 3/8th of an inch thick. These cars were made to last.
This fiberglass body and frame were previously owned by Bo Bergman, the Swedish engineer who invented the lock-up torque converter while working in California. He was planning to build a drag race car out of it, but changed his mind, sold it to me and moved back to Sweden.
Shortly after the purchase, I bought a Chevy Vega drag race car and pulled it all apart and used many of the pieces to build the Cobra. I fitted the engine to the frame in 1981 and worked hard to have a running car by 1986. The front suspension is custom built with Wilwood spindles and brakes. The rear suspension is from a 1965 Jaguar S-Type with aftermarket vented disk brakes built and reinforced by Kurt Hamilton. I’ve been constantly improving the car over the years. Many of the early drives ended up with a tow home and as the car got better, the towing distances got longer!
SOLO II
I ran a number of SCCA Solo2 events in the late eighties. This helped sort out the handling and made the car much more reliable as I broke all the older parts. I finally won a SCCA Championship event in C Modified in 1989 without breaking anything.
SAUGUS SPEEDWAY
I competed in the “Ego Challenge” races at Saugus Speedway and eventually won a first place trophy for 8 cylinder class in 1990. This was a very intimidating 1/3 mile oval track which is narrow, flat and has a very hard concrete wall around it. It was painted with alternating sections of red and white. I very nearly hit it while spinning out on a few occasions. The racers would always yell at me before the run saying things like, “make sure you hit the red part”!
RALLY
I started running rallies in 1991. Running rallies gave me adventures with my wife, teenage sons and friends. Rallies lead you on explorations of the incredible roads and scenery of Southern California. In 1992, I met Jeff Beasley and we joined the ITN Rally Team and became competitive. We were tied for first place in the very long Great San Francisco Rally of 1993 and won first place in the Starlite Rally in 1998. After Jeff got married and started having kids, I met Ron Dunlop. He has competed in Rodeo events and won many steer roping events. He is an avid car and rally enthusiast and is very competitive. He also builds great engines at his shop in Chatsworth and happens to be a great driver too. We started running rallies together on the Blazing Saddles Rally in 2002. We have run over a hundred rallies since then and have learned to be a pretty good team.
MONTE CARLO RALLIES
The Into the Night Rally Team (ITN) has been putting on Monte Carlo Rallies since the late 80’s. In those days, they competed with the Santa Barbara Sports Car Club, the Equinox Rally Team, the JPL Rally Team and Tri Counties Rally Team to put on the best events. They use the most scenic and interesting roads in Southern California to challenge contestants to be at checkpoints precisely on time. The ITN Team is the only one that is still sponsoring these events. They put on four or five a year and each one is unique and very challenging.
This car has competed in Santa Barbara’s Starlite Rally to Las Vegas 6 times. It tied for first place in the 1993 Great San Francisco Rally. It ran the Equinox Rally to Palm Springs. It has competed in ITN Rallies to San Diego and Santa Cruz. It has run rallies to Temecula and Laughlin, with two first place finishes. It also ran the three day No Frills, Iron Bottom Motoring Tour which ran north to Hollister and back on every twisty road you can think of.
TIME, SPEED and DISTANCE RALLIES
We usually run Santa Monica Sports Car Club’s First Friday Night Rally every month and the longer Saturday events about four times a year. We have competed in several SCCA TSD National Championship rallies and Porsche Club of America events.
TARGA CALIFORNIA RALLIES
My wife and I have run the Targa California events in 2015 and 2018. These are 3 day, non-competitive tours of fantastic California roads. During the 2018 rally, we ran “Parade Laps” of Willow Springs, Button Willow and Leguna Seca racetracks. One of the biggest highlights was driving over Nacimiento-Fergusson Rd to Pacific Coast Highway and through Big Sur with a bunch of Porsches chasing us!
COMFORT VERSUS SPEED
The Jaguar rear suspension uses KYB coilovers and custom springs by Ron Butler, so the suspension is relatively soft. With the Classic Cobra seats and the Yokohama tires, this Cobra is pretty comfortable. The Classic Chambered mufflers keep the noise down and make conversation between Driver and Navigator possible. We have two heaters, electric jackets, and double thick ski caps and jackets to get us through the coldest weather. We run in spite of cold, rain and sometimes, SNOW! We have run a few events with the hardtop on the car. However, we find that it restricts our vision so much that we would rather just face the elements. Our longest event was the Son of the Mother Road Rally in 2003. We were in the car for 15 hours and 15 minutes and finished in Laughlin, Nevada. We tied for first place with a score of 3 points.
RALLY EQUIPMENT
Over the years we have accumulated a lot of equipment. We use an Alfa Elite Rally Timer for TSD rallies and a Monaco Systems Timer for Monte Carlo Rallies. We use a custom made roller reader board to keep instructions from flapping around. We normally use a GPS to help us find roads, as in, “have we passed Armour Ranch Road, yet?” It’s also great way to find lunch in unfamiliar towns.
FUTURE
Please see SMSCC.ORG and ITNrally.org for upcoming events.