Hello to all the New England area Cobra enthusiasts. My name is Pat Burke and I'm and avid Ford (especially FE) enthusiast, engine builder, and racer. My business is Ocean State Performance. I'm posting this at the urging of some of my friends and customers. Some of these guy's involved in the "Cobra scene" tell me that they had a hard time finding a quality performance machine shop and engine builder in this area that was familiar with, or interested in, building FE's. Based on that I figured I'd let you know that we are here if you've had the same problem. We are pretty HARDCORE FE guys and would love to help any way that we can.
Our shop test car is a '66 Fairlane that's drag raced in NMCA Pro Nostalgia. The class is based on a wieght per cubic inch system and is a "heads up" class so the first one to the finish line wins. It's kind of like NHRA Pro Stock but with fullsize old cars powered by FE's, Hemi's, and 409's! Our engine is an all aluminum 434 ci FE with a Shelby block, Dove raised intake & exhaust heads, Scat billet crank, 15.8 to 1 compression, Danny Bee belt drive, a one of a kind CARBONFIBER fabricated tunnelram intake, and lots of hand made parts. The engine makes 850+ horsepower naturally aspirated. No blower, no nitrous, just pure 9500 RPM FE HORSEPOWER. That's 1.96 HP per cube which, as far as I can tell, makes it cube for cube the most powerful naturally aspirated FE in the country. Needless to say, to stay at the top in this class, you're always trying something new and consequently we've had the opportunity to learn alot along the way.
We've done a lot of FE work for Nostalgia car enthusiast all over the country with customers in Wisconson, Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, Maryland, etc. but maybe never did enough to meet more people right here in our own area.
We are working on a pretty intense engine and drivetrain for a Connecticut customers Cobra. It's a 500 ci engine with a Shelby block, Edelbrock heads, billet crank, Oliver rods, TWM injection system, and Electromotive ECU and distibutorless ignition. Its going in front of a T-56 w/ a McLeod clutch in a Kirkham aluminum bodied car. We also recently finished up two mild performance 390's for customers in RI. One is in a '62 Mercury Monterey and the other in a '65 T-Bird.
Well, I hope this didn't end up sounding TO much like a shameless ad. Just figured I'd put the info out there if we can be of any help to anyone. If nothing else stop by if you're in the area. We'll fire up the race car, shake the building, and make your eyes water. It could be a long winter and you can always use a good whiff of race fuel during the off season.
Thanks for your time,
Pat Burke
Ocean State Performance
(401) 737-1495
www.oceanstateperformance.com
(site under construction)
P.S. Glad I foung this site, lots of good info. I'm inquiring about a banner ad at the top of the page and plan to support the site in any way we can.