[REAL 1]

I agree with this last post and Hal's comments. While not a "racer" I know serious track guys that have made that very observation about an open/no top track car like the Cobra. Steve Sunshine for one actually sold his beautiful CSX4027 which was a dead nuts accurate reproduction of the Shelby #98 car for that very reason and bought a Winston Cup car for his track work instead.

While we can all debate the technical issues of chasis design, wheelbase, track width yaddy yaddy blah blah blah all night long about the Cobra the facts remain established that in its day it was a force to be reckoned with on the FIA race circuit and SCCA winning championships in both and against very competent and formidable competition. No one doubts the race prowess of the Ferraris, Grandsports, Jags that it raced against.

While Cobras in the right hands are still very fast today they are just outclassed by some of the high performance machines of today. Who can really be surprised that modern design and technology can outperform in many respects technology dating back 40+ years? Really. I am sure that my "09 Carrera C4S with PDK trans whose main rival is the Audi R8 with equivilent performance would likely turn a better track time then the Cobra at most tracks no less the FGT.

I agree that no other car still demands respect as overtly as the Cobra does and you always have that sense that true to its name it is like a deadly sinister snake waiting to bite and potentially fatally if mishandled.

Tom: Thanks. So there are front mid engined cars and rear mid engined cars and mid mid engined cars not to be confused with front front engined cars and rear rear engined cars. Got it. Just learned something.