44-Year-old Cobra Wins Street Car Challenge

[Cobra #3170]

Originally Posted by csx4910

I would love to know what suspension mods and what engine you are running? I saw a referrence to it not being the original engine but no details as to what is in there now. An absolutely gorgeous car!!

Thanks,
I'll give you the short version, engine is Shelby FE block, Blue Thunder raised port heads (it only needs 29 D. advance at peak power), MSD, Carrillo rods, Victor jr. manifold- highly modified, Ti Valves, 14.7 to 1, 1650 cfm Throttle body, seq. EFI really big roller cam, peak power 7600 peak torque 5500, headers are 2 1/8 primary 3.5 collectors. This engine has a Daley dry sump and Stefs tank and never leaks oil as long as it is running (13" of vacuum) CID = 498 with a Moldex billet crank. Engine by Kinetics in Michigan

The suspension is really where the car shines, the roll centers move together, it has 70% ackerman and a .5" front scrub radius so that turn in is very good and predictable. Front wheels are 18x10.5, rears are 18x11.5. Tires are 335 rears and 295 fronts. There is virtually no bump steer and minimal front anti dive geometry. Camber angles are -3.0 front and -2.0 rear, rear toe is -.185" total, front is - .060 total, wheel rates are in the 300 #/ " range, rear bar is 1", front is 1.25". Brakes are 12" Wilwoods with 4 pot Dynalites, I built jigs and fabricated the suspension from 4130 and then heat treated it. I use NMB rod ends (the best in my opinion) the shocks are Penske three ways with appropriate valving for my unsprung weight and spring rates. Wheels are Jongbloed pin drives. The frame is sleeved for stiffness in bending and torsion. It took about 5 years of tuning and tweaking to get it to handle like it does now. We went through 15 pairs of springs getting it to this point along with three shock revalvings. I can honestly say the car is really easy to drive now; it never does anything unexpected, unlike past incarnations. I have a 12 to 1 power steering gear that I made from an Appleton short track rack and the throttle has a very slow cam and cable system to help with modulation. The car was undriveable with standard linkage because it would blow the tires off when you gassed it. This throttle is so slow now that it is very easy to hold on the threshold of wheel spin at any time. Weight with all the extra junk is about 2370 with all fluids, rear wheel HP in the 670 range not as much as some but just right for this car. It actually feels like a modern car with no evil habits only it weighs a lot less than most and has more power than most too. It has a good combination for low speed handling, acceleration and track handling. Not perfect for any one event but pretty good for all events taken together.