Dick & jo's most excellent cobra adventure

[lamaluv]

The weather in Savannah was great and we got the Cobra out of the trailer and checked out a track that is on Hutchinson Island. The track had been used for vintage races in October and there was plenty of rubber in most of the corners and a few spots where the tire tracks went out into the pucker brush. There was a gate but it was opened so we went around the course a couple of times. We went at parade lap speed mostly as there were several places that traffic could get onto the track. it is a 2mile road course that is between the resort hotel and golf course. We didn't want to have a run in with a golf cart.









I did a video but will have to post it later once I figure out how to download it. It is a very cool course but in serveral spots there are concrete jersey barriers on both sides that don't look very forgiving.

On Sunday we met Flip Clifton at a car show in Claxton, GA. Flip has a nice red and white SPF with a stroked 427 FE engine. Flip's car and ours were the only Cobra's at the show and we both went home with "Top 20" trophies. They also had a trophy for long distance and when they found out that we had traveled from ID via CT for 4,300 miles we won that one.
























Cruising in the Cobra was a great way to see the Savannah area and though cool in the evening it was 70 by 10 am.

We are settled into our winter home in Riverview, FL and are looking forward to hooking up with the Deep South Cobra Club gang this winter. Over the next few weeks I will do a recap and update of our great adventure.

Dick

[flipscobra]

Hi Dick I was glad yall came up to the car show everyone was in awe of your fuel injected Cobra its awesome hope yall had a good time, the weather was just right, you got some good pictures of the race track at Hutchinson Island. Good to hear you made it to your winter home. Wish I had went with yall to the track. If you pass back bye Savannah give me a holler an I will cook you up a Low Country Boil. Have a great time Flip

[Bobcat]

Dick ... glad you found the track ok . The faster cars topped out at about 150 mph , but the Audi was in the 160 range . The BMW M1 I rode in reached about 135 mph according to the driver . They also let street cars run some laps under "controlled" conditions between races . The driver of the transporter told me they were hauling a$$ . I believe the cost is $40 to run the track ..... supposedly not at racing speeds . They tie this event in with a Concours d`Elegance over on Hilton Head if you`re interested next year .
As you said , there was plenty of rubber on the course , but no bent cars at all .
Claxton is a really neat town to visit .... guess you stocked up on fruitcakes for the holidays ??
If you`re interested , I can post a few of the pictures I took during the races .... unfortunately , no Cobras . Please post your video when you get the chance .
Welcome to the South !

Bob

[lamaluv]

Flip it was great meeting you and next time we are in the area we will sure take you up on that good " Southern Cooking".

Bob please post your track pictures and I'll try to get the vidio up soon. I'll bet the races were fun, especially riding in the BMW at track speed. I've had my car up to 140 on the long straight at Reno-Fernley but can't emagine going that fast at Hutchison Island.

The only complaint so far about our winter home is that I got hot and sweaty while unloading everything this afternoon





My wife says I better not be complaining about the heat.

[lamaluv]

I still don't have my video of our car on the track at Hutchison Island downloaded yet but here is a video link to the track.

http://vimeo.com/8088834

Dick

[lamaluv]

Well some of you might be wondering what has happened with the cobra adventure. After settling into snowbird life in Riverview we went to cruise nights, a Christmas car show and a Deeper South Cobra Club cruise to the Nav-A-Gator restaurant. Enjoyed the warm winter weather and cruising in the Cobra.

I kept putting off finishing up the details of the cars history with her past owners that I promised. In January I started to work on it and my computer hard drive crashed. It had all my recorded conversations, notes and pictures on it. The local computer guy said it was all gone but my computer wizard at home says he can retrieve it all for me. When we get home I guess we will see. I can recreate most of the info but it will be a royal pain.

On our way back from the Nav-A-Gator the car started running rough at freeway speeds and acted like it was running very rich. I found a tuner that was a EFI expert and took the car to his shop the 10th of February. He was very busy but promised to work on it as time allowed. When he got around to working on it the ECU wouldn't seem to hold the changes he made. He played with it for several days and finally talked to the folks at HALTECH and they felt that the ECU unit was probably bad and needed to be replaced. I had been having trouble finding someone that could tune the system so was reluctant to put the same one back in. I called Bob Reem at Imagine Injection to see what he recommended. He told me that they now were using a FAST EZ ECU on his injection system and had had no problems. So I ordered the FAST EZ and wiring harness from Bob and had it shipped to the tuner in Florida that was working on my car. He installed the new FAST ECU and started the car up on the Dyno and it ran for a few minutes then everything went dead. He calls FAST and they tell him to send the unit back and they will test it. It is now April and we have no car to take to the 24 Heurs de Florida but more importantly we are scheduled to leave for home April 16th. FAST puts a rush on a new ECU module (the original was fried) and we get it April 11th. The tuner puts it in the car and I'm supposed to pick the car up the 13th. Wow 3 days to spare. I don't want to say anything more as I'm afraid that I might jinx this.

On our trip home we are looking forward to doing some Cobra cruising in the cities that we are stopping in. We will be in Atlanta April 18-21, Birmingham April 22-25, Memphis April 26-29, Little Rock April 30-May 2, Branson, MO May 3-6, Colorado Springs, CO May 11-14 and be back home in Idaho the 18th of May. We would love to meet any of you along the way home.

Dick & Jo

[Don]

Dick......after leaving ERA/New Britain CT, what route did you follow heading South to FL ? Would you use the same route again or ? Hopefully, you cleared the normally heavy traffic in Southern CT into NY w/o difficulties.

.......thanks