Cobra power, how much is enough?

[REAL 1]

Originally Posted by twin turbo

Real 1, just now saw your follow up post. Sounds much more reasonable. Honestly, my car, a hot rodded replica, is very controllable with over 500 rwhp. I also now have a full width roll bar and side bars for safety. Cheers.

Correct.. I understood this thread to really be directed towards overweight, out of shape middle aged guys wearing Kahki shorts and sandels at car shows bragging about the 700+ hp in their car. That kind of power and torque in a 90 inch wheel base skate board weighing in the neighborhood of 2500 lbs with all the safety features of a soap box derby car is a receipe for trouble ( a Cobra with original spec power is trouble enough if not handled with respect). Many specialty insurance companies realized this and have gotten out of the Cobra repica market for this reason.

And yes, the guys you mentioned like the one running his car competitviely at the Ultima Street challenge (heavily modded car to my understanding as you noted too), or Morris Clement certainly are far from the show and shine guy with an over powered under set up car. Those guys are competing at the top of the game and know what they want and need and undoubtedly have the car set up and ability to deal with the increased power. So no, I wouldn't roll my eyes at those guys. But they are in the minority with cars with that kind of power.

Dick Smith? What can I say? Certainly a man in the pantheon of Cobra drivers and competitors. A legend. It is well known that in order to get a Cobra roadster to 198 mph you needed seroiusly more power then 500hp based on areodynamics. Since Dick didn't have a coupe he got more power. And no, I certainly wouldn't roll my eyes if Dick Smith said he was looking for more power in his Cobra.