Wicked Bad Cobra Bite
 

Thursday night an old friend called me after 6 months of being out of touch. We talked about the usual, family other friends etc.. After about a half hour of catch up conversation I invited him to join me at a local car show. Dan showed up around 9am Saturday & crawled into the beast. I should note that Dan's medical condition has gone down hill in the last year or so with diabetes & other conditions. In fact he no longer works & has just been placed on permanent disability. Anyway, we started with a run to the bank & then headed to the car show. The show was larger than we expected and we sat in traffic for about 10 minutes, waiting to get to the show location. All the while the Beast temp kept creeping up getting closer to 100 degrees (C) 100c is sorta a boundary for me I don't like the see the beast go over that mark. Finally we get to the show location & back into our directed spot. I crawl out & sign up @ the registration table. On the way back I see Dan talking to a fellow car buff & looking down @ his back legs! Did I mention Dan was wearing shorts!:eek: Dan had forgot about the side pipes and having diabetes, the nerves in his legs have been quite affected. Dan had three Cobra bites. Two on one leg & one on the other all about the size of a dollar bill. :CRY: But because of his diabetes; he hadn't felt the skin burning off his legs. His skin was still on the pipes in some spots:eek::CRY::eek: He took it like a real trooper & said it only started to hurt when he placed some ice on the worst burn. He said he remembered the pipes but for some reason forgot about them. That is, until he smelled his skin!:(:eek: It's amazing what diabetes can do to your nervous system. Looking @ those burns I would have needed pain killers out the Wazoo! I gave him the Best of Show Trophy my car won as a memento. I did feel really bad for him, but Dan said he now had a good story to go along with the coming scars. I am wondering if anyone else has any recent Cobra Bite events to speak of?

Geez...you peeps with live side pipes speak of 'Cobra Bites' like they're some sort of war story or a rite of passage!

Every time I read these stories, it completely affirms my decision NOT to run live side pipes on my Cobra when I finish it. I have 3 young kids under 10 and there's no way in hell I'd present any opportunity to scar them for life both mentally and physically (or any other innocent child or adult for that matter) just to have 'cool' live side pipes. It's just not worth it IMHO. YMMV obviously.

I wonder however why you guys running live side pipes on street drivers do so when you know they can easily hurt people who don't know about the dangers they present (and you can also easily forget to warn people about them)???

Ouch! I hope the burns heal for him without any further complications.

Paintwerks, I guess your concern about young children and risk of burns also relates to pretty much any motorcycle on the road today.

Two years ago I burned my leg on a side pipe at the London Cobra Show and by the time I got home I had a nasty infection. I immediately put side pipe shields on my Cobra build.

They make sidepipe heatshields for just that purpose. Relatively inexpensive, easy to attach and some actually add to the appearance of the sidepipe imo. I expect being a AUS resident where emissions and noise are more closely scrutinized for registration had nothing to do with your decision :LOL: If you plan to run dummy sidepipes on yours, put the heatshields on so you can really fake 'em out!
_

I burned my leg (third degree) the med bills were $1700.00 I have a pic in my CC album.
My burn pic looks like a heart tattoo. I hope your friend gets good medical care a diabetic
could lose a leg for real. I put my feet on my bottom seat cushion now to enter the snake.
I also worry about others getting burned . I am going to look into getting welding
blankets (easiest fix). I don't want the car if I have to run pipes under the car .

The solution is the welding blanket technique when entering and exiting the car.

A welding blanket is a must. It works so well we place one on the kitchen stove top after cooking dinner. Been doing it for years. **):LOL::LOL:

Seriously.......step over the exhaust. And be a considerate owner by reminding your passenger/s of the potential hazard. ;)

David

If anything the heatshields really do work and as said can be made to look great..

Do you have an stove, oven or fiireplace in the house? Hope their friends don't either. Wife have a flat iron? Wow you should see the burns they can cause. It's all about being careful.

A cobra with side pipes is perhaps the coolest looking car on the planet. That being said, i went with a full undercar exhaust. Not only is it safer around my two children, i definitely drive it more than i would if i had to wear ear plugs. Much easier on the ears. To each his own...

No bitey here!

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d.../Newpics19.jpg

I used to ride bikes and would always remind my pillions about the exhaust when getting on the bike.

But the Cobra has a hot exhaust on either side and it's very low. The Cobra naturally draws attention to itself and yes, curious peeps (adults and kids alike) are drawn to it like moths to a flame and will want to peer inside. Yes, my kids know the stove and iron are hot and don't go near them...but at a car show it's impossible to hover around the Cobra warning everyone about the hot pipes.

Don't get me wrong....I would absolutely love live side pipes. They are super cool! I will investigate the shields if it really will stop people getting burned. Legally, we actually can run live side pipes here now. I just need to know how loud they really are because being a pilot, my hearing is important to me and I don't want to contribute to my own or my passenger's hearing loss!

Thanks for all the feedback.

Cheers all!

Sime

PS. At the very least, yes I will run dummy side pipes, although they'll probably be matt or satin black so I wont need faux shields.

It's only a faux shield if it's attached to a faux sidepipe and they do come in black :)
_

While I love the looks of my S/C. I am (have been)making plans to convert my AC back to a street version AC like CSX 3116 that I grew up in. If all goes well the conversion will be done by this coming spring. So there won't be any more passengers needing hospital because of Cobra Bites With two planned sets of electric cut outs I'll still be able to hit the strip or track depending the days requirements. As well as cruse for long periods w/o having to wear ear plugs. Who knows, I may even install a mp3 player with speakers for longer cruses. By the way I did warn Dan about the pipes before we left the house. But I forgot to do so again when we got to the show :( Sigh! lessons learned.

Your friend ,who has diabetes, maybe in for a long healing process.

Tell your friend to get medical attention immediately. This is not to be messed with. Ice will not do him any good and may hurt him worse since his nerve endings are impaired.

Many passengers. Not a single burn.
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/c...028830-458.jpg

Got a nasty one myself about a month ago, took over a week for it to stop hurting and begin healing. I know better about stepping over the pipes, but was getting out with my left leg when my shoe came off my right foot. Then I made my fatal mistake by leaning back to retrieve my right shoe which pulled my left leg right onto the pipe!

OUCH!

I always tell whoever is riding with me when we shut the car off to watch the pipes!

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but couldn't find anything newer. I'm a new owner of a MKIII with sidepipes (and a 351). Has anyone come up with a kit to replace the sidepipes with a full underbody exhaust system? Aside from the burn hazzard to curious onlookers, the noise is irritating to me after a few miles. So I want to swap out the sidepipes with something that will make the car more pleasant to me and others. Thoughts? No, selling it and buying a Prius isn't the solution...:LOL: