How to take the Cobra to the next level...

[Dangerous Doug]

I've been thinking of how to take my Cobra to the next level, for everything I wanted in a 289 FIA Cobra is accomplished: 331 stroker, TKO-600, glossy black paint, leather seats, driving lights, fire suppression system. My remaining work on my Cobra is comprised of oil changes, tuning, and occasionally repainting the side pipes. Oh, and washing, polishing and waxing it.

I drive it everywhere. Down to the grocery store, out to dinner, down to the hardware store / lumber yard. It gets a lot of attention, but there has to be something more. I thought of custom paint, or a bigger, more badass engine, louder pipes, blower, nitrous... but nothing seemed necessary or even useful, and certainly didn't add to the uniqueness of my own Cobra.

Then it occurred to me: Nobody, and I mean n-o-b-o-d-y, has installed a lumber rack on their Cobra! Think of it, take a rusty (ahem, "patina") lumber rack from an old pickup and mount it on a Cobra! Talk about getting your Cobra to stand out! I thought about mounting the rack to the quick-jacks, but that wouldn't look right at all, and the quick jacks most likely couldn't hold the weight of a stack of railroad ties. I figure it would be best to mount it directly to the frame through the fiberglass, like the roll bar.

Anyhow, now that I've mentally made this jump it occurred to me that I couldn't be alone and some of you guys may have other brilliant ideas ready to grace a Shelby Cobra.

So, any ideas? Seen anything similar or along the same lines? Pictures?

DD

[Brooklyn-427]

Fit a Chebby motor..... Think of it as a near factory upgrade

[1985 CCX]

Snow tires...........

Maybe studded so you can burn rubber and make sparks...

[Dirty Harry]

I've thought about mounting a propane tank in the trunk and running a line to each sidepipe, with a nozzle near each outlet. Then mount a spark igniter near each nozzle. Put a solenoid on the throttle linkage so that, when the throttle goes wide open, the gas flows and the igniter sparks. The resulting blue flame would shoot several feet out of the sidepipe, propelled by the exhaust blast. Great photo opportunity, especially at night.
Oh, and the studded snow tires, too.

[RodKnock]

Rebody in aluminum? Call 1-800-KIR-KHAM.

[albanycobra]

or 1800 Absolute Pace.....buy from Australia and save some dollars...just saying

[xb-60]

Originally Posted by Dangerous Doug

.....Then it occurred to me: Nobody, and I mean n-o-b-o-d-y, has installed a lumber rack on their Cobra! Think of it, take a rusty (ahem, "patina") lumber rack from an old pickup....

Doug, have you been drinking?

OK, serious suggestion....what about a real man's gearbox? Change out that TKO for a Toploader, and if you're feeling really serious, go for a CR Toploader. Just think or it man, 60mph ....65mph in first gear? What about a solid roller or solid flat tappet cam to go with it? I can just hear that sound now, changing up at 7000

Cheers,
Glen

Oh, another one....4 x 48IDAs....just think of the envious looks when you open the hood and show off those babies

[Paintwerks]

Hell, why not just fit a bar fridge while you are at it? ;-)

It's a Cobra. They were not intended to have lumber racks fitted to it. It's your car and you can do what you please, but why ruin a good thing? You should just appreciate it for what it is, and what it was meant to be.

[Snake2998]

A fake VW Beetle motor sticking out of the rear - helps answer the "Is it real or a kit?" questions! And it guarantees that someone will take you on at the traffinc lights.

[strictlypersonl]

Just wait until we finish this FIA body conversion!

[Tommy]

I always liked this classic concept: combination aero wing and fish scaling table. If you made it a little taller and put another on the front, you could easily haul lumber on them.

[Xack]

An electric motor, seriously the torque on those are massive, acceleration is neck breaking, but after a 30 minute run you have to park it all night to recharge batteries.

[*13*]

Ladder Bars & N.O.S, Duude!

[Xack]

Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang wings ! Orange paint with a Rebel flag on the hood and "Dixie" horn! The ultimate Cobra dude. No wait I'm thinking Ultimate MOPAR! Sorry!

[mdross1]

The creative juices are flowing be careful I can feel the pot stirring. I say tub the car, wheelie bars, skinny's up front and go prowling.

[Brooklyn-427]

Scratch build another... full comp 427 dragon snake with aeroscreens, high comp, solid roller 527 stroker, 8 stack injection,dry sump, front and rear braced full width roll bar, twin fuel fillers, full aeroquip, 16" Lola T70 mk111b mag wheels etc etc

[Dangerous Doug]

So, for those that are asking: I haven't been drinking---but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Some great ideas here. In addition to the lumber rack I'm thinking I'll have to go with the electric motor, but I can't go silent. I'll need one of those sound systems that mimics the sound of other cars (typically used on Honda Accords so they can sound like a Ferrari).

I do like the idea of the VW-based "kit car" look. Perhaps a mock glasspack mounted horizontally across the rear end? I've always liked that look...

Going electric, I figure I can add solar panels to the lumber rack to make it look like the Chaparral wings (they experimented with back AND front wings, so that'll look totally cool on the lumber rack). I can add a rake adjuster for changing the wing attitude to either go for speed (flatten) or corner (raked), OR adjust for the position of the Sun. It'll be more expensive with solar panels than the scrap lumber fin pictured above.

Snow tires! Gotta have snow tires---especially here in California near Santa Cruz. Snows kinda like sand, right?

While working on this, I'm sure plenty of beer would be consumed. Thus, rebody in aluminum is just a pile of beer cans away. Tin snips and scotch take ought to do it.

DD

[Buzz]

I second the combo aero wing and fish scaling table idea from Tommy's post #11 - awesome!!

[Xack]

I have done some research on electric cars. You can get kits to retro-fit pretty much anything common. There is a porches 914 which I've seen converted on a blog page. Practicality for anything but drag racing is out the window. I'm sure a cobra conversion would be sweet. However, the only reason to have a Cobra in the first place is to have a big block engine almost at your control. The electric version would be lacking in rumble. It would be almost as bad as putting a 4 cylinder in one, or converting it to adopt a VW engine in the rear. Pee-ewe!