Shamrock Cobra

[Dickey]

I am very excited to see how this develops. I recently purchased a Cobra you guys built in Cape Town back around 2001 and shipped to Dr. Crawford in Chattanooga under Shamrock Autocraft. IMO it's built better than the magority of replicas/kits from that era. Both the body and chassis are very solid and it really shows when it comes to ride quality. I took the car all the way back to the frame and went through everything. I was not disappointed with what I found. My only critcism is the automatic trans and lack of radius arms in the rear. Otherwise I wouldn't change a thing. Even the top from Soft Top Trimmers is still in great shape. This is a picture from the early 2000s. My car is the silver one on the end. I absolutely love my Shamrock and wish you the best with your new endeavors.

[ljhayden]

Hi Brent,
So glad you are enjoying your Shamrock Cobra. Your one will have been built after I sold the company in 1994 as I know that the new owners were shipping cars to Tennessee. I was sorry when a partneship dispute later led to the liquidation of the company I started in 1984. On the positive side this did allow me to re-register the Shamrock name for my latest Cobra replica.
You do not need radius arms on the rear suspension providing that the lower control arms are gusseted. Dr Andy Yates from the mechanical engienering dept of my local university (UCT) did extensive testing of these components under load by fitting them with strain gauges on a car I provided him, and he found that they were fine if we gusseted them by welding on trianglular plates at the fulcrum end. If your car has these you have nothing to worry about.The reason that I later designed a new tubular backbone type chassis was to increase torsional stiffness (a simple ladder frame chassis tends to flex too much at speed for good high speed handling and stability) and this also allowed me to lower the seats by 4 inches in my latest Shamrock Cobras, which pleases the tall guys.
Hope your Shamrock Cobra will continue ot bring you lots of fun!
Regards,
Les Hayden

[ljhayden]

Hi Brent,
So glad you are enjoying your Shamrock Cobra. Your one will have been built after I sold the company in 1994 as I know that the new owners were shipping cars to Tennessee. I was sorry when a partneship dispute later led to the liquidation of the company I started in 1984. On the positive side this did allow me to re-register the Shamrock name for my latest Cobra replica.
You do not need radius arms on the rear suspension providing that the lower control arms are gusseted. Dr Andy Yates from the mechanical engienering dept of my local university (UCT) did extensive testing of these components under load by fitting them with strain gauges on a car I provided him, and he found that they were fine if we gusseted them by welding on trianglular plates at the fulcrum end. If your car has these you have nothing to worry about.The reason that I later designed a new tubular backbone type chassis was to increase torsional stiffness (a simple ladder frame chassis tends to flex too much at speed for good high speed handling and stability) and this also allowed me to lower the seats by 4 inches in my latest Shamrock Cobras, which pleases the tall guys.
Hope your Shamrock Cobra will continue to bring you lots of fun!
Regards,
Les Hayden