Looking for Street Beasts/Innovative Street Machine Owners

[40k Later]

Well I guess I'll throw in my two cents worth. I bought my cobra from Street Beast in July 2001. A date was agreed on for payment. The two weeks preceeding that date I received no less than 7 calls from Street Beasts ensuring my payment would still be made on time. Well I made my payment on time and had the car shipped to Washington state. Everything was there as promised. Never heard from them since except to say the inner front fender liners were a little problem as they sent my two of the same side. They quickly rectified that situation.

Now my opinion. They have way too many salesmen and not enough technicians answering the phone. The assembly manual was like reading a comic book. Many times I called the factory for help on numerous occasions only to never get a call back. Finally I looked on their web site to see other owners cars and when their names were listed I simply went to 411.com for the city they resided and started calling all of the listing's until I made contact. Incidentally two of the three of the people I contacted had sold their cars. One word of caution...DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT PUT A BIG BLOCK FORD IN YOUR KIT. I opted for the Big block kit but the manual doesn't state what motor mounts to buy and because the engine is so wide I now have to trailer the car to God knows where to have custom exhaust fabricated. $800-1200 depending whom you talk to. Also due to the width of the 460 I have to cut out a section of a freshly painted firewall. They neglect to tell you any problems you may encounter with the big block but when you call the factory for help you will get that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach that you should've put a small block in it. There are many alterations you must perform to their kit to make it work.

The car is about 80% and some of the highlights are as follows:
460 Motorsport 535HP, NOS Cheater nitrous system, March pulleys, Griffin aluminum radiator 2 row 1 1/2 tubes, PST bushings everywhere they can be used on a car, larger diameter sway bars, Aerospace components 4 piston billet aluminum brake calipers with 12" cross drilled and slotted zinc plated rotors all the way around. Hurst line lock, Tremec TKO tranny from Mike Forte racing,
True trac locker with 31 spline Moser axles and C-Clip eliminators to name just a few.

It has been to say the least an experience. I can't say that the Street Beast kit is any harder than anyone elses because I haven't indulged myself in anyone else's kit.

[CTGUY]

Originally Posted by fly4val

Greetings,

I was/am one of the first 20 to order one of their Cobra Coupe stretch cars a year ago. I'm a big boy...6'2" and 250# so happy to have the addtional 8" in the chassis/coupe body.

Have worked very close with Peter Travis in Sales and Pete Charbonneau who designed the car. They have picked up on a couple of my suggestions, one being to change the scabbed-on roadster style license plate to a 'frenched' design, secondly, when they added the Corvette style taillights, I was very explicit that if I had wanted a vette, I would have bought a vette
...so they added back as an alternate, the conventional
Cobra taillights. I also made suggestions as to the location
of the gas fill cap and Pete made some sketches; however
they arent production yet.....so they may do something
different.

I visited there in early August hoping to see the early production; however, they were still tweaking it and as of this writing hoping to start delivering in the Jan/Feb time frame. I dont currently have a place to build it nor paid in full yet so I dont mind the delay.

They get a major 'attaboy' in my book from the time that they have spent with me on the phone (their toll free #) and during my August visit when I spent over three hours with the now retired President Ben Harrington. I'm impressed with the fastback design, the fact that the body and floor pans/dash/wheel wells are all molded together before you get it.....I used to be part owner of a body shop that did only vettes and am hyper sensitive to e-glass, s-glass and any fiberglass resins/materials so happy to have essentially just the mechanical stuff to do.....plus paint and interior of course.

I've read some of the earlier posts about their previous days but
think they're trying really hard to win the business back with responsive customer service and willingness to talk.....with the support they've given to me at this point, I think they're worth dealing with.....I'll post more when I receive my car, hopefully, in the next 90 days.....Val

Did you ever get your cobra? How did it turn out?

[dallas_]

Originally Posted by CTGUY

Did you ever get your cobra? How did it turn out?

If you check his profile, it shows his last activity was over 5 years ago.
That may answer your question.

[mdross1]

Originally Posted by 40k Later

Well I guess I'll throw in my two cents worth. I bought my cobra from Street Beast in July 2001. A date was agreed on for payment. The two weeks preceeding that date I received no less than 7 calls from Street Beasts ensuring my payment would still be made on time. Well I made my payment on time and had the car shipped to Washington state. Everything was there as promised. Never heard from them since except to say the inner front fender liners were a little problem as they sent my two of the same side. They quickly rectified that situation.

Now my opinion. They have way too many salesman and not enough technicians answering the phone. The assembly manual was like reading a comic book. Many times I called the factory for help on numerous occasions only to never get a call back. Finally I looked on their web site to see other owners cars and when their names were listed I simply went to 411.com for the city they resided and started calling all of the listing's until I made contact. Incidently two of the three of the people I contacted had sold their cars. One word of caution...DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT PUT A BIG BLOCK FORD IN YOUR KIT. I opted for the Big block kit but the manual doesn't state what motor mounts to buy and because the engine is so wide I now have to trailer the car to God knows where to have custom exhaust fabricated. $800-1200 depending whom you talk to. Also due to the width of the 460 I have to cut out a section of a freshly painted firewall. They neglect to tell you any problems you may encounter with the big block but when you call the factory for help you will get that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach that you should've put a small block in it. There are many alterations you must perform to their kit to make it work. The side pipe option is also less than ideal, picture the side pipe tubes that many people used on their cars in the 70's. They don't offer a header sidpipe combination that resembles the pipes used on the original.

The car is about 80% and some of the highlights are as follows:
460 Motorsport 535HP, NOS Cheater nitrous system, March pulleys, Griffin aluminum radiator 2 row 1 1/2 tubes, PST bushings everywhere they can be used on a car, larger diameter sway bars, Aerospace components 4 piston billet aluminum calipers with 12" cross drilled and slotted zinc plated rotors all the way around. Hurst line loc, Tremec TKO tranny from Mike Forte racing,
True trac locker with 31 spline Moser axles and C-Clip eliminators to name just a few.

It has been to say the least an experience. I can't say that the Street Beast kit is any harder than anyone elses because I haven't indulged myself in anyone elses kit. I can say that I believed a kit car was just that... a kit. I don't honestly think if a person is going to spend 40k + he should go this particular route.

CMC told me the same thing about a big block.Didn't matter I did it anyway,it's been great since finishing the car in 94.Modified the frame for under car exhaust,did not have to cut the firewall,originally bought 460 truck block hugger headers (iron heads) since then had headers custom made (aluminum heads at Tubular Automotive) Have dealt with Street Beasts (bought another hood,and was very pleased with the transaction.

[Beastly]

I bought a completed CMC from second owner-whoever assembled this car originally did a great job, I have not had any problems with it. NOw as long as I dont need any parts I should be just fine. Car cam with Assembly manual from (95ish I think).

[RedEye]

I just picked up a half built kit from a local guy who was unable to finish. The biggest trouble i'm having at the moment (besides the frame being crooked right out of the factory) is finding the correct headers and side pipes. FFR and others have a different routing method so it's a big challenging to know where to source these. Any suggestions helpful! Thanks!

[mdross1]

Look for a shop that builds headers we took ours to Tubular Automotive in Mass. at the the time were the best around.When setting the body you will need to use shims to keep from stressing the glass.
You say the frame is crooked? you mean twisted or the diagonals off?

[RedEye]

With the frame, i mean that it is out of square on more than one axis. My builder noticed and basically cut it apart and rewelded everything. So i guess its custom

[joyridin']

Whatever happened to the OP on this thread? I haven't seen a post from him in ages. He was building the twin turbo Street Beast.

[EarlsflyinCobra]

Well,they tell me the back surgery went good, still in pain, but hopefully that will wear off soon. I was in room 801 at Ormond hospital for an overnight stay. Forgot to get Tanya to leave my glasses so I couldn't see the screen on the Tv to post too much.Went home on Thursday around noon and rested most of the weekend. Went back to work today, not sure if I'll make it a full day or not, between thee pain pills and the muscle relaxers I'm feeling quite peaceful, if you know what I mean . Not going to try and do much today but get caught up on paperwork and computer work, maybe try and hire a couple of new students for the new semester. Oh well, I'll just play it by ear and see how the day goes. I told Tanya to check with me when she got off at 1:00 because I might be ready to go home by then .

[RedEye]

Almost rolling. 315 FFR replica wheels look sweet, photos soon!

[Jford1187]

does any one have a assembly manual for a street beasts kit.

[EarlsflyinCobra]

Yes I have the original and a copy I made.