geez... I guess I'm the resident candya$$... I've had my Backdraft for a little over a month & have yet to break the rear tires loose- (maybe I'm still scared of it!) ...and that's with an aluminum 427 Windsor stroker (~615 hp/tq). I was actually quite surprised at how easy it was to drive (despite the stiff clutch & offset pedal position). Y'all have lead feet!

Slick61

I will have to commend you for not opening up that car yet. Yea she is kind of docile and sort of easy to drive, but she is toying with ya. She can be evil, just hit the rev limiter(shift point) in 1st thru 4th gear and try to keep her straight, that candy a$$ will soon turn to a puckered one with of course a big shtt eating grin on the old face. I can honestly say that I speak from experience and loved every bit of it. No seriously you have to respect big horsepower in little cars then evrybody gets along just fine.

DON

A LOT of this is highly dependant on the gear ratios and tires. My old Excalibur had a STOCK 302 with a 9" 3.5 rear gear and an ultra low FIRST gear trans. Heck I could fry the tires all day in that thing! Had to be real careful coming out of the corners to keep the back end from coming around.

Now my current ERA has more than twice the h.p. the Excal did, but I can handle it easier! Higher rear gear, higher first gear and really good traction make all the difference in the world!

It's not the horse power, it's how the car is setup.

My car was running over 600 on both HP and TQ and it put it down really well with the sticky tires. I could still spin them if I want to obviously but when out driving hard I could leave the corners deep in the pedal without problems.

Setup and tires make a huge difference.

thanks 4 the advice. first time i took it out almost piled it up took it back to the shop and realized bothfront tires were toed out and i had the rear coilovers all the way down that explains why it felt like the front tires came off the ground when i mashed the throttle and that it shot to the left when it came back down. I learned a valuable lesson and the car is still in one piece, WHAT A RUSH if it ever stops raining ill take out again and see if my new setup works.:D

Don-

... and I must commend you on doing such a nice job on the build. So far, the beast has been pretty flawless, mechanically. It's not too happy tooling around town, that's for sure. Bill had swapped out the Da Vinci for a Holley 770 & added Rhoads lifters. He also had mufflers welded in. Surprisingly, there was no significant loss of horsepower (according to the dyno sheets)- still running right at ~ 450 hp/tq at the wheels. I've toyed with the idea of toning down the cam a little, but will reserve judgement on that issue til after I get a driving course under my belt (October). The lack of sufficient vacuum for the brakes has freaked me out on occasion. May try adding a vacuum reservoir. A less aggressive cam, with a little less overlap would probably help that out a little?

Yea, so far, my fear of what the car is capable of has kept me out of trouble. I'm not the type to light it up at stoplights (not yet, anyways). The jog in the 1-2 shift has given me headaches. For some reason, it's hard for me to execute smoothly & quickly, so I usually don't hit the loud pedal til 2nd. The 2-3 & 3-4 shifts are cake tho.

BTW... how much do you know about the paint work (repair) that was done. I can tell that the front/passenger side has had some work done, tho the metallic seems to blend pretty flawlessly. Looks like the clear was partially re-shot, & is a little rough right on the top of the fender & you can see some blending right down the center of the headlight/turn signal. Have been wanting to buff it out a little, but would like to have a better idea of what was done, i.e. make sure the clear was re-shot on the front corner. I started to get a little red on my rag (was working by hand to start), so freaked out & stopped there. Also, did it have the bubble on the rear fender (driver's side) originally? At least it LOOKS like a bubble, or a very heavy touchup.

anyways, sorry to get so far off-topic...

suffice it to say the car can exhibit a Jeckyl & Hyde personality. Being aware of the car's abilities is the first step to avoiding trouble. Knowing the car's limits... well, that's why I'm taking a driving course. I doubt that I'll actually explore the car's limits, but at least will hopefully gain some skills in controlling it.

Run & Gun website
 

ByronRace Byron if you go to the Run&Gun.net all the info in on there. This is the 20th year. They will let you run your car in the class it fits. As far as safety, there is a check list that must be done to race for the 3 days. Most of the cobras there are running the stock roll bar that came with the kit. The PRO class are running full cages. This event is about having FUN and meeting a great group of people.%/ I run in the street class with street tires of 220 thread or higher. I added to my car a high hoop to protect my head, and a driver door bar. There is an understanding that you will bring a sound and safe car to this event. 20 years and a few accidents and nobody hurt mad. Some car where heavily damaged but where fixable. Gateway has added softwalls to the main track and has a safety team there for the whole event. We like the event when the safety team is not needed.:) You are more than welcome, the first stock body cobra without power adder to run 9.99 is still out there. 10.20 is the record. Hope to see you there. Rick Lake

I agree. Most people, including my wife, would say a cobra is useless.

I agree, mine is useless.

Accept at putting that crazy smile on my ugly mug.:o

You know what I meant ;) .

:) :) :) :JEKYLHYDE :) :) :) :JEKYLHYDE :) :) :)

Oh, boy, this sounds like the start of a whole new thread to me!