600 hp 700 ft. lbs of torque

[littleronracing]

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.

[turnpike boy]

Is 600 hp too much? - yup.

Is 600 hp too much? - nope.

Are you experienced Cobra drivers (and I use that term loosely) really going to tell a guy who's not there yet that this is a practical idea?

Can you keep it straight? - sure, no sweat at all. Will you have wheelspin issues? - do you really have any doubt about this? Can you put it all to the ground, all at once? - probably, with the right setup. Then again, probably not with what you will likely wind up with.

Do yourself a favor. Think about this. Have you ever been behind 600 hp before? - got any idea what it really is like? Put it into a 40+-year-old design and what do you THINK is going to be the result?

IF you're prudent, and want to stay alive, you'll be good with it for a while. Get careless or smug about it and you will die the first time you apply a bit too much pressure to the gas pedal as you arc around that onramp corner. Forgiveness is not an element of a Cobra. There is zero crash protection. Tires will take only so much stress before they cannot hold on. And since you're much more likely to be driving this thing on the street than on any racetrack, where you have at least a chance of not running into anything immobile like curbs or abutments or poles, your chances of surviving that first f*ckup intact are amazingly slight.

Start with a 350 or 400 hp motor and see how much you really have to learn. Once you've honestly comfortable with that, then 600 hp will be OK for you - and you will survive it since you will understand just how easy it is to get in over your head.

Sal said all this in 5 words.

[joey_hv]

excellent post turnpike! you just helped me decide what size engine i "need" to have. thank you. perfect timing, i'm about to pull the trigger on a 425 hp engine.

[ByronRACE]

My new power goal will be whatever the traction limit in 4th is on the best rubber I can find.

On the 335 series R1's on the car now, the tires go up at about 630rwhp/680ft-lbs according to the logger. I'm basing this on mass-air meter readings, as well as good old physics...I know the weight, and speed vs time, the car has the equivalent of a flight recorder on board that stores everything.

My car is a 96" wheel base car with a non-parallel 4-link, and is within 20lbs on all 4 corners with me sitting in the drivers seat. It's also on the heavy side, about 3000lbs with driver and a full tank of fuel. If you weigh less, and have less tire, you'll likely break traction sooner. I have my throttle stop set at the traction limit currently, and aside for not having much throttle travel to work with, the car is a lot more fun with its balls shrunken.

I'm not going to get much more tire on here. If the traction doesn't improve, the new goal will be right around 600. I want a car I can control on corner exit in 3rd, and WOT on the straights at speed without having to work so hard and/or roll the dice so often. When I go to the straight track, sure...that's a new game with different tires.

So, at the run & gun, would they let a car like mine run in the 10's or better with my single 3" bar? If not, there's no way I'd make the haul out there to compete. I'd rather just get kicked off the local drag tracks, have my fun on the road race course, and and call it a day. I already got a rejection from Hot Rods Pump Gas Drags. "We'd love to see a Cobra out here, but you need an NHRA legal cage in the car." I'm not doing that, I don't care enough.

Byron

[Power Surge]

Originally Posted by joey_hv

excellent post turnpike! you just helped me decide what size engine i "need" to have. thank you. perfect timing, i'm about to pull the trigger on a 425 hp engine.

My engine is 425hp, and it puts about 310 to the wheels. That may not sound like much, but there isn't much that's pulled away from me on the street either. I can mash the throttle to the floor, and my car just goes, no wheel spin. I can go full throttle through a tight turn, and the car just hooks, it doesn't overpower the rear. It's just really nice to drive at this level.

[Slick61]

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!

[DC COBRA]

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

[Slick61]

Originally Posted by DC COBRA

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

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.

[RICK LAKE]

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

[Excaliber]

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.

[xlr8or]

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.