Cobra vs Today's Cars

[DMXF]

Originally Posted by Cobra #3170

The Cobra suffers from a short wheel base, narrow track width, poor torsional rigidity, terrible suspension geometry, bad aero and most important of all, tires and wheels that are absolutely no match for modern 18-20" wheels and wide tires.

Bruce - Please expand on these issues, like poor handling, with data, graphs, etc. You have far more experience than me, but from what I see and hear, a properly set up original spec Cobra is no slouch. The wheelbase is almost the same as a modern Porsche, so that alone isn't that big a handicap. The biggest issue I understand with the Cobra's suspension is excessive rear toe steer, which can be minimized to a tolerable level. Vintage type tires that will fit a Cobra are slightly narrower than some modern supercars, but if you look at the unit tire loading the Cobra is still actually superior. Here's another bit of comparison:

Lap times at some race tracks also don't support the Cobra as being so bad. Here are some recent lap times from Road America:

Car Lap time (min, sec)
CSX4000 Cobra 2:24
'74 Porsche 911RSR 2:27
'98 Porsche GT3 Cup 2:30
'97 Panoz GTS 2:30.9
'96 Porsche 993RSR 2:34.9
'65 Corvette roadster 2:26.7
'66 GT350 2:31.9

I believe Bill Murray was doing about 2:23 with CSX3032, which is probably the closest you will find to how Shelby American would have prepped these cars for a works effort back in the 60's.

For comparison, here's Road America lap info I found on the web on some newer cars:

"I was at Road America too this past weekend; thankfully, Sunday's weather made up for Saturday's rain and sleet.

This was my first real time on a race track. My Z06 is stock except for Hawk Blue's, Motul brake fluid, lowered 5 turns, and a street alignment. I did a best of 2:52 and am happy with that since I was hoping to break 3:00 (..I was in the Novice class in Torch Red).

Anyway, I let my buddy drive my car who does 2:34's in his 265 rwhp Porsche 928 Euro (..the sweetest sounding car the entire weekend), and we went out in the 'A' class. Anyway, the black GT3 zipped by us after Turn 5 and we gave chase, but the GT3 slowly pulled away, and after two laps he was out of sight. I was impressed how fast it was down the straights, and impressed too we were able to hang with him as long as we did. During the session, my buddy's wife clocked us at 2:42; not too bad for someone driving a car he never took around a track before.

So I'm guessing based upon our 2:42's with the GT3 that you guys must have been slightly faster doing high-2:40's/low-2:41's; is that close?"

I've also seen lap times of what Bill Murray can do in CSX3032 at Watkins Glen and I think it's notable better than a Z06. I'm not saying the Cobra is perfect, but I bet if you tasked McLaren's race shop to prep an original Cobra for vintage racing and specified they retain most of the major original components, I bet it would smoke just about anything off the showroom floor on a smooth track, short of something like a McLaren F1 or the like. The power to weight advantage is just so superior its hard to make up for with subtle improvements here and there.