Cobra vs Today's Cars

[Cobra #3170]

I do not wish to get in one of your "look at this 1967 graph that shows bla bla bla" public debates; the laws of physics have not been repealed to my knowledge. Short cars have a tendency to be unstable, especially high horsepower cars, why do you think dragsters have such long wheel bases?
Narrow cars transfer more weight to the outside wheels than wider cars, how many modern race cars are narrow? A stock Cobra has very little camber gain front or rear, you have to compensate for body roll and tire distortion with camber change, the Cobra does a very poor job of that.
You are quoting amateur driver times and vintage racer times both of which are usually quite slow. I believe Mr. Murray may be the exception to that and probably has a superbly prepared car to go along with his talent. A CTS-V Cadillac in race trim laps Road America in 2:15 and a similarly prepared Gt-3 Porsche does about 1:20. I would say that answers the question of superiority.

If you will have your car ready I would like to challenge you to a Cobra vs. Ford GT race at SAAC 35 in Willow Springs. You can bring your Weber carbed 427, with Ferrari designed valve train and I will bring my bone stock Ford GT and we can compare lap times. We all love Cobras here but the past is the past, let it go and enjoy the car for what it is, an untamed animal that can be a blast to drive. Part of the cars charm is that whenever you drive it really fast you think you have just cheated death. My GT does not make me feel like that although the Corvette did a little bit with the stability control off.

Please let me know if you will be available for SAAC 35 and I will make sure I have a clear calendar. I would like to leave it at that rather than get in one of those long post after post debates.



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.[/quote]