How many kilometres have you done in your Cobra?

[RallySnake]

I collected parts and built my Arntz from 1981 to 1986. In those early years, my car budget was $100 a month. I finally got it running and registered in 86 and have been driving it in rallies, autocrosses and going to car shows ever since. We are lucky enough to enjoy great weather in Southern California and the Cobra runs year around. It has competed in most of the First Friday Night rallies put on by the Santa Monica Sports Car Club since 1995. However, it is best in the longer Monte Carlo Rallies and actually won a 15 hour event from LA to Laughlin, Nevada in 2003. That was a long one in the little car!

We have run the 12 hour Starlite Rally to Las Vegas 7 times and other 12 to 15 hour events to to Santa Cruz, Palm Springs, San Diego, Los Posas and San Francisco (and back). We ran the three day "No Frills Iron Bottom Motoring Tour" in 2007. It has also driven 1800 miles to Austin for a Texas Cobra Club event and back. I drive it to work sometimes and we take it for cruises on the weekends.

Ron Butler built the heavy duty Cobra frame and body which is holding up well. The car has had three engines, three transmissions, three Jaguar diffs and at least a dozen sets of tires. It has been painted twice and really needs it again. It has run at least 150,000 miles, probably closer to 200,000. The speedometer did not work for the first 15 years so my wife would not know how fast we were going. So, I guess that's about 240,000 km and maybe 300,000 km. It is running better than ever right now and we have at least 12 rally events planned for 2011. For our results and pictures, check out ITNRally.org and SMSCC.org.

RS