A Superformance in Australia

[Rebel1]

Bernie, I've read some of your postings of late.

Am I correct in assuming that a GT40 may be in your future?.

C'mon, fess up, It'll just be between you and I, no-one else will know.

[Cameron Parsons]

Hi There,

yes I have one of the SPF cars in Australia. Mine is a Ford 347. I like the combo and I am starting to get to grips with the handling. For me I think I have enough HP for the car, more would be fun, but for me not necessarily faster.

I chose that combo as I wanted a Ford engine. A GM would also do well, and would likely be a better price/performance option if you don't mind the engine heritage.

It would be great to see another SPF at the events... We need the numbers!!

Anyway, there are a bunch of pics in my gallery of how I set it up. I would be happy to answer any questions you have on or offline.

Regards

Cameron

[Aussie Mike]

Bernie, I believe the Robnells were running the 429 motor which is a 385 series Big Block the same as the 460. The original Cobras ran the FE motor in 427 and 428 cube versions. It's a much older design than the 385 series.

Camerons Car is a beautifuly turned out machine. Its well built with all the creature comforts and still churns out amazing lap times on the track. he's running a Windsor based motor but I believe the Windsors days are done for new Cobra builds. Strict emissions laws will make getting a car registered with one of these motors very difficult.

If you are determined to run a Ford then you will probably be stuck with the 5.4 modular motor from the Falcon. This will give you some grief squeezing it into the engine bay as it's DOHC heads make it 900mm wide. It's not the lightest power plant either at 279KG. It runs an Iron block and the size of those heads even though they are aluminum adds a lot of weight. I believe the 4.6 mustang variant is a little narrower due to it's shorter deck height and a bit lighter with it's alloy block. Technically I'm not that impressed with this motor as due to the blocks tight bore spacings the only way to increase it's capacity is to increase the stroke. The 5.4 is actually under square with it's stroke longer than the diameter of it's bore. This is great for torque but not so great for revs which is dissapointing since the 4 valve heads have the potential to flow a lot. The only way I've seen these motors make serious power without breaking the bank is with forced induction.

That being said the stock 260 or 290 KW Boss motor will make your Cobra into a tyre frying road rocket. The cars light weight means a Cobra doesn't require a lot of power to give frightening performance.

If you can get past the badge I've got an internally stock LS1 that is probably making 300KW at the crank. It doesn't take much to make good power with a stock motor. A remapped ECU, cold air and a free flowing exhaust will wake it up. The cams in these motors are pretty lazy due to the emissions requirements. Adding a cam, springs, bigger injectors, after market manifold and more dyno time and that number will be pushing towards 400KW at the crank.

If you aren't satisfied with that then you can bore and stroke the LS1 using an LSX (Bowe Tie) block from GM and take it out to 7.6 litres. This block supports a 4.25" bore and adding a 4.1" stroke crank gives you 465 cubic inches. or if you just used a 4" stroke crank you would have 454 cubes. These are the same dimensions as the original Big Block Chev 454. The LS1 has almost the same length rod too at 6.125" versus the Big Blocks 6.135"

A 4.2" bore and a 4.1" crank will give the same number.

The magical 427 number can be had by using a 4" stroke crank and boring the block to 4.125". I like the idea of leaving a few over bores in the block so the slightly smaller bore appeals to me. These are the demensions of the new LS7 motor used in the 2006 Z06 Corvette.


To put this into perspective the later FE motors with aluminium intake manifolds like the 427 and 428 weighed around 280KG and made a factory rated 317KW.

The original Big Block Chev 427/454 weighed in at about 330KG and made similar power.

The new LS1 and LS7 motors weigh around 180KG.

There's an Aussie Superformance getting one of these shoe horned into it shortly.

Cheers

[Heidelberg]

Thanks to all for your comments…all comments & advise is really appreciated. It's very reassuring to see that there are people out there so willing to assist and share their knowledge. I've only recently become aware of this website and accordingly, I've really had my eyes opened at the value of a community like this.

I've been in love with the Cobra for as long as I can remember, and have wanted one ever since I visited a Cobra car builder in Bristol, England in 1988 when I was on a travelling/working holiday from Aus. The car was a slab side 289 car built from MGB & Jag parts and in hindsight, not a patch on the quality of what's around now!

I'm now at the stage of wanting to chase my dreams of owning a Cobra and want to identify and follow the best quality option I can.

Whilst I work in the US, I live in Perth, WA.

I do not plan to do any serious track work, but do plan to join the Cobra Car club of WA and will be therefore looking to do club events as well as enjoy the car on the street as often as I can!

It looks like that if I want to go with a Superformance, stay with a Ford engine from a heritage perspective and stay street legal, I’ll have to consider a modern EFI V8.

Over the years, I have tended to sway towards wanting a new 427 (S/C or Street) car, but if anyone knows of a company that offers a good quality new 289 (Street of FIA), I’d appreciate hearing about that company and what would be the best Ford engine combination you’d advise.

Thanks again,

Heidelberg

[400TT]

Sounds like one of your better options is to pick up a 2nd hand Robnell here in Aus. That way you get a complianced big block Cobra.

Then with a little(well heap) of work you can get results like what Stefano obtained:


(Thanks to RichardFerguson for the side shot)

For more photos, see Stefano's gallery: http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/s...at=500&thumb=1

[Cameron Parsons]

There is one more 'magic' option, depending on how much time you spend in the US.... If you have legal status (even a non resident alien work visa, eg L1 etc), and you have an address that sends you bills in your name.

You may comply with the personal import scheme.

Go to this page:

http://www.dotars.gov.au/roads/safet...ting.aspx#5.06

Scroll down to the eligibility section, then click on 'Personal Imports"

I haven't read this in detail for a while, but if you are in the US for a significant chunk of the year, you could be eligible.

I know that I would do this if the travel stars aligned.

Regards

Cameron

[Aussie Mike]

If you are working in the US then you have another option: Personal import. If you reside overseas and own a car over there providing you have owned it for 12 months over there you can bring the car in to the country and not pay duty. There may also be some loop holes for rego with an older motor if it has already been registered in tha other country.

I did it years ago with a Motorcycle I owned in NZ. It was a Honda NSR250, a model that wasn't sold in Australia. I had the bike for sale over there but wasn't having much luck selling it so I decided to ship it across. I rode it over here for a while and then sold it. Because it was a rare bike at the time when I sold it I pretty much got back what I paid for it and the cost of importing it.

Check out the Department Of Transport And Regional Services DOTARS web page DOTARS

Cheers

edit: Cameron beat me to it. I went for coffee and pressed the post button when I got back.

[Heidelberg]

Thanks Cameron and Mike,

I'll look into the personal import option very closely!

Were you aware of any 289 options in Aust?

Have you come across GForce in WA?

Regards,

Paul (Heidelberg)

[Blownbadness]

[quote=Aussie Mike;745033]If you are working in the US then you have another option: Personal import. If you reside overseas and own a car over there providing you have owned it for 12 months over there you can bring the car in to the country and not pay duty. There may also be some loop holes for rego with an older motor if it has already been registered in tha other country.

I did it years ago with a Motorcycle I owned in NZ. It was a Honda NSR250, a model that wasn't sold in Australia. I had the bike for sale over there but wasn't having much luck selling it so I decided to ship it across. I rode it over here for a while and then sold it. Because it was a rare bike at the time when I sold it I pretty much got back what I paid for it and the cost of importing it.



I owned a dealer delivered NSR250R (MC-18-II) in my early 20's. It was a rare bike but was certainly dealer delivered at some stage!!! Now this was near 20 years ago now but it was one of the very few road registrable 2 strokes on the market. and certainly the rules have changed much since then.
I had it tuned by a reputable race team and the difference was shocking!!!
Bloody fast bike!! Scary fast.




I don't know the ins and outs of how to get a 427 ADR legal but I know what it takes to make them meet emission limits and that takes a pretty fancy exhaust job (to say the least) with up to 4 catalytic converters being used in some applications (certainly most big cube modern cars run at least 4) and exhaust gas oxygen sensors pre cat and after cat being required to meet euro 4 requirement for catalyst efficiency monitoring. Any high end aftermarket ECU is more than capable of meeting and exceeding emission requirements providing a suitable exhaust is fitted.

[pezza]

I don't know what the engine requirements are in other states as they vary from state to state but here in WA they must comply with ADR 37/01 ie 1999 on. Also we can still have working sidepipes.

[Rob. Smith]

This is the exact example of doing the rego thing. A modified LS1 LSX Chev motor is just as illegal as a 427 side oiler. Put in what the rego mob requires and once it's done...do what is required. I've got a 351 Cleveland dinosaur !
Smithy

[Plums]

I don't if that's exactly true. I could get a stroked, head and cammed LS1 through rego fairly easily, where I'm sure the 427 sideoiler would fail....

[Aussie Mike]

Originally Posted by Rob. Smith

A modified LS1 LSX Chev motor is just as illegal as a 427 side oiler.

I don't agree. A stroked LSX could be made legal quite easily. They are externally the same as an LS1 so there is no visual clue that the block is different apart from a coat of paint over the iron. The eficient cylinder head design will give it half a chance of meeting the emissions requirements with the right tune in there. The dirty heads on the 427 FE won't have a chance. The LSX would be running the complete factory EFI system and could be tuned to clean up the emissions to a legal level.

Cheers