Finally, the cobra is done
 

At long last, the cobra is complete. It's been a 6 1/2 month process, but thanks to Steve at Mustang Ranch, the car is running beautifully. Now I get to stare at it in the garage until the rain stops sometime after the holidays!

Looking forward to meeting all of you the next time there's a Saturday breakfast.

The car is chassis #2995. It's Viper Steel Grey with Silver Stripes and is running a Roush 427 SRX (first install of this engine, I believe).

You'll see me bounding around Palo Alto whenever the clouds part.

I'll post some better (non-iphone) pictures as soon as I have them but for now these will have to do:

http://www.briankelley.com/files/cobra/web1.jpg

http://www.briankelley.com/files/cobra/web2.jpg

http://www.briankelley.com/files/cobra/web3.jpg

http://www.briankelley.com/files/cobra/web4.jpg

More pictures here: http://gallery.me.com/s3lki3/100196

Congratulations! Look forward to seeing you and the car at an upcoming breakfast.

Wow... beautiful car. Congratulations!

I'm sure these pics hardly do the car justice but i'm sure it looks great. After all it is a Superformance! Here's hoping for some sun so you can ease into your new Cobra!

Glenn

Nice looking ride...I am jealous that you actually have the weather to drive it this time of year...have fun with her.

That picture could not have been taken today. It's been raining all day.

Congrats on the new ride! Look forward to actually going to a breakfast one of these days. :CRY:

Looks great !

Park next to Rodney's KMP and Doug's SPF ... would make a nice line up.

Hope to see you at an upcoming breakfast :)

Congrats! One thing about a car like this... every DAY when I go to work, it never ceases to amaze me that it's actually in MY garage. I'm sure you'll be feeling the same.
Now Tim on the other hand...... :D

6.5 Months?
 

As a relatively new owner myself, what took 6.5 months?

Thank you for the kind words!

2995 is the first car we have done with 2 major changes to the paradigm

1. The car now has a ZF rear end as started at about 299x and that took some R&D time to work out as the factory did not take pinion angle into account when they placed the new rear diff in the chassis.

Bob and I worked out , what we feel is the best ,and most optimal modification to get the pumpkin aligned for optimum angle , performance and longevity.

As you know , we do not GRIND away on the cars with a die grinder and machine work takes time , and we needed to replace a crush washer and a leaky diff gasket. The GM parts for this diff are from a very specific model, a special thank you to peter chin at FH dailey for going through about 19999 PDFs with me for a 100$ in parts.

Bottom line, we have a drivetrain solution for the new ZF Differential cars that brings things in spec, and beefs up the rear diff mount at the same time whilst being serviceable.

2. The roush 427SRX had some teething issues and had to have some craftsmanship applied to the nose of the water outlet and water pump area to interact with the SPF expansion tank , and this was done on a trail fit, rem ill, trill fit, mill basis - we don't hack on things with die grinders ( unless we are porting heads :) )

3. Factory motor mounts as supplied even with shims did not allow for equidistant side pipe clearances as related to the exit holes in the fender, bob and I ended up with a dilemma and milled off the bases of the SPF supplied mounts and welding on a new base that was the proper diamention and flatness to accomplish the task.

As for the delay , it was mostly shipping- the car was supposed to be here in august and it didn't show for like 6 weeks, and by that time I had bob on two major builds, so we were about 20-% of the time elapsed , and some of that was waiting on mr UPS man.

In all, the 2995 car was , and had significant improvements over my car and even cars in the 2800's - they continue to work on their core product , and it shows.

Odd notes from 299x cars ;

A. Shocks seem to be in short supply , as do brake pads.
B. Rear diff bolt needs to be raised 3/8" upwards to bring diff angle in line.
C. Do not remove your triangle shaped rear diff flange that is bolted to the diff itself, it will require a crush washer to reassemble.

D. The metric bolts on the diff flange are 1.5 pitch m12' grade 10.9 metric (socket cap preferred )

E. Little green stickers with chassis numbers geld to the back of the instruments fall off, if you are concerned with serialization of the artifacts and accessories , engraving the back of the cases with the chassis number and the data might be a more helpful deal in the long run.

F.the battery cables in these cars continue to be too large of a gauge and not flexible enough to allow for rerouting or even simple maintenance . Most of these cars have a gear reduction starter that requires a lower operating amperage per revolution of use. Slightly thinner gauges of battery wire would make things easier to use , work with etc.

G. It is the year 2010 almost 2011 where the alternators that come with roush engines and, infact most alternators from power master etc come toy little alternator "dyno sheets" and are 90A to 100A plus --- so can we get a voltage gauge , as opposed to the 50a AMP gauge ?

H. Oil pressure line for gauge readout is still that little yellow plastic tube - can we get a metal braided one from the factory ? You have done such a good job with the rest of the install pack ...



H.

awesome car, i love the black oil cooler bungs

That is BY FAR my favorite color combo! I'll be in Palo Alto/Mountain View the 2nd week of January in case you're looking for people to give rides to ;).

Happy to if the weather cooperates!