New guy in Iraq, soon to be hurricane owner with ??

[fsstnotch]

Hey guys, I'm in the research phase of my cobra and need to know to finish up my planning. I sent an Email to Hurricane, but thought I'd post here as well for a quicker response.

1. What is the bolt pattern that comes with the kit? 5x4.5?
2. What are the soft top options available for the Hurricane kit?
3. wheel offset rear 17x10.5 is 4.5? Front 17x8 is 4?
4. Are the optional wind wings glass or plexi?
5. Can I order my kit with a passenger roll bar as well?

I would love to give Hurricane a call directly but being in Iraq it's kind of hard to call back to the states for a length of time. I'll be here till June of next year but plan on ordering my kit within a couple months. I'll be vacationing to the states in November and I'd like to come pick it up then and meet the makers!

Thanks alot guys! This site is awesome, I've already answered alot of my questions just by searching.

BTW, I did try to go to the hurricane forums but it was blocked by the servers the military uses. At least I can get here and FFR. Lots of good info!

Josh

[jshel1]

No offense, but sorry to hear that Uncle Sam has a preference. Ihave a preference as well, but I am a bit biased. Mike and Rich at Hurricane will answer your email in no time at all.

[fsstnotch]

None taken!

I honestly can't complain too much though. This war... or whatever you wish to call it, has paid all my debt off with the exception of my first house, funded my cobra build, and put money in the bank. My only complaint is missing out on a year of my daughters life. She's 16mo now. I figure my license plate should read OIF SNK (Operation Iraqi Freedom Snake) or something of the sort. Whether I agree with what is happening at this point in Iraq or not... I signed the line... I'll pay my dues and be back in the job hunt come spring of next year for a non military related lifestyle!!!

On a side note, any opinions on these 2 sets of wheels? Both will have a matte black center with polished lip. At just under $300 per wheel custom made to order, these wheels are hard to beat. Plus I like to be different, although I'd have to buy a set of halibrand 17's if they popped up for the right price.

American Racing Cobra 427's
17x11 with 5" bs rear
17x8 with 4" bs front
American racing Trakstar
Same diminsions

My paint scheme will be grabber blue with black ceramic side pipes and matte black stripes. The roll bars and quick jacks will be black as well. A good equal balance of blue, black and polished alum/chrome.

Thanks
Josh

[WildBill3]

We are just down the road from those good guys @ Hurricane met them at the car show nice cars You will likem and ther cars I wish id known about them before we did ours, o well next time....Hey becarfull overther..Wild

[RedCSX1]

I am not real familiar with the Hurricane. Why did you chose it? You can email them as well. The side wings are plexiglas.

Thanks again and take care.

[fsstnotch]

I chose hurricane because it reminded me of something my realtor told me when I bought my first house "Don't buy te first one you walk into, when you walk into the right one, you'll know it!" This turned out to be very true because My mandatory items were 2 car garage.. period. My wife wanted a hot tub/sauna or a pool. Turned out, the 4th house we looked at was just the ticket. We liked it before we even knew it had the hot tub/sauna and a small pond! I had been almost set on the shell valley kit, then I came to this site and someone said something about Hurricane. I hadn't heard that name yet so I took a look at their site and it fit! Did some more research and it definately seems like Mike and Rich have "all their ducks in a row!" I read one thread about some family stuff which had been going on and how their families came first.. brought a tear to my eye! Hurricane is where my money will go!

So there's my story on why I chose Hurricane! lol

I was wondering about the wind wings because they're a $95 option and finish line has glass ones for $125 so I'll probably go with the glass ones. Thanks

Josh

[LMH]

Hey Josh
Welcome and thank you for your service to our country!
Tha bolt pattern is 5x4.5".
I think Hurricane has a soft top as an option although I don't know much about it. There isn't much need for one in AZ, so I didn't order it.
You can have a passengers side roll bar and a couple other owners have ordered them that way.
I'm not sure what backspace will fit on the car. Both front and rear have quite a lot of room. Mine are 15" Trigo five pines with standard backspace. Mike or Rich can probably give you more info as far as that goes.
HTH,
Larry

[fsstnotch]

Thanks Larry, I'm really only interested in the soft top option because I do plan to do at least 1 power tour cruise with my car and my wife will go crazy if we have to do all that highway driving with no top and her hair blowing all over. Plus there are high probabilities for rain when you span a 1500 mi. cruise over a weeks time. I'd like to be able to at least keep most of the rain off! haha Thanks again for the info!

Josh

[berzerko]

I also did some research Before chosing hurricane. To be honest I knew very little about cars in general but have built 4 bikes so I thought how tuff can it be. I live in N.Y so I am not too far from factory five and that was my first stop, nice shop nice car but they really sell toward the donner route which I was not interested in. looked in to era(very,very nice but also expensive)and shell valley which a friend of mine has an older one.
I called Mike from hurricane and he must have spent an hour on the phone answering my mundane questions but never missed a beat and never once put a sales pitch on me. He gave me the name of some people within 100 miles of me and i went and looked at the cars(not that I really knew what I was looking at)but everyone i spoke to was very happy with there experience with them
I ordered the car in dec. 06 got it in mar 07 and could not be happier with the completeness of the kit if something is missing ron or jason were easy to get on the phone and sent it out with out debate

The only thing I would change is the por 15 finish, powder coating I feel is so much nicer but since they pre-assembled the suspenion i had them do it instead of tear it down again
I just went to carlile pa kit show and saw 10 different kits side by side and still feel for the money hurricane is the best bang for the buck
On a seperate note you mentioned wheels I also looked at the american racing wheels but if you get custom offsets they are only about $2-300 less then a true pin drive from vintage wheels and they are real knock offs
Bobby

[fsstnotch]

Thanks Bobby, where you from in NY? I'm from Erie, PA.

I looked at vintage wheel and compared to the american racing it was quite a price difference by the time you buy the knock offs and the pin kits. Vintage wheels has the wheel kit, adapters, forged spinners, and lug sets for $1950, I think that includes everything needed but it's not specific as to which wheels are included with the kit. I'll just assume that price is exactly what I wanted which would be 17x10.5 and 17x8.5 for comparison purposes

The american racing are $305.75ea for 17x11 and $285.50ea for the 17x8 or if I wanted to go wider up front with the 17x9.5 $292ea for a total of $1182.50 with 17x8's and $1195.50 with the 17x9.5 with free shipping. Note, these prices are from www.wheelsforless.com which has probably the best prices on all the vintage series wheels I've found.

If I found a good set of the pin drives in the for sale section or something at a decent price, I'd probably buy them. But since I'm not really going for the authenticity in my build, but more just a fun, good looking, eye catching car... I'd rather put the $700 saved from the pin drive wheels in a good set of tires or something.

As for hurricane, about the only thing that would keep me from buying from them at this point would be if they just closed the doors and quit which I don't forsee anytime soon! Everyone who has dealt with them has had nothing but good things to say! That's amazing because usually you will find at least 1 guy who had a problem! Maybe that guy just doesn't post or something, I don't know! haha I'm glad you mentioned about the POR 15. This was an option I had budgeted, but I wasn't totally sure I wanted to do. The estimate I got for powdercoating the frame is right around the price to have the por 15 done at hurricane. I would assume the powdercoat would be more durable and look better, plus I could choose between a nearly infinite number of colors. Anybody else have any input on Por 15 vs powdercoat?

On a side note, still haven't heard back from hurricane? Sometimes my work email gets kinda flaky and doesn't send for whatever reason. It's been 3 days. Should I send another email and assume mine didn't get out, or give them at least a week on account that they're busy people?

Thanks for all the info guys! Very much appreciated!

Josh

[MFE III]

Welcome and thank you for your service to our country!

Ditto that!!
I also dittto all the comments on Hurricane Motorsports replica's. I'm maybe half way through my build and love the completeness of the kit, high quality parts, strong dedication to accuracy and, best of all, customer service.
I went with the Vintage knockoff's in 17s. The back spacing is 5" F&R, measured as "effective backspacing" as per their website:
http://www.vintagewheelsus.com/tech.html
On the POR-15 frame coating:
On the plus side, it is a very durable, rock hard finish. I even used it on my calipers and they came out great.
On the negative side, it's not as smooth a finish as powder coat. In addition, if you order the frame unfinished, there's a fair amount of weld splatter and a few rough welds you may want to smooth out before coating.
BTW, HM has a very active and informative Owners Fourm on their website. Only open to owners . .we like to refer to it as the "Darkside"!
Good luck and hope to see you on the Darkside"!

[fsstnotch]

Thanks alot for all the help guys. Mike got back to me today and reinforced all the info you guys already told me! He also said that there is a soft top in the works that will be available soon for those who may be interested.

Again, thanks for the info! I look forward to joining the "darkside!" Unfortunately I can't get on the darkside forums because it is blocked by our web server.

[COACH MIKE]

Dear Fsstnotch:
I built a Hurricane two years ago. I had already built a Factory Five and helped build a couple of Shell Valleys. I was impressed with the completeness of the Hurricane as well as the quality. I did not want to go with the donor route.
Mike and Rich were very good about answering my questions and getting me the info I needed to make my purchase decision. We went up to their shop to pick up the car and parts (we traveled from NW Alabama). They had everything ready. Anything missing from the kit, which was very little, they quickly sent to me.
You have gotten quite few of your questions answered, however, I will make one recommendation concerning the soft top, get a hard top. The soft top will be a complete pain in the butt once you exceed forty five to fifty mph. The hard time I have for mine is a modified factory five hard top. I had to lower the roll bar about two inches, make my own bolt down holders that go in behind the windows just behind the doors on the back deck and modify the padding going under the bottom of the top. I go the windows from a guy in texas that supplies factory five with their window. I had driven the car and 75+ mph and have had no problem with the top other than it is a little noisy like all cobras.
Hope this info will help with your decision on the top. You can e-mail me at mikedlane@comcast.net.
Coach Mike

[MFE III]

Josh, it's not Uncle Sam's servers that are blocking your acess to HM's "Darkside", it's only open to owners.
Look forward to seeing you on the Darkside!
Matt

[fsstnotch]

MFE, that is probably a big part of it, but I'm also getting the "websense" message which is what we use here to block "unofficial" websites.

Just recieved an email from Mike, I plan to drop an initial downpayment either next week or the week after. most likely the latter since I'll be in kuwait for a couple weeks and it's easier to call. I won't be able to pickup my kit until next spring/early summer, but Mike said it may be wise for me to put the deposit in as soon as possible.

Hurricane #XXXX coming soon!!!

[danc30]

Josh,
1st- Thanks for your service.

2nd- I also own a Hurricane and can say the same things about them as the others have stated above. All positive on my end.

I'm glad I had the POR-15 done at the factory. The stage 1 assembly was great and I didn't want to have to take it all apart to do the frame.

Good luck on your decision and hope to see you soon on the "darkside".....

Thanks again for your service.
Dan

[RichBurroughs]

BTW - A factory hard top will be available soon from Hurricane...

[fsstnotch]

I'm not totally sold on a hard top though. I love the idea but I think I'd rather a soft top so it could be thrown in the trunk and in an event where I'm an hour or more from home, I can throw it on if it starts raining. With a hard top, I'd have to leave it on all the time and then take it off or build a trailer for my cobra! haha

Thanks for the update Rich! I can't wait to start building!

[jwd]

Josh

I can't add anything that hasn't already been said. Welcome to the Hurricane family. The "darkside" has over 8500 posts so you'll have lots of reading to keep you occupied once you have access to it.
I feel the same as you about hardtops. My 1960 Corvette is a "hardtop only" car (ordered with no softtop). The top hasn't been on the car in over 20 years.

Jim

[Bill Bess]

Josh, First of all I want to personally Thank You and all you fellow military co horts for your fine service and your effort to help preserve freedom in this screwed up world. Never fear there are millions of Americans that appreciate everything you guys do on a daily basis and are praying for your success and safe return.

Now with that said, You will love your Hurricane Cobra, how it looks, how it performs and how it makes you feel when you punch it going down a country road. I just finished my built, HM 1072 with a 428 FE and tremic tko600...it's fantastic and so much fun. I researched the Cobra market for two years and found that the Hurricane provided the best car for the buck and is very accurate with regards to being close to the original Shelbies.
You will get plenty of help during your build from all the folks on the "darkside" and fined that the build is quit easy.

Josh, Take good care of yourself and your family, can't wait for your return to America and the progress reports on you car.

Bill Bess, Lake Havasu City, AZ Havasloop@frontiernet.net