fivebolt bellhousing identification

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by peterpjb

this warning seems comprehensible to me in the first place, ….
are there any documented destructions of an aluminum bellhouse and injured legs caused by a flywheel- or clutch- failure?

CSX2014 raced by Shelby's works damaged the driver (right foot) and the car crashed. Perhaps that early works failure prompted the development of the COBRA lettered safety models? There have been some street cars with failures in published stories but I won't go digging for chassis numbers. If the owners of those cars want the world to know bad things in their cars’ pasts I let them be the ones to publish it fresh. One “street” Cobra was severely damaged and over the years since 1999 both original halves of the chassis have been offered for sale in ebay® auctions. I had the bonnet from that car hanging on the wall as art for a couple of decades.


Failures happened. Roughly two out of five used COBRA five bolt units I have come across since 1983 as loose parts had very clear signs that something bad happened inside. Not every failure is catastrophic but some are. A seriously modified engine might over rev seriously if a shift is missed while playing or racing. In 2006 we went and looked at a HP289 engine that literally broke in half when the man drag racing a Mustang since he bought it new missed a shift. I had never seen a 289 engine block laying in two broken puzzle piece halves before so that was an interesting visit. Even if not “raced” a missed shift without a rev limiting electronic controller can be trouble to disaster. We have no idea under what conditions and with what equipment all the damaged ones “happened”. There are countless inappropriate things people can do to and with parts.


It is about acceptable risk. Safety equipment in vehicles wouldn’t be necessary if unintended bad situations didn’t come up. Original Cobras are in no way safe car designs. Good maintenance, top quality parts, defensive driving like you were riding a motorcycle, good tires, drive shaft safety loop, and a steel safety bell housing improve the odds ever so slightly in user favor.