Slowest Cobra on the Planet

[Russ Dickey]

Fellow members:
I just possibly own the slowest accelerating Cobra on the face of the Earth. At a recent exhibition event at the local dragstrip, my 289FIA could only muster a mere 15.02 elapsed time.

I am a pretty decent drag-racer, and have been down the 1320 many times in lots of different types of cars. In my Cobra, I launched at 3000rpm (with very little tire spin), and shifted at around 5800rpm (right where my engine stops "pulling").

My car is powered by a 351W with GT40 heads, with a very mild cam and a 750 Holley. Ignition is all MSD. Transmission is a Tremec 3550, and the rear-end is a 3.30:1 Jag. I don't know the specs on the cam, but I have sent an email to the previous owner to find out.

To say that I was disappointed with the performance of my new ride is a gross understatement. I knew that just from my "seat of the pants" , it wasn't as fast as I had hoped for, but I didn't think it would be this slow. I thought that even for as mild as my 351 is, it should be putting out close to 300hp. And since the car only weighs about 2450 with me in it, that I should be able to run high-13's fairly easily, even with what I consider to be a "highway gear" ratio of 3.30.

The car is not missing, cutting out, or blowing smoke. By all appearances, it looks and sounds to be running just fine.

So I guess I am asking your advice: where do I start to try and shake this thing down? Should I take it to the local chassis dyno first to establish a base line??? Any comments or help is greatly appreciated. Help a fellow Cobra brother try and prevent the embarrasment of getting my a$$ handed to me by the punk kids in the imports.....


Thanks,
Russ