Superformance MKII, Riverside Racer 289 FIA vintage race car

[Cracker]

I am very impressed with your car build - tracking is rough on any car and your's seems to be handling it well. Also, kudos for you to bring such a car on track! A couple of observations: 1) Consider keeping your right hand more consistently at 3-o'clock - it drifts up to 12 to 1 too often while your left hand is at the 9 position; 2) also consider leaving your right hand on the wheel (as opposed to resting on the shifter) as you pull the straights. I am not trying to step on your toes with these tid-bits (I promise)! Again, I am impressed you are campaigning a Cobra and it appears you are doing a great job! Best of luck!

Tony

[1795]

Tony,

Thanks for the kudos and the observations! One reason that I post videos is so that I can get some feedback. I watch my videos as a means of critiquing my driving and trying to improve it. Yes, I do have a tendency to almost drive with one hand and spend too much time with my right hand on the shifter. Part of that may be related to not trusting the shifter and making sure that it is engaged, thereby leaving my hand on the shifter a little to long. I will revisit the video and watch to see if there are certain times that my right hand tends to creep up.

In the paddock area I have been questioned more than once concerning why I would want to put such a nice looking car on the track. Always wanted to race a cobra, and having driven one on the road (my ERA 427), this is way better

Jim

[glenview289]

Jim - I have 2 large (3' x 4' x .050" thick 301 stainless steel) Cobra logos over the words "289 Cobra". I was going to put them on my trailer, but the car ran so good, I sold the trailer. I think either you or Morris needs these on your trailer. They were a digitizing software test for our CO2 lasers. If you can PM me or post an e-mail or phone #, I will send you a photo. Building a new house and am starting to clean out the garage.
Bill

[1795]

Bill,

Thanks for the consideration. Sent you a pm with contact information.

Jim

[1795]

Getting ready for next year. One of the issues that I encountered this year was some trouble shifting, mostly notably into third, but at the end all the gears were binding. I have a Hurst Competition Plus shifter and it was observed that the linkages were a little sloppy. We also spent some time changing the length on the linkages to try to resolve the problem.

So, I removed the seats and tunnel to gain easier access to the shifter and re-aligned neutral with the alignment pin. The 3rd/4th gear arm was a little of, so I lengthened that. I also disabused myself of a fallacy that I and others had when trying to adjust the arm for better 3rd gear engagement. We were assuming that when the gear arm was facing forward that it would be third gear and when the arm was moved backwards it would be fourth, wrong! As I shifted gears it became quite obvious that the reverse was true.

To deal with the sloppy levers, I ordered some steel bushings and spring clips from Summit. The top set is what was on the shifter, nylon bushing clip and washer, the bottom set is the steel bushing and spring clip.


Removing the old ones with the transmission in place was a mild pain, replacing those with the steel bushings and spring clips was a major pain Not a lot of room o work with, had to move shift levers at times and disconnect arms to access other arms. But, after an hour or so, all were in place. A much better feel, no sloppiness and smoother shifting.



Started the car up with the tires in the air and she went through the gears no problem. Now on to the next project, new oil cooler lines and fittings as the old ones had some minor leaks at the fittings that just could not be stopped.

Jim