Ouch! Anyone want a Cobra project?

[bull]

http://www.copart.com/c2/onSaleResults.html?_eventId=getLot&execution=e2s2&lotId=13632389

Dayum! That must've felt good bending the steering wheel over with his chest.

[bull]

Here's another one: EDIT - nevermind, it's gone.

[Silver R/T]

ouch, is that brain splattered on carpet?

[Lowprofile]

What a shame. good thing they're only kit cars.....

[Ghoste]

The steering wheel looks awful but given the fragile nature of those go karts and the relatively light damage on the front end I wonder if he wasn't going all that fast?

[bull]

Reminds me of this ding-dong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTEvJ2Tl8Ss

[69bronzeT5]

I wonder if they hit each other

[ZSmithersCharges]

Reminds me of this ding-dong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTEvJ2Tl8Ss

Right once she started chirping the tires I would have been like... Oookay, get out.  I mean she obviously cant drive the thing so why dont you put the camera down and teach her not just watch her wreck and say "i knew it". People piss me off.

[tan top]

http://www.copart.com/c2/onSaleResults.html?_eventId=getLot&execution=e2s2&lotId=13632389

Dayum! That must've felt good bending the steering wheel over with his chest.

don't think the driver made it out of that wreck

[1BAD68]

Why would they let that woman drive away after seeing her have so much trouble trying to get out of the parking lot? And the camera man saying "I knew it" he gets the dumb a#% award.
On a lighter note, are all Cobra speedo's backwards?

[Troy]

Many Cobra kit cars are raced (on tracks) so they tend to be prone to wrecks. Not to mention the power-to-weight ratio is obscene and the cars are inherently squirreley so many that are street driven end up wrecked as well. That's why most classic car insurance companies refuse to insure them.

1BAD68: yes, I believe the originals (and therefore the clones) had speedometers that spun to the left - the opposite direction of the tach.

Troy

[terrible one]

That first one reminded me of this picture:

[Blown70]

That first one reminded me of this picture:

[Blown70]

Reminds me of this ding-dong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTEvJ2Tl8Ss

Well if YOU KNEW It then what the F-was your thought process in letting her drive and taking a vid of it...... What an A#$ hat

[bull]

Reminds me of this ding-dong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTEvJ2Tl8Ss

Well if YOU KNEW It then what the F-was your thought process in letting her drive and taking a vid of it...... What an A#$ hat

I guess the guy was hoping things would improve drastically over the next 30 seconds but I think most people would have stopped her a lot sooner. But who knows, she probably would have just run him over or dragged him for 50 yards had he tried to grab the keys.

[ZSmithersCharges]

Reminds me of this ding-dong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTEvJ2Tl8Ss

Well if YOU KNEW It then what the F-was your thought process in letting her drive and taking a vid of it...... What an A#$ hat

I guess the guy was hoping things would improve drastically over the next 30 seconds but I think most people would have stopped her a lot sooner. But who knows, she probably would have just run him over or dragged him for 50 yards had he tried to grab the keys.

Well then I guess you can atleast say "I tried" instead of sounding like a dumbass 

[Magnumcharger]

This car is good:
http://www.copart.com/c2/onSaleResults.html?_eventId=getLot&execution=e1s2&lotId=14086649#lotDetail

And here is a video I shot last summer, going for a ride in a friend's Factory Five Cobra.
It was not only fast...it was downright scary fast.
It has a supercharged 346 smallblock V-8....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ8fevzYRyY

And the picture at the bottom...from a vintage SCCA-style race....a real Cobra can get beat bad in an accident too....but the crumple differently than the kit Cobras!

[ZSmithersCharges]

And the picture at the bottom...from a vintage SCCA-style race....a real Cobra can get beat bad in an accident too....but the crumple differently than the kit Cobras!

That poor thing but, atleast it wasnt crashed in a parking lot 

[PocketThunder]

This car is good:
http://www.copart.com/c2/onSaleResults.html?_eventId=getLot&execution=e1s2&lotId=14086649#lotDetail

And here is a video I shot last summer, going for a ride in a friend's Factory Five Cobra.
It was not only fast...it was downright scary fast.
It has a supercharged 346 smallblock V-8....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ8fevzYRyY

And the picture at the bottom...from a vintage SCCA-style race....a real Cobra can get beat bad in an accident too....but the crumple differently than the kit Cobras!

Whats on the roof of that Camero on the left?

[Magnumcharger]

By the looks of it, it's a cowl induction hood.

[tan top]

dang  that white  challenger had a  hard hit  

[Mike DC]

                    

dang that white challenger had a hard hit  

What is it about white Challengers & high-speed frontal impacts?  Every time I see one on TV that's what happens to it.  It's almost as bad as 2nd-gen Chargers and jumps.  


----------------------------


Cobra replicas just have way too much tire for most of these drivers to handle.  That kind of contact patch allows for a huge amount of G-forces piling up while it still holds on, and then suddenly it all lets go at once.  

There would be a lot fewer of these replicas piled up if the standard tire size had stayed as small as on Shelby's original 289 versions.  Honestly I think they would be more fun to drive that way, too.  
             

[Magnumcharger]

The very first 2008 Challenger with a front end pile-up was a white one.

I like Cobras when they're not given the S/C rollbar, sidepipes and hoodscoop. They look sedate, and very stylish!
Here's my (late) very lucky distant relative with his!

[Ghoste]

Cobra replicas just have way too much tire for most of these drivers to handle.  That kind of contact patch allows for a huge amount of G-forces piling up while it still holds on, and then suddenly it all lets go at once.

A tremendous amount of torque for such a short wheelbase too (remember the AA/ Fuel Altered's and Hemi Colts?).  A close friend of mine who has no small amount of experience driving high performance cars put a real 427 Cobra into a ditch.  He's never told me the complete unedited story (there was a girl with him so I KNOW there is more to the tale) but essentially when he was upshifting, the 427 overpowered the tires and by the time he knew it was going to swap ends there was no bringing it back.

[bull]

There would be a lot fewer of these replicas piled up if the standard tire size had stayed as small as on Shelby's original 289 versions.  Honestly I think they would be more fun to drive that way, too.  
             

Not to mention the vast cubic inch difference between the two. That much power in a car of that weight and design is a recipe for disaster.

[Mike DC]

 
I think it's only a disaster when you can actually hook up the power though.  Small tires wouldn't allow you to get yourself into nearly so much trouble before they break loose. 

[bull]

I think the only thing that much power and that little weight on narrow tires would create is a lot of noise and white smoke. Forward motion would be minimal.

[Mike DC]

I think the only thing that much power and that little weight on narrow tires would create is a lot of noise and white smoke. Forward motion would be minimal

Yeah, but the vehicle weight of a Cobra replica is absolutely obscene compared to anything we're used to dealing with.  

Imagine a hot 360 transplanted into a Volkswagen Beetle convertible body.  Maybe even less weight than that.  15x7 type street radials would be more than enough to move that thing.  

[Troy]

Most of the replicas I've seen are small blocks. However, a 302/351 can be built with a lot of power. The real 427 race cars were a handful for the professional drivers. Heck, a lot of the cars we love have greatly diminished numbers because of too much power on the street. I'd venture to say it's even worse with cars like Corvettes, Cobras, and most exotics (that are actually driven).

Troy

[Mike DC]

Yeah, that factor really whacked down the survival rate of the Hemi & 440/6 cars.  The motors might have lived through a few crashes but the bodies sure didn't.  



I think an aluminum Cobra body (not frame & susp, just the body tub & outer panels) can be as light as 250 pounds.  There is really nothing to those cars.  The A-list Cobra replicas that Factory Five produces are advertised as potentially weighing less than 2000 pounds as a complete turn-key car if you option them right.

I remember reading somebody describing the experience of driving a 427 Cobra:  "It's about as close as you can get to riding bareback on a V8 engine."  

   

[PocketThunder]

Kind of like a Boss Hoss motorcycle then?   

[69bronzeT5]

dang  that white  challenger had a  hard hit  

I think I'm gonna cry

[Magnumcharger]

The Cobra in the video I posted was the fastest car I've ever been in - bar none.
And it was supercharged. It also had no weight at all.
The owner, my friend Gord Chester, has been in a SOHC 427 powered Cobra, which is said was almost completely unmanagable at any speed.
In fact, that car has since been written off.

Without a word of a lie, I've been a huge Cobra fan since I was a little kid. A beautiful car from the get go, and as dangerous as it's namesake!

[bull]

Yea, it's one of a few Fords I would gladly own. I'm also a fan of the '66-'68 Mustang fastback and of course the GT40.

[Mike DC]

    
I'd love to have a '69 Charger with a 4130 tube chassis & aluminum body.  

Forget the Pro Mod "street car" dragsters with 14-pt rollcages, forget all that Pro Touring stuff with 20" rims and 1" ground clearance . . .  just picture a stock Charger R/T with about 1000 pounds magically removed.  Now THAT would be fun.  

[Magnumcharger]

Here's an idea....somebody should approach AMD about running a limited pressing of aluminum panels for the Charger body.
I'm sure that even if you could replace just the bolt-on parts with aluminum, you'd stand a good chance of getting rid of 1000 pounds.

[Mike DC]

  
 
Naw, you wouldn't lose anything like half a ton from doing the outer skin stuff.  Maybe a few hundred pounds from that, tops.  

Aluminum basically allows cutting the weight in half compared to steel.  The front fenders, the door shells, the hood, the bumper .  .  . I don't think any of those pieces weigh more than 40-50 pounds.  Most are less.  You might lose 200-250 pounds or something by going to alloy but nothing HUGE.    




The real big gains don't start showing up until you make the ENTIRE body shell from aluminum, and then you use that loss to justify lightening up every loadbearing thing on the chassis.  The more weight you remove, the more it allows you to remove additional weight from what is still there.  It snowballs backward.  

Lighter body --->  needs less strength in the chassis/susp pieces  --->  now there's enough net weight loss to run a smaller motor without feeling slow --->  smaller motor needs less weight in the drivetrain behind it --->  now the entire thing is so much lighter than the rollcage/unibody doesn't need to be as heavily built just to remain stiff --->  now the sizes of the rims/tires/brakes begin to seem like overkill for a car this light  .  .  .

[PocketThunder]

Lets say dynacorn is making Charger bodies, can they just throw a sheet of Aluminum in the body press instead of steel?

[Mike DC]

 
No, it's not that easy.  Aluminum has to be stamped at very different thicknesses than steel, and the metal has more "springback" which totally changes how the stamping dies must be shaped.