happs22

Well, I'm home on LI for the holiday. My uncle stopped over this morning in his new ride, a Shelby Cobra 427 Replica. This car is beautiful. He was in the market for "something different" and found this one for sale. The guy who built it was in the middle of a divorce and had to sell the car (after building it over 3 years). Anyway, his loss was my uncle's gain.

Well, my ride only lasted about 15 minutes because it began to cloud up and he had to get back home (no roof + rain = bad). However, the brief time I spent in the passenger seat was all smiles. The sound of the engine reving to 6000 RPMs, the exhaust note coming from just below my ear, the smiles on other drivers' faces as we passed by. . . gorgeous. Strangely, the only cars that gave us a "ricer flyby" were a BMW 325 and a 525, but that's neither here nor there. I have no idea what kind of #'s that car puts down, but it had head-snapping power down low.

I'm hoping to get behind the wheel sometime in the spring. I have a feeling the weather may not allow me the chace to drive it for the rest of the winter (it was actually nice out for about 2 hours today before getting cold and crappy). Man, everything on that car was perfect.

I've always loved the Shelby Cobra, and to finally get a ride in one (well, a replica) was just awesome. Oh yeah, the I came home and ate turkey and pie until I passed out. What a great day!

StormBringer

They are tons of fun, you just have to respect the 90 inch wheelbase or they will bite you in the butt. As for getting to drive them just remember that being a smooth as possible on the throttle and really only gooseing it in the straights is the best way to get used to driving one.

Any clue as the manufactor of his cobra. Also send him to www.clubcobra.com tons of nice owners over there with so much knowledge thats it is unreal.

Work is shut down so its a Cobra day for me.

bkw

The cobra is a blast to drive straight. Whenever you get an opportunity to drive something so raw and unrefined, its quite exhilarating. I was able to mash down the throttle while cruising at around 25mph and the rear tires totally lost traction. Usually when presented in such a predicament, one would ease up to regain traction, but in the cobra its a lot more fun to keep your foot in and wait for the inertia of the vehicle to catch up to its rotating tires

one of these days i'd like to build one. perhaps after i retire..

gomarlins3

I have one of both as my avatar shows. These two cars are completely different animals. The S is smooth and refined and a dream to corner with. The Cobra (at least my Cobra) is a beast. Tons of torque and a handful at full throttle. I love driving both and the wife likes to come along.

Da Hapa

beautiful rides!

If you don't mind me asking, what company did you go with? I was doing some research online last weekend into Factory Five and Superperformance. I'd love to hear input from real owners.

Thanks in advance.

ElTianti

The Superformance Cobras are very tasty.

Barry in Wyoming

A friend of mine bought this one new from Carroll Shelby in 1966 or 1967. He traded a 289 for it.

I've ridden in it once, seen it often. Another s2ki guy sent me this pic of my friend's car. It is now garaged in Colorado.

gomarlins3

Superformance and Kirkham are probably the best next to getting a new one from Mr. Shelby himself (yes, he sells replicas, but he is going to tell you they are a "continuation"). The up side is that these will be built for you. The down side is they start at about $35,000 and don't have an engine or tranny. A Factory Five (like mine) is probably the best build-it-yourself replica there is. The forum most of us use (ffcobra.com) is VERY helpfull. Factory Five has built over 4000 kits so they pretty much know what they are doing. With the kit, an '87-04 Mustang and the guys help from the forum, anyone can build one of these. The kits go for $14,000. You donor Mustang goes for whatever you want to pay. You can build a nondonor, but of course that will cost you more for everything to be brand new. Nice way to do it if you can afford it. I couldn't.

Mine was a budget build (I call mine The Poor Man's Cobra) and got out for $19,500, but it could be done for less. It's not the prettiest one around and definitly not the fastest, but it does what I want it to do and I have fun driving it.

My build page is actually on this web site. We started a thread about Cobra's in the Sacramento section and I kind of took it over when my build began. Here is the link:
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=150178
My build begins on page #2.

I will be happy to answer any more question you might have. I am very proud of the fact I built a car and would like to do another one someday. I encourage everyone to give it a shot and hope they have as much fun as I did doing it.

StormBringer

Kirkham's are the absolute best cobras in my opinion. The FFR is the way to go right now for a home build, but the backdraft cars are catching up in refinment.

You can throw alot of money at a cobra in the engine and tranny but the 5.0 cars are plenty fast. Mine is pushing close to 500hp at the rear wheel right now and it is really quite a handfull on the road. (not a 5.0 car by any stretch) above the 300 mark really its just a number you can flant at a show and not really usable except at the track.

Perfect cobra for me if I had 50-60K right now to build one, would be a polished kirkham roller, street/strip 351, 5 speed with a single hoop in black. I could swing one if I sold the current cobra the 308 and the Riot so if anybody wants to buy all three in a package deal let me know.

Dollar for dollar the cobra is a great amount of fun for the cash, but everyone stares at a cobra so you better like the attention, most are not built for cruising so they are uncofortable if you are used to the refiment and couch like S2000.

Since everybody else is posting pictures here is mine.

gomarlins3

WOW!!! Those are some serious deep dish rear wheels!!!!

I can't imagine what 500+ HP would be in one of these things! Heck, they only weigh 2,000 pounds.