New Cobra

[Gilamonster]

Hi there! I am just in the process of purchasing a lovely Blue Cobra from the folks at Sovereign. They are a really nice bunch of people and are very helpful.
Some of you may have seen the letter I wrote into Cobra magazine this month. Well, I took Den's advice and made a purchase!

I just wondered if anyone had any history on the vehicle itself or if you have come across it before eg has it been in any shows? Any silverware? Any comments as to how well it runs and how much fun its been? It was built around 1999 and has 10k miles on the clock. Its reg is GKV 626T
Apologies if this kind of post isnt the norm for this Forum - as I said, Im just getting started.
Cheerio
Andrew:thumb:

[gwak76]

Andrew

I have not got a clue about the car, but anyone who buys a Cobra can't be bad, have fun :thumb: :-}

[Grease Monkey]

How about letting us know what you've got? There are all sorts of sizes and flavours to Cobras. Make, Engine etc

[Gilamonster]

Oh sorry, its a Dax Cobra in Porsche Blue with a Ford Cleveland 5.7 Litre engine. Is that a small block or not? Approx 1997 build with 15" Hallibrands and Tremec 5 spd gearbox.

Im guessing that would be about 350 BHP right?

[kdavies3]

Hi there and welcome,
Good choice of car. :thumb:
Yes, the Cleveland is a small block.
I'm not sure how many horses a stock Cleveland is good for. 350 for a tweaked and sorted one is quite possible.

[Gilamonster]

Just in case anyone is interested in why I chose a Cobra:
I used to live in the USA and owned a fantistic sounding Green Mustang GT (ever seen Bullit? That one!). On returning to the UK last year I decided I wanted a fun car for weekends - a convertible.
Ilooked very closely at importing the new Dodge Viper SRT-10. 8.3 litres with 500BHP! About 30 will be sold by Chrysler into the UK market starting this December (in LHD). However, when test driving it (on holiday in New Orleans) I found it far too cramped for my 6'3" frame. I hate Porsche's (wannabe Ferrari owners) and Merc's (fat old men) and Beemers (boy racers) so no 911 or AMG 55 or M3 (the one German car I quite like is the new BMW 6 series soft top but its out of my budget). The Jaguar 6 Litre V12 XJS was a little too refined with not enough grunt. THe TVR range comes with too many depressing build-quality stories and the Aston DB7, which I believe uses an XJS chassis, is a little old in the tooth and the convertible lacks the elegance of the hardtop (and after all this was an exercise in finding an opentop car). I even looked at the MG RV8 for some English heritage (tonnes of jap imports out there) but it was too tinny-sounding, cramped and underperforming for my liking. So what else was there? I looked at the 550/575 range at Maranello's in Egham but they are just way too expensive and servicing costs will cripple any fan quickly. I then looked at original AC Cobra's but to be honest I really couldnt see the value in paying from 60-150k (yes one was quoted at £150k) for a car that isnt substantially different from some of the replicas out there. The only big difference is aluminium vs fiberglass. And I aint paying another 30-120k for aluminium! My next door bneighbour (cant disclose name) is an ex racing driver (with more entries in the "who's who" of racing than Ayrton Senna. He competed at Le Mans many times and drove professionally in many disciplines over 20 years of racing winning many international and uk events. He advised me that some replicas were just as good if not better than the originals which can often be way overpriced.
Anyway thats how I settled on a great replica AC Cobra from DAX. Cant wait to pick it up. Just in case anyone is interested, my ultimate dream car is the Ferrari 250 California (the one the AC Cobra beats into second place in the Gumball Rally). "If you cant join em, beat em!"

[paulp]

Just for information there is an aluminium kit available, its actually a US Kirkham distributed in the UK by Hawk. From what I understand the Kirkham is about as near a replica as you can get, with most parts interchangeable with original cobras. This kit is also supplied to none other than shelby himself, who builds the cars and sells them as shelby cobras in the US. They are top end of the market, and seem to be rare so would probably be expensive, I don't recall seeing one for sale since I've been looking for a cobra (hope I got all my facts straight there!)

If you're not that bothered about fiberglass then the Dax is a good choice, and blue is the best colour

[Bowtie]

Originally Posted by Gilamonster

...my ultimate dream car is the Ferrari 250 California...

I know the feeling, I have had it for more then 20 years!

Ps. Funny that it is so easy to accept a replica of a AC Cobra and so hard to accept a replica of a Ferrari like the 250 California...

/ Bowtie

[Grease Monkey]

Hey bowtie,

Did you hear about the IT guy who sent christmas cards for Halloween and went trick or treating at Christmas?

Well he figured DEC 25 is the same as OCT 31......