Build Your Own Cobra! No Welding Required!

OK, so maybe there is some welding on the body. This build is so far beyond the top it is hard to believe. Makes me want to buy a big milling machine.

http://www.kirkhammotorsports.com/book_aoe/

$4500 for a book?! Dear Lord! That's more than my fleet of clunkers.

I was driving next to one of these a year or so ago. Very impressive. The one I say had billet aluminum license plates which was pretty cool.

I also saw another one in a guys garage (big money lawyer) that he was super proud of. The problem was, the meat head actually painted it!!! Not only that but he was trying to impress me with what he called "new" Goodyear bias ply tires. I was a bit confused by this and asked him if they came from the factory with all the age cracking! I sure hope he never tries to blast down the freeway at 100mph in that thing!

I think I'll go for the free download rather than a book done in billet alum. But it would make the ultimate coffee table book.

The free download is a great read. There are a couple hundred pages, so make sure you have some spare time before you dig in.

The car is way over the top - a chassis built of billet aluminum pieces bolted together isn't very practical - but it's still pretty cool and a testament to the skill of the designer and machinist.

OK, that seems really cool at first glance... but then...

• no curb weight listed, probably because it was more than the original. There is price to be paid for all that billet.

• Bragging about 4500 ft/lbs per degree of deflection... is about half or worse than a carbon fiber tub. They just really, really wanted to mill the whole thing. Just come out and admit it... its heavier and sloppier than it could have been but berkeley it, Larry was paying and you always wanted to try it.

• A berkeleying carburetor? Really? If I spent a gazillion dollars on a modern interpretation of a classic and they put a carb on it I would have murdered every last one of them.

walterj wrote: - A berkeleying carburetor? Really? If I spent a gazillion dollars on a modern interpretation of a classic and they put a carb on it I would have murdered every last one of them.

And STILL no eleventy billion button.

walterj wrote: - Bragging about 4500 ft/lbs per degree of deflection... is about half or worse than a carbon fiber tub. They just really, really wanted to mill the whole thing. Just come out and admit it... its heavier and sloppier than it could have been but berkeley it, Larry was paying and you always wanted to try it.

I really love this modern obsession with torsional stiffness. Even if the car weighs 2500lbs it would have to corner at 1.5+ G's to twist the chassis more than 1 degree..

I'm not saying that for a given weight stiffer isn't better. But setting your goal as 15,000lbs/deg is just silly. Carrol Smith suggest that the chassis be 10X stiffer in lbs/deg than the difference in roll stiffness front to rear, as this is what load the chassis is actually attempting to transfer. So if your front roll stiffness is 200lbs/deg and the rear is only 100lb/deg, Smith suggest that your chassis needs to be a minimum of 1000lbs/deg.

nocones wrote:

walterj wrote: - Bragging about 4500 ft/lbs per degree of deflection... is about half or worse than a carbon fiber tub. They just really, really wanted to mill the whole thing. Just come out and admit it... its heavier and sloppier than it could have been but berkeley it, Larry was paying and you always wanted to try it.

I really love this modern obsession with torsional stiffness. Even if the car weighs 2500lbs it would have to corner at 1.5+ G's to twist the chassis more than 1 degree.. I'm not saying that for a given weight stiffer isn't better. But setting your goal as 15,000lbs/deg is just silly. Carrol Smith suggest that the chassis be 10X stiffer in lbs/deg than the difference in roll stiffness front to rear, as this is what load the chassis is actually attempting to transfer. So if your front roll stiffness is 200lbs/deg and the rear is only 100lb/deg, Smith suggest that your chassis needs to be a minimum of 1000lbs/deg.

My point was that had they just used CF that it would have been lighter and stiffer and saved poor Larry some ching in the process. It made no engineering, financial or performance sense to do what they did - they just really wanted to try it and found a chump with deep enough pockets to foot the bill.

"Hey, ya think we ought to use this here scalpel to cut down this here tree? Everybody been using chainsaws... thats been done. You just pay for my labor and we'll take care of it"

walterj wrote: My point was that had they just used CF that it would have been lighter and stiffer and saved poor Larry some ching in the process. It made no engineering, financial or performance sense to do what they did - they just really wanted to try it and found a chump with deep enough pockets to foot the bill. "Hey, ya think we ought to use this here scalpel to cut down this here tree? Everybody been using chainsaws... thats been done. You just pay for my labor and we'll take care of it"

Oh I totally agree with you. CF would have been stiffer, lighter, and probably cheaper. But the Billet Aluminumz haz da BLING!!

This is another case of "I got Money and you don't!"

I'll take a Factory 5 before pretty much anything else, anyway.

Heck - for the cost of the book - $4500 I could buy all the donor parts for the FFRoadster! And paint!

Billet is great for Aircraft parts and engine and mechanical bits - but a whole frame?! It's just misappropriation of materials.

Ugly. I am not impressed.

It's supposed to be sacreligious to use anything but a carb on a Cobra, but them most of what they did will have the purists up in arms. You simply aren't allowed to improve on what good 'ol Shel made

I see the beauty of it... But I think I like the book more than the actual car!

seeker589 wrote: I'll take a Factory 5 before pretty much anything else, anyway. Heck - for the cost of the book - $4500 I could buy all the donor parts for the FFRoadster! And paint!

I think with that kind of money, you could have an ULTIMATE street build FFR, a maxed out (but within spec) FFR challenge car and campain the thing for several years.

I think you guys are insane. It's beautiful. It's art. Who cares if it's impractical - so is the ceiling at the Sistine Chapel.

DILYSI Dave wrote: I think you guys are insane. It's beautiful. It's art. Who cares if it's impractical - so is the ceiling at the Sistine Chapel.

Yeah.What he said.

I need some box flares for my cargo shorts after looking at the polished 289 FIA.

Gisele Bundchen is most likely not practical. May not even know how to cook, and most certainly has no torsional stiffness that I can see.

But I would still like to go for a ride!

This cobra tribute is cool in its own right and I doubt very much anyone "Saw one of these" driving down the road! Most likely a factory five.

astounding... while I agree that billet is a wonderful thing.. I doubt I need a book bound in it

No Cobra is practical!

All I could hope is that it handles more like a modern car than a cobra.

Cost was no object and they ended up using a freaking carburetor?!? Give me a break.

NOHOME wrote: This cobra tribute is cool in its own right and I doubt very much anyone "Saw one of these" driving down the road! Most likely a factory five.

I assume he meant "one of these" in the sense of an aluminum-bodied Kirkham Cobra, not specifically Larry Ellison's billet chassis blingmobile.

From the FAQ:

Q: How much do your cars weigh?

A: A completed car can weigh less than 1900 lbs. for a car with an aluminum small block and all the lightweight options, to over 2400 lbs. for a car with an iron big block.

good lord... that is a nice power to weight ratio

I'm speechless. The book, the car everything. For those screaming about the use of the carb, no cf, etc., I'd bet that Ellison was consulted about that before they did anything. You don't build a company like Oracle by letting people do what they want.