By their nature kit cars are never going to be very common, but I was impressed to see a Cobra replica being used as a daily driver, rain or shine! It does stand out a bit doesn’t it?
Last year I was working in a different area from normal, and driving down one of the main roads on several different days I saw this purple Cobra. I imagine the hardtop helps with the rain, but what about the lack of side windows? Otherwise, why not I suppose…
It is not completely unknown to see a Cobra replica in peak hour traffic, but I don’t often get the chance to (have my passenger) photograph them.
How do I know they aren’t real Cobras you might ask? Well they only built something like 260 of the 427 Cobras with the wide body (that is most often copied) for the street, plus a few more race cars, and originals are worth millions. It is not impossible that they could see some street time but rather unlikely given there can only be a handful in Australia – the above one was at the 2014 Motoclassica show.
They are more often seen on race tracks, such as here rounding Siberia corner at the Phillip Island historics in March 2014. The name of the corner refers to how the weather frequently is, with the wind blowing directly from the Antarctic. Incidentally, still no side windows, just wind deflectors! Clearly the hardtop on this car is much less practical for day-to-day use too, covering much of the original trunk opening…
Anyway, driving a Cobra to work (preferably on a nice day!) has to be good for your mental health. Would you dare?
Further Reading
Curbside Credibility: Is This a Real Cobra?
CC Capsule: Shelby Cobra 427 Replica – An Accessory To Mischief?
I have always loved the Cobra replicas. They strike me as ‘distilled essence of sports car’. Beautiful, fast, reliable: fun. However, if I were to build one, mine would have a 302 rather than the ‘obligatory’ 427. In a car as light as this, that would be plenty of power, and I don’t want the heavy clutch and I especially don’t want the heat that boils up from that big block.
In general, I like the idea of replicas – 80% of the fun of an original with 20% of the headaches. Lancia Stratos replica, anyone? I’d love to do some local level rallying in one.
My personal fantasy replica doesn’t exist at least as far as I know:
I have admired the beauty of the TR 6 since I was a kid…I really, really want that body on a BMW Z3 chassis. You’d keep the look of the Triumph and the torque of a straight 6, while gaining a more modern suspension…. I would seriously consider laying out the cash for that one….
“…mine would have a 302 rather than the ‘obligatory’ 427.”
Agreed, and I could do without the ugly flared fenders, too. The original with the comparatively diminutive wheels is much nicer looking, IMO.
Supposedly the 289 Cobra handled much better than the 427. I agree, it looks much better with the normal fenders and wheels.
“TR6 … on a BMW Z3” Ha! I was just thinking of this a few weeks back! Totally perfect 2nd car.
http://www.bmh-ltd.com/tr6parts.htm#
http://www.jbweld.com/
https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-D28114-2-Inch-High-Performance-Grinder/dp/B000HI0ZZA/ref=sr_1_17?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1471896348&sr=1-17&keywords=dewalt+grinder
All you need now is a battered Z3 and the world’s your lobster Lokki.
I would imaging that most Cobra replicas run a small block Ford V8 rather than the big block, it would have to halve the cost of your mechanicals and you could still have more than enough performance.
One of my dad’s mates has a Cobra replica, he described it as a 4-wheeled motorbike because of the poor wind/weather protection. Cured him of wanting one at least.
Stacy David put a small-block Ford into a Miyata that he converted to the Cobra-like “Banshee.” Well worth watching.
http://www.staceydavid.com/index.html
Presumably similar to the Monster Miatas, and in more recent times the LS-powered Flyin’ Miatas
Oh!
Yes, those replicas….
I love these built by “Hawk” Stratos…. no doubt!
But forbidden if you are taller than 170cms..?
Nice!
I remember seeing a 427 Cobra along “the Nimitz” at rush hour in the late ’80s. I couldn’t believe even then that someone would do that, but it sure looked authentic up close, and the black CA license plates matched the vehicle in age (from 1967). I even think I saw it again not too long thereafter, and after that I’ve never seen another Cobra on the street.
Sure why not, could be fun for a bit and aren’t cars supposed to be driven?
I myself prefer the early 260-289 Cobra’s styling also. And I have a magazine article from early ’60’s where somebody swapped a 215 Olds aluminum V8 and 4 speed into a ’58 AC Ace, the car that became the Cobra. That would have to be fun too, and rather practical, and probably the lightest V8 that ever sat between those elegant fenders.
There used to be one or two British kit manufacturers who did 289 replicas, or something close to it, and funnily enough large numbers of British Cobra replicas ended up with Olds-related Rover V8s, which were obligatory in hot rods too.
The more expensive kits tended to be Jag based and ended up with a 302 Ford, though one or two received Jag V12s, which seems wrong somehow – though some might say better than the Ford 2 litre fours or 2.8 Cologne V6s many ended up with.
I prefer the earlier model with the lighter engine, replicas are fairly common here when you see three Cobras parked outside Maccas its a guarentee they are tupperware not aluminium, though one alloy bodied replica of the six 289 race cars does exist here it lives far away from me and Ive only seen it on a race track.
“its a guarentee they are tupperware”
GOLD! Pure undiluted awesome.
Would you dare? If we’re talking replicas, I know a couple folks who did. A fellow at my last employer had a bright orange one with black stripes that he drove on nice days. The running gear was primarily Mustang; not sure if it was a 302 or a 4.6 though. And, much more true to the original, a professor at the veterinary college where I used to work had a very well executed replica in the classic blue with white stripe. He’d turn up in the Cobra a couple times a month, usually. It actually had a 427 under the hood and must have set him back quite a few dollars, but this was a guy for whom money wasn’t a concern (another fairweather daily driver of his was a ’79 Ferrari 308 and he also owned a ’62 ‘Vette). The snake in question:
A work colleague of mine has one as a toy, with an EB-era 302 and auto gearbox, but even so, it’s not practical enough as a daily! And after having a sit in his recently, I know I couldn’t consider one as a daily, or a toy – I just don’t fit…
Oh well, there’s one thing off the list that I don’t need to lust after!
One fun part about living in todays engine building world? You can build a 351W that displaces 427 cubic inches, if your pockets are deep enough.
I remember probably 20 years ago at an auction there was a Targa-prepped Falcon GT sold off with the ‘good’ engine sold separately. That was an all-aluminium Windsor at something like 440 ci, got $20k+ just for the engine.
One of the ironies of Cobra replicas is how Shelby, himself, tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to legally stop them from being reproduced through the US courts. The irony is, if not for the replicas, it’s very likely the Cobra (and probably Shelby, too) would have been long forgotten.
To me, it’s very similar to how Steve Jobs took a very hard line against copiers of his early, successful Apple operating system. During the personal computer infancy days, circa 1982, Jobs had a winner in his Apple IIe model and, not long after, a company named Franklin came out with a virtual clone, the Ace 100. Jobs immediately sued Franklin and, unlike Shelby, won, which instantly stopped anyone else from ever copying his computer (or using the Apple OS). AFAIK, no one has ever copied, built, and sold another Apple computer copy since.
IBM, OTOH, had no such qualms about others copying their PC operating system, realizing that the more IBM computers there were, it meant a much greater market for computer software. Consequently, although the PC OS was inferior to Apple, due to the low cost and proliferation of PC copies (and PC software), the PC OS quickly overtook Apple and soon became the industry standard, a place it holds to this day.
Whitehorse Rd via Box Hill. Nice picture
I know a bloke who built a magnificent Cobra Daytona Coupe.
I’ve told the story before, but in the early 70s, winter of 70/71 as I recall, a friend and I took his Alfa coupe to the ice races in Wisconsin. Fun day, (he drove, I watched cars spinning across the lake). One of the competitors was a college student from Madison with a 427 Cobra. NOT a replica. It was his daily driver, and showed every one of it’s miles. A well used car, he referred to it as his ‘beater’. I had the opportunity to take a good look at it in the parking area. Faded paint, cracked seats, worn top, dinged body, but that sucker sure did run. He didn’t do to badly on the track either, tho he did lose it on one curve and must have spun about a half mile over the ice. Often wonder what happened to that car, did he keep it, or is he now saying “I used to have one of those”? I imagine no one’s had that much fun with an original 427 Cobra in a loooong time.