felt bad for a corvette driver today

[CAP1]

We have a factory 5 cobra at work and it is nowhere near half the car the lone star cars are.

I does have a 347 with six speed the rest of the car seems to have been made in china.

It also has the 4 shock rear end from the early fox body mustangs.

and yet we know they're built right here. you gotta be trolling here. 

[icepac]

I wish I were joking.....or better yet....not going to have to get this car right after two other supposedly top line shops had no luck.

One shop left it hydrolocked for two weeks but I emptied the cooling system and let it run for 30 seconds within half an hour of it getting to us.

I'll check the bores when I get a chance to work on it.


Strange but that reference to the cobra was supposed to end up the "What do the HTC staff drive ?" thread.

[CAP1]

I wish I were joking.....or better yet....not going to have to get this car right after two other supposedly top line shops had no luck.

One shop left it hydrolocked for two weeks but I emptied the cooling system and let it run for 30 seconds within half an hour of it getting to us.

I'll check the bores when I get a chance to work on it.


Strange but that reference to the cobra was supposed to end up the "What do the HTC staff drive ?" thread.

so? a hydro-locked engine is factory five's fault?  if it took anyone longer than half a minute to find a hydro-locked engine, then they should go back to school. they couldn't have been top of the line shops.

 i've not much experience with the 347's myself, but from everything i've heard....i'd not build one for myself, or a customer.

by the way......just emptying the cooling system doesn't free up a hydro-locked engine. also, depending on the heads used, they probably torqued them incorrectly(which i've seen on other alum. headed ford engines), causing the head gasket to give way. normally this will be an external leak though. but you probably already know that.

[Skuzzy]

Where most builders make a mistake is in the cooling system.  The upper radiator hose connection to the radiator in a Cobra is below the highest point in the coolant system.  Without an external fill tank placed higher than the heads, it is almost impossible to get all the air out of the block when you fill it.

The older Factory Five cars were all built from donor Mustangs.  It was a requirement.  The new MkIV Factory Five car (which looks much better than the MkIII) can be had as a complete build with no donor parts needed.  They are very different cars.  Overall, the Factory Five kits are pretty good kits.

In the industry, all the companies selling owner built kits have their pluses and minuses.  It is up to the owner as to what will fit his/her needs.

As far as quality goes, it is up to the builder.  No two Cobras, built by owners, are the same.  Everyone has their own requirements for what they want their car to do.

I am not a fan of stroking the Ford small block to its limits.  The longer you make the stroke, the more difficult it is to maintain a proper rod length to stroke ratio.  The longer stroke also comes at a cost to long term reliabilty.  If you are going to stroke a 302 out, the best option is to start with an 9" deck, rather than the stock 8.2" deck block, or jump right into a BOSS351 block (Windsor block, 9.5" deck, with Cleveland mains).

[Sol75]

Whoa! that Factory 5 GTM Supercar is cool as hell looking! I have been considering doing a kit car of some sort.. that baby may be my choice... WOW it is gorgeous is all I got to say!

Cap, know anyone who has done one of those builds? (or anyone else)

[CAP1]

Whoa! that Factory 5 GTM Supercar is cool as hell looking! I have been considering doing a kit car of some sort.. that baby may be my choice... WOW it is gorgeous is all I got to say!

Cap, know anyone who has done one of those builds? (or anyone else)

i had one customer years ago, that was working on a factory five kit. he bought a wrecked 88 mustang gt, to use with it.

 he brought us the kit on a rollback, after they had installed seats, dash, engine, trans and rear....suspension too obviously.

 they had the wiring routed sort of. they didn't pay enough attention removing the wiring harnesses from the donor car, and made a pretty nasty snakes nest of crap, which they couldn't figure out.
 it took me about 2 days to get it all straightened out for them, everything hooked up, and to get her fired up. i'm sure it could have been done faster, but my concern was doing it right the first time, and to be honest, i'm kinda wierd with wiring.....even when i know it's not visible, it has to be neat and pretty looking.

 they finished it, but sold it right away, as there was a guy nipping at their heels to sell it through nearly the rest of the build after he heard it fired up..........i dunno what they did after that.

[CAP1]

Where most builders make a mistake is in the cooling system.  The upper radiator hose connection to the radiator in a Cobra is below the highest point in the coolant system.  Without an external fill tank placed higher than the heads, it is almost impossible to get all the air out of the block when you fill it.

The older Factory Five cars were all built from donor Mustangs.  It was a requirement.  The new MkIV Factory Five car (which looks much better than the MkIII) can be had as a complete build with no donor parts needed.  They are very different cars.  Overall, the Factory Five kits are pretty good kits.

In the industry, all the companies selling owner built kits have their pluses and minuses.  It is up to the owner as to what will fit his/her needs.

As far as quality goes, it is up to the builder.  No two Cobras, built by owners, are the same.  Everyone has their own requirements for what they want their car to do.

I am not a fan of stroking the Ford small block to its limits.  The longer you make the stroke, the more difficult it is to maintain a proper rod length to stroke ratio.  The longer stroke also comes at a cost to long term reliabilty.  If you are going to stroke a 302 out, the best option is to start with an 9" deck, rather than the stock 8.2" deck block, or jump right into a BOSS351 block (Windsor block, 9.5" deck, with Cleveland mains).

yea./....that was part of the reason the early 60's galaxy big blocks had that surge tank mounted on the front of the engine.

 i was taking his meaning of "hydro-locked" to mean that the engine wouldn't run, as in it had sucked water into the combustion chambers.

[Hajo]

Vette kick a Cobras a@@?

Gee.....I wonder what Enzo said when the Cobras completely made Ferarri a non- factor

which made Enzo cancel his last race of the season....believe it was 65 or 66.

Corvettes were nice......63, 67, 68 and 69....oh and the first in 53 was gorgeous.

Now......they're like Toyotas.....everywhere....go to an auction.  See which car

is most often auctioned.  You guessed it...vettes.

[RichardDarkwood]

ok.....mondays are generally hell for me. all of my tool suppliers, parts reps, etc. stop in on mondays.

 so i'm standing in the parking lot talking to one of the independent suppliers, and hear the "lope" of something hot. i look over to the side driveway of the parking lot, and there's a cobra pulling in. black with white racing stripes. friggin BEAUTIFUL. unfortunatly, i didn't have my camera handy.
 anyway, as we're walking over to the pumps to check it out, in pulls an 09 corvette.....bright yellow. even with that flaw, it was still a beautiful car.
 the problem? everyone walked over to the cobra. not a single person looked at the vette, nor did they notice the hot blonde in the passengers seat. eventually, the vette owner even came over, like he was "sizing up" the cobra.
 
 the dood looked like he stayed consertive with the build. only had a 347, which he says was dyno'd to 500hp. not much, but more than enough for a car weighing under 3,000 pounds.
 it was a factory five racing kit. i asked him a bunch of questions. he said that the build wasn't as easy as they make it out to be. they sent him the wrong rims with it. he had trouble finding the spindles. he had trouble with the wiring harness to install the FI engine. he had it painted in Connecticut.  the interior was friggin PERFECT. he had installed the heater vents, and defrosters, and has the soft top for it, and did put wiper on it.
 he said it took him about 400 hours total working time to build, and a little over 50k. all in all, not too bad. when he mentioned money, the vette dood asked him " that;s not including your labor, right?" as if he was trying to justify something.

 when i asked him if it was worth all of the time, money, and headaches, he just smiled like a 10 year old. he's only got 200 miles on it, and not had it to any tracks yet. he's local i think, as his face looked familiar from being in the station before. next time he pulls in, i'll get some pics.......but.....seeing and hearing that beautiful beast made my monday. 

My dad's car will out do your dad's car in every way     man.....

[CAP1]

My dad's car will out do your dad's car in every way     man.....

don't matter to me....i gots a camaro that should run high 8's or low 9's.....and a fairmont that'll run 12's.

 to be honest, prolly gonna sell the camaro though.

[SFRT - Frenchy]

 

[SFRT - Frenchy]

 

[SFRT - Frenchy]

 

[SFRT - Frenchy]

 

[SFRT - Frenchy]

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