Just something that gets me excited.....
So, some of you know I went to Texas a couple of months ago with my brother to pick up a replica of a '65 Shelby Cobra. My brother is extremely happy with it. When we first got it, we had to take it off the trailor when we got to Atlanta (we were attending a birthday party that night.....which I got to play guitar with the band.....that was awesome). We went over to Road Atlanta and drove around a little bit. He let me drive it for about 5 minutes in the parking lot just so I could get used to it. The pedals were very difficult to deal with. They were all too close together.....even with me wearing my chuck taylors. There was a "dead pedal" all the way to the left of the clutch, which we figured needed to come out. With it still there, when pushingn the clutch in, it made pushing the already hard to push brake pedal much harder to push in. I was still scared of this car so I took it easy, never going out of second gear. When we were leaving (Tristram, my brother, was driving), pulling out of Road Atlanta, he floored the gas and a big cloud of blue smoke came up from the floor boards. Something was wrong with the heads (though we didn't know that at the time).
Over the next few weeks, we fixed the problem. We even took the "dead pedal" out and bent the clutch to the left to make it easier to drive. My brother came over one night, tossed me the keys, and said, "Since you haven't gotten to really drive it, go have some fun." He didn't have to tell me twice. I crawled over the side of the car and got myself situated. I attached the only three points of the 5 point harness (right hip, left hip, crotch are what I used. The other two I didn't use are the ones on the shoulders). I was only going to be driving around town, not on a race track. The rumble of the engine is phenominal. It's not a rednecky rumble that you hear from "Captain Redneck's" four wheel drive truck. But it's one that any racer will turn their head to look at. Not only racers, but just about anybody. That car is an attention grabber. Going down Front Street in it was funny. All these kids yelling at me from the sidewalk saying, "HEY MAN!! COOL CAR!!" or "REV IT UP!! LET'S SEE WHAT IT'S GOT!!" Since the speed limit was only 25mph, I couldn't do it. So I took it some place that I could do it. I went out to Kensington where I could go faster, but not too fast (I'm still a little scared of it). When I was turning onto 17 at the red light in Kensington, there was a van in front of me. I was only doing about 15 mph. I could have shifted it into first, but I know damn well that the rear end would have snapped around and I would have been looking at everyone behind me in less than a second. So I shifted into second gear instead, and then floored it. I was at 60 mph before I knew it. A surge of energy rushed over me. I was still feeling it when I got home. I'm shivering now as I'm typing about it.
That same weekend, my brother took it to an autocross in Florence. Here are some pictures of it (and since some of you haven't seen the car, you can marvel at it's beauty. LOL).
You'll notice somebody sitting in the passenger seat above. A kid asked if he could ride along so my brother let him. From the way the car is sitting, it's easy to tell what's going on. You'll notice the rear passenger side of the car is "squatting". That means most of the weight is on that side of the car. What causes this? The back end is sliding to the right. Notice the front tires are also turned right. Not only is the rear end sliding, but the front end is moving in the same direction, so the entire car is sliding sideways. See the kid's hand wrapped tightly around the roll bar? HAHAHA.
Here you can see the entire back end is "squatting". Also notice the white smoke and rocks being thrown behind the car. He's in first gear and I bet the spedometer reads about 45 mph, but he's only going to about 3 mph.
Here's a great shot of the car after the autocross. It looks like there is a Corvette on each side of it. He raced (on the street) a Ferrari 355 Spyder a few days ago. My brother only took the Cobra up to 100mph before letting off the gas......but the Ferrari was still behind him. Maybe that will tell you why I'm scared of it.
Over the next few weeks, we fixed the problem. We even took the "dead pedal" out and bent the clutch to the left to make it easier to drive. My brother came over one night, tossed me the keys, and said, "Since you haven't gotten to really drive it, go have some fun." He didn't have to tell me twice. I crawled over the side of the car and got myself situated. I attached the only three points of the 5 point harness (right hip, left hip, crotch are what I used. The other two I didn't use are the ones on the shoulders). I was only going to be driving around town, not on a race track. The rumble of the engine is phenominal. It's not a rednecky rumble that you hear from "Captain Redneck's" four wheel drive truck. But it's one that any racer will turn their head to look at. Not only racers, but just about anybody. That car is an attention grabber. Going down Front Street in it was funny. All these kids yelling at me from the sidewalk saying, "HEY MAN!! COOL CAR!!" or "REV IT UP!! LET'S SEE WHAT IT'S GOT!!" Since the speed limit was only 25mph, I couldn't do it. So I took it some place that I could do it. I went out to Kensington where I could go faster, but not too fast (I'm still a little scared of it). When I was turning onto 17 at the red light in Kensington, there was a van in front of me. I was only doing about 15 mph. I could have shifted it into first, but I know damn well that the rear end would have snapped around and I would have been looking at everyone behind me in less than a second. So I shifted into second gear instead, and then floored it. I was at 60 mph before I knew it. A surge of energy rushed over me. I was still feeling it when I got home. I'm shivering now as I'm typing about it.
That same weekend, my brother took it to an autocross in Florence. Here are some pictures of it (and since some of you haven't seen the car, you can marvel at it's beauty. LOL).
You'll notice somebody sitting in the passenger seat above. A kid asked if he could ride along so my brother let him. From the way the car is sitting, it's easy to tell what's going on. You'll notice the rear passenger side of the car is "squatting". That means most of the weight is on that side of the car. What causes this? The back end is sliding to the right. Notice the front tires are also turned right. Not only is the rear end sliding, but the front end is moving in the same direction, so the entire car is sliding sideways. See the kid's hand wrapped tightly around the roll bar? HAHAHA.
Here you can see the entire back end is "squatting". Also notice the white smoke and rocks being thrown behind the car. He's in first gear and I bet the spedometer reads about 45 mph, but he's only going to about 3 mph.
Here's a great shot of the car after the autocross. It looks like there is a Corvette on each side of it. He raced (on the street) a Ferrari 355 Spyder a few days ago. My brother only took the Cobra up to 100mph before letting off the gas......but the Ferrari was still behind him. Maybe that will tell you why I'm scared of it.