DanElam
Enthusiast
It's probably been a year and half since someone posted a message about a Spec Cobra series being put together to run 427 Cobra replicas in a race series. I know that some of you looked at and made comments. After doing my homework, I decided to take the plunge and ordered one last July. Well, it almost a year later, but I finally took delivery of the car last Friday at Summit Point and will be getting it out for the first race this coming weekend. For anyone else still thinking about it, I thought I would share what I have learned.
The Car
Our car is the first one to be built for a new spec engine. We think the 5.0L Mustang engine is putting out about 260-275HP, but will get it on the dyno soon. It has a tube frame and aluminum body. Car weighs a bit less than 2,000 lbs. Solid rear axle (sigh) with shaved race tires. Not as good through the corners as the Viper (rear end), but the set up does surprisingly well. I have been out with another guy's Cobra on the track and run down some stock GTS' without too much trouble. We also modified ours so that it can get on the street (with some special provisions) and that looks pretty promising. It's still a race car though and that means you won't drive it for any extended period of time: the heat alone will dry clothes even in the rain. I know. Top speed looks like 150 or so, maybe slightly faster. Overall I think it is slightly faster off the line the Viper. Really fun to drive though. This particular series pretty much lets you do what you want to the brakes, so we have some big, modified Corvette brakes on the car. Ahhh! If only my Viper could stop this quickly!
Factory Five
The kits are made by Factory Five (http://www.factoryfive.com) and they are the weak link in all of this. The car was late being put together. When we got there, they didn't have all the parts. Then they didn't all the rest of the parts. We had to wait quite a while to get everything together. We paid a professional race car builder to put the thing together (Bryan Dobyns Motorsports) and he did fine (grr, but got it done a week later than the MD/VA VCA Crab Feast!). But if the series has any problems, it is going to be because Factory Five still runs like a little company even though they are making about 20 kits per week.
NASA
This is the sanctioning body for the series. NASA is big on the west coast as an alternative to SCCA. It is cheap, accomodating, and good competition. My weekend at Summit Point will cost me $100 and I get about 2 hours of track time for that. Tough to beat. I have been really delighted with these guys. Everything is fast and you get three races each weekend. Don't think these guys are guys who couldn't win in SCCA and just came over: guys like Jimmy Adams (LeMans) and Ted Hulse (numerous Porsche) are spending lots of time with NASA. Most of the Spec Cobra stuff is being run out of the Virginia Region, but there are races as far north as Lime Rock. The just announced a West Coast series and I think that is getting off the ground for the series. http://www.nasaracing.net
Costs
All things considered, this is pretty cheap racing. I think we paid about $15K for the kit, which included some options to make the car street legal (windshield, etc.) The engine was about $2K and we ended up paying the builder about $15K which included the donor parts (which we decided not use and just had him buy new). The car took longer to build thatn we thought, but we figure we have about $32K into a car that is about as fast as the Viper, a true competition race car, and eligible to be driven on the street in certain situations. For me, I probably wouldn't mind buying a Viper to convert to a race car, but I know I can't compete with big time Viper budgets and the race Viper maintenance bills frighten me. There isn't much on this car that could possibly cost even $1,000 to fix. If you are interested, let me know and I will let you know what our ongoing costs look like. Some of the guys have had no repairs and others have had to replace various joints and brake equipment. Tires look like they last a whole season or pretty close to it.
Love to have some more Viper owners join us on the track. You can find pictures of the car (and the build process) at our home web site, http://www.elams.org
Wish me luck!
The Car
Our car is the first one to be built for a new spec engine. We think the 5.0L Mustang engine is putting out about 260-275HP, but will get it on the dyno soon. It has a tube frame and aluminum body. Car weighs a bit less than 2,000 lbs. Solid rear axle (sigh) with shaved race tires. Not as good through the corners as the Viper (rear end), but the set up does surprisingly well. I have been out with another guy's Cobra on the track and run down some stock GTS' without too much trouble. We also modified ours so that it can get on the street (with some special provisions) and that looks pretty promising. It's still a race car though and that means you won't drive it for any extended period of time: the heat alone will dry clothes even in the rain. I know. Top speed looks like 150 or so, maybe slightly faster. Overall I think it is slightly faster off the line the Viper. Really fun to drive though. This particular series pretty much lets you do what you want to the brakes, so we have some big, modified Corvette brakes on the car. Ahhh! If only my Viper could stop this quickly!
Factory Five
The kits are made by Factory Five (http://www.factoryfive.com) and they are the weak link in all of this. The car was late being put together. When we got there, they didn't have all the parts. Then they didn't all the rest of the parts. We had to wait quite a while to get everything together. We paid a professional race car builder to put the thing together (Bryan Dobyns Motorsports) and he did fine (grr, but got it done a week later than the MD/VA VCA Crab Feast!). But if the series has any problems, it is going to be because Factory Five still runs like a little company even though they are making about 20 kits per week.
NASA
This is the sanctioning body for the series. NASA is big on the west coast as an alternative to SCCA. It is cheap, accomodating, and good competition. My weekend at Summit Point will cost me $100 and I get about 2 hours of track time for that. Tough to beat. I have been really delighted with these guys. Everything is fast and you get three races each weekend. Don't think these guys are guys who couldn't win in SCCA and just came over: guys like Jimmy Adams (LeMans) and Ted Hulse (numerous Porsche) are spending lots of time with NASA. Most of the Spec Cobra stuff is being run out of the Virginia Region, but there are races as far north as Lime Rock. The just announced a West Coast series and I think that is getting off the ground for the series. http://www.nasaracing.net
Costs
All things considered, this is pretty cheap racing. I think we paid about $15K for the kit, which included some options to make the car street legal (windshield, etc.) The engine was about $2K and we ended up paying the builder about $15K which included the donor parts (which we decided not use and just had him buy new). The car took longer to build thatn we thought, but we figure we have about $32K into a car that is about as fast as the Viper, a true competition race car, and eligible to be driven on the street in certain situations. For me, I probably wouldn't mind buying a Viper to convert to a race car, but I know I can't compete with big time Viper budgets and the race Viper maintenance bills frighten me. There isn't much on this car that could possibly cost even $1,000 to fix. If you are interested, let me know and I will let you know what our ongoing costs look like. Some of the guys have had no repairs and others have had to replace various joints and brake equipment. Tires look like they last a whole season or pretty close to it.
Love to have some more Viper owners join us on the track. You can find pictures of the car (and the build process) at our home web site, http://www.elams.org
Wish me luck!
