Projects DRAG SNAKE "Vintage Terror!"

Isn't Mo-Kan Dragway nearby?
http://www.mokandragway.com/

 

Hour and Half or so. But those crazy guys are open a couple days per week at best and then only certain times on those days. Crazy. LMAO

 

Okay , You southern boys call that Hooning Us northern boys call that flirting with disaster ! Would it have been wrong to laugh if he would have spun out and clip the wall? lol I use to do shit like that 50 years ago in a snow and ice covered parking lot. But I always keep the steering wheel attached to the car!! Larry

 

I'd just call it "Dumb Assery"

 

Instantly started thinking about the song Flirtin with Disaster by Molly Hatchet.

I would have carried an extra steering wheel along on the floor, and with a good smoke screen going no one would have noticed

 

It is harder than it looks to get out there. To keep things relatively safe there is Coke syrup on the floor. Most guys just try to do a burnout, they have some flame throwing, even a monster truck or two in the past. Not sure where the word Hooning came from, I was thinking down under but not sure. However, overcoming the sticky stuff is the key. I thought Jackson's idea last year had some real potential though...


Apparently, it involved leaking fluid from every orphus onto the floor during his run and then try and keep to those areas for maximum potential of really breaking the tires loose!

 

LOL that is a good one!

 

Randall, you are correct - hoon, and hooning are Australian terms. Here is some info from the interwebs:

A hoon, in Australia and New Zealand, is a person who deliberately drives a vehicle in a reckless or dangerous manner, generally in order to provoke a reaction from onlookers. Hoon activities (or hooning) can include speeding, burnouts, doughnuts, or screeching tyres.

Hoon - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Hoon

 

Randall I call bull$h!| there was no fuel leak lmao. What I can say is that is the result of driving my truck 120 miles to the show and burning rubber while I was there something your Ford product hasn’t done yet lmao and don’t forget that pile outran your big bad blown big block powered Austin by at least 5 bus lengths lol. I must admit that was a good one though lol.


Chrome don’t get ya home

 

Well the Cobra is in at the Daryl Starbird Show...more photos to come.


What a crazy set up. You know we have the Swiss track flooring and we keep it in rows of two. So like 6 sections two tiles wide and twelve long.

After the last show we built a rack of sorts on the side of the trailer and strapped them up. It keeps the together and out of the way etc. So we finally get our turn at driving in the building. We have one hour to unload and get the trailer back out etc.

We back up to our spot, roll the car out and start unstrspping the floor. I left the straps in the middle in place. Dad said just take them all off and he would just stay there and hold them. So I took it off and went to the far end. Zoe had the front and took the first section and headed out. ALL THREE OF US. I was past the mid point when I realized what was about to happen.

It was too late though the rest of sections tilted forward and past the point if saving. We tried but ended up loosing the entire floor. When the avalanche was over it lay on th floor of the trailer in a 100 pieces. Lol

We basically just threw all the pieces out and the spent 2 hours figuring how it all went back together.

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We met @phoneman today, thanks for dropping by. Always good to put a face with an avatar. We got a killer offer from Speedway Motors to winter the Cobra in their museum after race season. Lol











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Yep, hoon is an Aussie term. Our street racing/loss of traction laws are even tabled as Anti-Hoon legislation.

The coke syrup bit is a worry... a good sideways burnout (aka circle-work) is close to a national sport:


As an Aussie GM Holden person, it would not be appropriate for me to pass positive comment on a Ford (Aussies tend to be either Holden or Ford people). You’ll just have to imagine me saying the Cobra is Pretty. Fricken. Awesome. Can’t wait to see the next few passes on the strip.

cheers,
Harv

 

Let’s us know when ya bring it up we’ll try and get together for a meal someplace!! Speedway Motors is in our home town!!


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Met a couple more HAMBers yesterday. Both claim lurker status. You know who you are, one is about to start a Henry J project, hope to see it on here one day.

AND...believe it or not I met a guy proudly wearing a HAMB shirt but he had never heard of me... Now how is that possible? LMAO!

Final day of the show.

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Your display is awesome. Nice meeting up with You, Your Dad. and your Daughter.

 

Well we made it out of that place about 9 p.m. Sunday night, that put us home just around Midnight. We had a bit of a struggle Sunday with the trailer lights. When we loaded up Wednesday (in the pouring rain) to head that way, I plugged the trailer lights in and nothing. The running lights did not come on. I played around with the plug etc. Dad went back to check the tail lights and nothing. So I assumed it was a fuse.

We went up front but all FIVE of the fuses in the RAM for the tailer lights (yes that is what I said FIVE of them) were some crazy box style. Just 20 AMPs but nothing I had in the shop so we went down to the auto parts store and guess what, special order or dealer! Total Stupidity!

So I pulled the one for the running and tail light and had the guy just check it for continuity since we couldn't tell by looking if it was blown or not. He said it had continuity. So I am thinking we have a broken wire or contact somewhere. Then I got to thinking if every light function has its own fuse, maybe the rest of the lights work. Sure enough, we had signal and brakes. It was daylight so I said screw it let's just go. I figured we could deal with tail lights in Tulsa.

Well after procrastinating until Sunday I decided the easiest thing was just snag a bit of wire from an auto parts store along with some alligator clips...the plan, just hot wire the tail light part of the lights from the wench battery and deal with it when we get home. However no matter which wire I chose, it lit the entire light and brakes and signals stopped working. Must be something with the LED style lights...I have no idea nor do I want to know.

So now we have two choices, fix it or run the flashers all the way home (which I was totally prepared to do)! LOL Anyway, I made a really quick check of the wiring from the trailer back to the plug, nothing obvious, no damage or evidence something might have affected the wires. So I am back at the plug. It has to be right here, either in the plug or outlet etc. So I snag my tester and find there is no power at the running lights spade. I went back up front and pulled the fuse the auto parts store tested and tried my own continuity on it. Nothing. I pulled the same style one from the trailer back up lights, plugged it in the running lights hole and poof...there was light. LOL

All of that drama because the stupid parts guy didn't know how to run his multimeter! I told him at the time I didn't hear it beep and said the sound was broken but it showed continuity etc.! Par for the course I suppose.

 

It was a good show, we had fun and the car was very well received (at least by the public). About 75 percent of the onlookers thought it was a real one (which made us feel pretty good). There were 3 other standard 427 Kit Cars in the show as well, none of them in a display of any kind, just parked among the other near 1000 cars.

All three of them received awards but our little small block representative went home empty handed. I am thinking maybe next year we need to try and make our car look more fake like the others. LMAO! Among other issues, all three of them had fake knock offs. One of them had the lug nuts showing, another had a special cap that covered the lug nuts and on the last one the entire center of the wheel was actually just a hub cap spun onto a set of black sprint wheels. Of course I am sort of picky and these judges are set more for custom cars than Cobras.

And man there were some killer customs in the crowd. The "FINE NINE" competition this year was one of the best line ups I have seen in a while. There was a really good spectator turn out as well. I was wondering how things would go with the show being postponed for 2 months but overall I think it was one of the best Starbird Events I have attended in a few years. We certainly had a blast.

 

FUNNY COMMENTS FROM THE SHOW!

A guy asked me who made the kit, I said it was not a kit car. He said well real Cobra's do not have grills. He pointed over to the other two fake 427s that we could see from our display. He had a phone in his hand and I said maybe you should Google a 1964 Cobra. He quickly started tapping his phone to prove me wrong. Now wasn't he surprised! LOL...

Another really cool old fellow had walked around the car several times and stopped right in front of the pedal car. He looked over and said is this a real one? I jumped up and went right to him saying you bet it is, completely original just the way it was manufactured. I dropped down on one knee and picked up the pedal car. I started tapping on it. I said go ahead feel it, it is metal. I looked up and he was just laughing. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a folded up $100 bill and handed it to me, he said thanks for making my day, it was fake too, a business card. We both had a good laugh!

A dude came up from behind us and I hear him say to his buddy, "Holy Shit, Do you know what this is?" I turned to make sure he was talking about my car and then said, yes, it's another dadgum fake Cobra. LOL He said no way. I just laughed and said we tried our best but came up about $2.5M short and had to build a tribute car instead. He still said it was his favorite car in the show, which was much appreciated.

Zoe was laughing about how many "real" - "authentic" Cobra parts we heard about. We met guys that claimed to have: An original floor pan, an original dash, an original intake with Webers, an original shifter knob, an original tachometer (which was apparently a very rare unlit unit), an original set of headlights bulbs (LMAO), two original 427 engines, one set of original headers and an original Cobra C6 Cruise-O-Matic Trans! But the Pièce de résistance was the guy who claimed he cut an original one up in the 1970s to make a dune buggy. I said I wouldn't tell that story too much if I were him. LOL

Another guy asked about the red toggle on the console. I said it was a line lock button and also the electronic trigger for the reverse lockout. He asked what kind of trans we were running and I said a Silver Sport Tremec Six Speed. He said it would be cool to find one of the original "rock crushers" they ran in them! I said that would be cool and rare! LOL

We had a guy strike up a conversation about the differences between small and big block cars. He seemed to be fairly knowledgeable until he asked if I knew how many of them had 454s in them. I said well not to say they couldn't have been bored out and came to that number but generally a 454 is a relegated to Chevrolet not Ford and by the time they showed up, the Cobra's were long out of production. He said I thought Chevrolet built the Cobras, they used the same fiberglass as the Corvette? You know sometimes it is just better to leave well enough alone!

I had a guy argue with me that we didn't have real knock-offs on the car. He claimed they stopped making them in 1967 for safety concerns. I said well they are real and the lead hammer we use to install or remove them is laying right over there by the Snake Pit Sign. He said why would you use a hammer. I said that is what you use, that is why they are called knock offs, you take a hammer and knock them off or on. He just laughed and said I knew they were fake, real knock off wheels use a large socket. Then he just wandered off.

Finally a guy asked where we got the grill. He said he had a Factory 5 replica a few years ago and wanted to put a grill in it. But he couldn't find one. I said well the 427 cars had that larger open mouth and of course that was a change from the small block cars. They actually never ran a grill in them. He said we sure did a good job on ours and that made me feel pretty good until he mentioned he just ended up stretching chicken wire across his! So I am not sure he is a good judge at all of what does and does not look good on a Cobra! LMAO!

 

What, no one said their uncle or brother used to have one just like it ?

 

If you play your cards right you might have more fun with this car than you thought going in. On the other hand here is what a friend of mine would say when he had had enough of some of the moronic comments and questions when we would take his car to an event.
He would succintly say "If I throw a stick, will you go away".
Car looks killer Randall.

 

Per your 'trick' for burnouts, the smart guy would just grab a windshield washer setup and sneak the nozzles into the front of the wheelwells....

 

I've been thinking about doing that for years, never got around to it. Do you know anyone who has done it successfully?

 

No, always went with the 'add more HP' route.
Seriously, I either had a street car, where it would have been pointless with street tires, or a dedicated race car where the track supplied the wetness.

 

Well Jackson got us all excited this past weekend saying MOKAN was going to hold a special Sunday afternoon Test-N-Tune because of all of the recent rainouts etc. So we got up bright and early Sunday, unloaded all the car show crap from the trailer, fueled and loaded the Cobra, and headed West. But about 30 minutes from the track we got a text saying they had to cancel the rain make up Test-n-tune due to rain! LMAO.

I guess pits were a swamp (and I have been there)...so we pulled off, had a steak with Jackson and hauled her back home. This weekend is the NSRA Street Rod Nats in Springfield so if you are in the neighborhood, stop in, wake me up, and say hello! LOL!

 

See ya there Randall I’m bringing the 55 Ford wagon


Chrome don’t get ya home

 

Well we did the three generation thing this weekend for the first time at the NSRA Mid-America Street Rod Nationals in Springfield, MO: Dad's Coupe, the Cobra and Zoe's slightly off topic Riviera.


We had a blast. It was a bit chilly Saturday but it was a good show. Plenty of cars (nearly 1600) and lots of spectators.




Saturday morning, "Wheel Stand David Tanner" came by to have a look and we fired the car for him. As you can imagine it attracted quite a crowd. We shut it down and were just talking a bit when a few minutes later, a guy interrupts us and asks if he can hear the car run. I said oh man you just missed it, and I went back to talking with Tanner. This guy and his buddy keep looking at the car and pointing out things.

Finally Dad came over and said, I think you better fire the car for them. I said why. He said the other guy is the Police Chief and he overheard them talking about an award he is supposed to give out for NSRA. So we fired it up again and since it was fairly warmed up, gave it a pretty hard rev (about 7000 grand). That sent several of the week kneed folks running for cover and locked us in hard with the Chief (a self-professed car guy)!




He took a turn in the cockpit and then officially chose the Cobra as his Hot Pursuit Pick. He was a really cool guy and hung out with us for quite a while talking cars etc. I was certainly honored to be his choice. After attending this NSRA Event for so many years I can't even count them, this is first time we have ever received an award of any kind. Pretty Cool.


Everyone else pulled up, got out and had their photos taken in front of their cars. FYI...there was no way in front of all those people, this fat boy was going to do his belly flop, contortion act of extricating myself from the car for a photo. I just snagged the award and cruised right on by. LMAO!

 

Randall, the car turned out perfect.
I got dressed this morning and put on that very shirt, then turned the HAMB on and there is a shirt just like mine, thanks again.

 

Let me say, I can not tell you how much intestinal fortitude it took to just idle away from that photo op in front of a grand stand of car folks. I just about flipped the old line lock toggle and buried those tents in smoke! LOL But alas....I just idled away.

Probably a good thing too. Because I decided to drive the Cobra back to my work place (about 3 miles or so away). I rolled out of the Fair Grounds and hit the city street. I started to get on it a bit but the clutch slipped at the upper RPMs. I let off and it caught again and I shifted to second. It was pulling right along so snagged third. I decided to try and get in a bit in third and the same happened immediately. No clutch smell or anything, just nothing there.

So I just sort of idled it on down the road. However in third, starting to pull a medium grade, it slipped all on it own. I downshifted and it grabbed a bit, enough to get over the small hill and back to the shop. I started thinking about test and tune at MOKAN, the day we destroyed the distributor gear. The first run I tried to make, I went up, did a burnout (or at least I thought I did). Then launched it in to what felt like wheel spin, short shifted second and third and basically cruised back to the pits.

Jackson came over and said the clutch was slipping. In fact he expected to smell it all melted etc. but it was not. I watched the video and it did slip at the upper RPM. Now to be honest, I actually thought, maybe I didn't get my foot off the clutch pedal. I mean it is stupid tight down there and I had a new pair of race shoes etc. So we went back out and I told Dad to watch the car closely in the burnout box. If it looks like it is slipping just wave me off and I will kill it and push it back.



As you can see it did a nice burnout (the last thing it did well before the distributor gear let go). But now sitting in the car Sunday afternoon I am thinking maybe it was not the new shoes back in March. So this morning I called Silver Sport to have a chat. It is there opinion the throw out bearing it too close. We followed the directions carefully when we installed it the first time, the bearing spacing had to be between .150 and .200 and with the shim choices we had we were at like .165 so I figured good to go. But something has happened, according to Silver Sport.

Either something has moved ??? or our measurement was off etc. He said too close issues look like upper RPM or under torque clutch slippage and two far away it grinds going into to gear etc. We are definitely the first issue but what a pain in the back side this is going to be. We basically have to disassemble the whole stupid car and pull the motor and trans to even have a look at it.

I have a feeling the old Red Mopar is going to get a win by default in a couple of weeks!