Projects DRAG SNAKE "Vintage Terror!"

Hey, just let the top pop up when you go through the lights...No need for a parachute.

 

Windshield fit like a glove left to right. But it is about .75" too far forward for the roof to line up at the rear area...so some minor adjustments. Could have been worse. Overall pretty pleased with the initial fit.




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That is just bad ass.
No other way to describe it!


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Hope you don't have big feet . It looks like your foot boxes are going to be tight once you get a trans tunnel in there. Working on that issue putting 3 pedals in my small block Ford powered Morris.

 

Believe it or not I have a ton of room in there. I think I mentioned it before but there is more room here than in the Austin and twice the room from the Model A. I think it is in part to the Tremec being narrow. However as the Dash issue earlier pointed out, there was not much room in the originals because the tunnel was left alone, stilled skewed to the right hand driver side. Drop in a BB Ford and I would imagine "toe" shoes from the ballerina world would be in order. LOL

 

You know I really like that idea, Dad and actually discussed it last weekend after the roof was hanging in place. Between the split window support and a solid Lexan piece mounted all the way across, it would make that roof crazy rigid.

 

Also thinking about the roll bar this week. All along I have been aiming for the single hoop and one down bar from it into the passengers side cockpit area etc. (just like all the original Cobras. However I have also seen at least one of the Cobras (the black King Cobra dragon snake) that did a more traditional hoop that basically gets both seats covered a bit. I believe that is the direction we will go. I think that will allow us to work some (sort of hidden) side bars in easier etc. Also I will probably still keep one running down to the passenger side foot well too just tie it all in. I am picking up roll cage material this afternoon so fun weekend of bending on tap at the shop...LOL

 

Fairly custom piece of metal there...

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Is that something you ran over with the trailer?

 

Randall . Have not checked in on this in awhile. This is starting to look awesome!!! A Cobra with big and littles is so cool. Are you building this as a street /strip or strickley strip. It would be so awesome to pull up to a stop sign next to a late model whatever and watch him wet himself lol! I will be following this one closer now. Larry

 

We got quite a bit accomplished this weekend albeit a one step forward and two steps back. Standard procedure for us you know. The steps forward happened up front as we finished the roll bar structure. It is a solid piece that runs from cowl hoop on the left all the way down the front fender area, around the front of hood cut out and back to the cowl hoop on the right.


We have the first two drop down bars in place. We will add two more about half way between these and the cowl hoop on either side. It will also make a perfect mount point for the front mount hood hinges.

 

Dig what your doing man. There is only one snake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Prudhomme

 

The steps backwards coincidentally came out back...LOL. I have been studying it for a while and after finally getting good placement measurements for the roll bar it made since to move the uprights back in front of the axel.


After we get it locked back down we will have a 1/4" reinforced steel plate on either side to mount the removable roll bar etc. All that is coming up here pretty soon.

 

So back in the day, Tulsa International Raceway held the Spring Nationals. It was not an NHRA event but must have always been on an off weekend because all the big names would show up. It was a tradition for Dad and I to attend on Saturday and we were usually the first in line. I can remember just wandering around the pits in the early morning before any real action was going on etc. To this day my favorite time to be at a drag strip.

Anyway, when I was 12 we were there in the pits right on schedule. My mother had sent Dad with a new "fangled" 35mm Camera. She had given him some quick instructions on how to use it before we left. So we are just roaming the pits and there was the "Snake" sitting in a lawn chair up against the back of his trailer drinking coffee and reading a newspaper. Dad was star truck over this scene. We stopped just across from Prudhomme and Dad whipped out the camera. He was having trouble focusing so it took a bit longer than a normal snap shot. Don looks up from his news paper and smiles. Dad is still struggling. Don says hey wait a minute and called to a couple of guys that had just walked past. It was Tom McEwen and Gene Snow. He motions them back and says, "here pose with me for this guy." Dad and I are blown away. They sort stand together all with big smiles and Dad snaps the photo. They walked on and Don sat back down with a wave and resumed his morning routine.

So we are at least half through the day sitting in the bleachers near the starting line. Prudhomme rolls up on our side and Dad wants a photo of his burnout. He stands really quick and snaps the shot as the Snake blasts by...(now an expert with the new camera). He sits back down and the guy beside us says you know you have to take the cap off the lens if you actually want to take a photo! LMAO....

All the photos he had taken up to that point were wasted. And he had gone through at least 3 rows of film. Suddenly he remembered the first photo that morning and lamented over its loss for a bit. To this day I don't think he has ever figured it out. Old Don looked up from his coffee that morning and saw an idiot struggling to focus a camera to take a photo with the lens cap on. He called a couple racers over to pose for said photo. That is why they were smiling and laughing so much. I will never forget it. It makes me smile every time I think of it because if the tables had been turned, I would have done the exact same thing. LOL!

 

Street/Strip...we will definitely be tearing up the street with it!

 

Yes James that is exactly how that part came to be. After trying about 20 different ideas to "functionally" fill in that little space and none of them to my liking......with a pile of scrap metal tossed outside the front door high enough to appear a Cessna has crashed......that is exactly when I normally snag my trailer and start running over things...LMAO! They don't always turn out as useful as this piece but it always makes me feel much better!

 

That has me cracking up! For several reasons.....

 

You can't make up stories like that.
Damn, that was funny!!!

 

Well now that the rear section frame choices (putting it mildly) have been made, I was able to get a good measurement for the fuel cell. I have about 11" top to bottom, 18" front to back and up to 28" side at a max if needed. I want to make my "triumph" pop top gas cap functional in the original location but that means having a cell with filler opening all the way at the back. No such animal could I find so I decided to do the same thing I did with the Austin, snag a blank poly unit and make my own holes etc. I about fell over this morning when I pulled the first one up, 15 gallon and it is 9" tall by 17" by 25. I have said it before...like a glove!

I also snagged this little beauty from Aeromotive. It is their 340 In Tank Stealth Fuel Pump. It will have plenty of umph! and be whisper quiet. Don't you hate it when your fuel pump is louder than your engine? Not that I have ever had to worry about that! LOL...

I also snagged a 2" OD straight up fuel cell filler neck so we should be in killer shape!

 

I get even with my Dad telling that story on him. As at the same event 6 years earlier when I was 6 years old, a friend of his that was sitting with us told me a technique for coping with the crazy loud Nitro cars. He said if I open my mouth really wide with my fingers in my ears and hop up and down it would help. It seemed to work, probably because it kept my mind on something else AND Dad never bothered to mention it was a joke. So for the next several years I was a spectacle to watch in the grandstands. I remember looking around and thinking all you people are crazy just "standing" here with your mouths closed!

 

I have plenty of room in the foot well for either floor mounted or hanging pedals. I have had both. The last two cars were polar opposites, the Model A had hanging and the Austin had floor mounted. I think I prefer hanging, something about the motion of the floor pedals in the Austin bothered me (at least at first). However after launching the crazy thing I always had more to worry about than pedal motion etc. LOL! Either way, I am going to go with a remote filler system for both the brakes and clutch master cylinders. So that is not a concern. I am wondering if the more reclined seating position in the Cobra will lend itself to one or the other of the systems?

 

I think either will work ok, but getting the pedal pivot point in the right place is very important.

 

So since being given permission to use the Holman Moody name and logo on the car I have been searching for opportunities to purchase some signatures. Of course you can buy Carrols script just about anywhere but John and Ralph not so much. It has taken quite a search to snag something they signed but I finally accomplished it.

 

Isn't that what all the "kit car" guys do?

 

They certainly do for Carroll as you can even purchase a vinyl decal of his signature to stick somewhere...lol

Not that I am too much different but I did actually buy something that each of them signed. Vintage race photos. They are probably fake too but I bought them on good faith anyway....lol!

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^^Why?^^

 

"Why?" to which part of that, Seb?

 

Yep...looks like I am pretty darn close (talking about the original cockpit being offset to the left a bit). I stumbled across that perfect photo this afternoon and sure enough...there it is! LOL

 

Keep going, well maybe you shouldn't you started with nuthin and you are going to get done before me and everyone is going to tease me.

This is a beautiful build my friend.

 

Seb are you wondering why would I want the signatures or why I would actually purchase them? lol

Actually I have been working on a guy with a new glove box door that Carrol actually signed. It is not currently on nor has ever been on a car. I think I am about to talking him into releasing it in exchange for some cash and a ride! LOL

That got me to thinking about John and Ralph. To be honest they did not autograph many things nor are their autographs worth much of anything. But on a car that is going to sport their vintage logo etc. and playing out the part of what "might" have been from back in the day...maybe I can find a place to drop their signatures as well. If for no other reason than to pay homage to a couple of killer Ford Racing contributors from back in the day!