Tim samples two very different Cobra replicas — a traditional roadster and a spectacular Daytona coupe

The Superformance Cobra is probably the best you can get next to a real Cobra — surely one of the most replicated and classic sports cars in history — and has the blessing of Carroll Shelby and Pete Brock, the instigators of the original Cobra and Daytona coupe back in the ’60s. There are few cars more rare and valuable than a real Shelby Cobra, but the Daytona is one of them. Like the Cobra, the Daytona coupes were fast and beautiful to look at, with the body wrapped as tightly around the mechanical components as possible; a case of shoehorning the biggest power unit into the smallest possible package. We covered much of the Shelby Cobra story in our April 2004 issue.

John Tojiero designed the original chassis in the 1950s around an AC, and subsequently a Bristol engine, for AC Cars of Thames-Ditton. It manufactured all but one or two of the original chassis for Carroll Shelby, whose idea it was to put a large American engine into a lightweight chassis for racing, and who persuaded the Ford Motor Company to finance the exercise in order to promote Shelby and Ford’s sporting images.

Ford Credit paid AC for shipping complete cars to Dean Moon’s Venice workshop, where Shelby installed Ford’s new 3622cc (221ci) small block V8 to take on the Corvette and challenge Ferrari and Jaguar domination at the race tracks in the USA. Pete Brock and Ken Miles developed the Cobra, giving it disc brakes, rack and pinion steering, a bigger radiator and more cubes (up to 4736cc (289ci)). Halibrand wheels became standard wear, and the tyres soon started to outgrow the car’s wheel arches.

More power

Ford wanted to fit its bigger, heavier 6997cc (427ci) big-block engine, which Shelby had tried and found was way beyond the standard AC chassis.

Seeing Ford indulging in the GT40 programme prompted Shelby to try harder, as he wanted some of the action when Ford’s mid-engined GT programme got going.

Shelby persuaded AC to re-engineer the chassis for increased torsional stiffness, independent coil-over-shocks, wishbone suspension all-round and an increased track. On the short US tracks, acceleration won races, and the Cobra’s formula of high power and low weight was successful, but even with the 427 engine the Cobra’s bluff shape hit a wall of air on the long straight tracks of Europe, where world championships were at stake, limiting its top speed.

AC prepared two factory Cobras for Le Mans 1963, essentially standard Cobra roadsters fitted with Dunlop racing wheels. Both cars had the rare ‘Le Mans Hardtop,’ an early attempt at aerodynamic improvement. This increased top speed by 16 to 24kph down the 5.6km Mulsanne Straight. The Cobra finished seventh in 1963, first in the GT class for production cars behind six lightweight Ferrari prototypes. However, if the Cobra was to capture the World Manufacturer’s Championship, a significant further increase in top speed would be needed.

Need for Speed

At 280 kilowatts (375hp), the stock block Ford 289 V8 was approaching the limit of its reliable power potential. The body was already wrapped pretty tightly about the mechanicals, and weight had been pared to a minimum. Pete Brock (not to be confused with the Aussie racing legend of the same name), an ex-GM designer working at Shelby’s California base, understood that a higher top speed could only be achieved by low drag.

At least 100 examples had to be produced before a car could be homologated to race as a GT rather than a prototype. Ironically, Enzo Ferrari himself had masterminded the loophole in FIA regulations that Brock needed to get official approval for his low-drag Cobra body. Ferrari’s beautiful but rather blunt 250 GT Berlinetta had, by 1961, reached its own aerodynamic limits. Enzo needed the FIA’s blessing to drop an aerodynamic GTO body onto the Berlinetta’s chassis, without being required to produce another 100 replicas as required for homologation into the GT class. To get homologation, Ferrari lobbied for the creation of Appendix J in the FIA GT rules.

Appendix J stated that you could change the body or change the chassis, but not both. The FIA intended it to cover relatively minor tweaking of an existing body shape in order to allow a small manufacturer to revise an existing shape to new tyre sizes, lighting or cooling requirements, but Ferrari drove a bus through Appendix J, dropped the completely different aerodynamic GTO body onto the Berlinetta chassis and subsequently blew the doors off the lightweight Jaguars and Astons.

Pete Brock designed a sinuous tight coupe body, not unlike the GTO, to fit the AC Cobra. Shelby gave him a guarded go-ahead to proceed, provided the project didn’t take any resources from the team’s mainstream efforts. Only Ken Miles, a highly respected driver and development engineer from England, understood what Peter was up to and lent his considerable influence in convincing Shelby the coupe was worthwhile.

Kiwi Original

The American team’s regular fabrication crew wanted nothing to do with the proposed coupe, only temporary hire New Zealander John Ohlsen was interested. Ohlsen had yet to be accepted into the tightly knit Shelby teamsters, so they were relieved that Ohlsen could be assigned to the project, leaving them free to continue work on ‘their’ roadsters. Thus Brock, Miles and Ohlsen were the only people involved in the construction of the first coupe.
Brock’s objectives were to wrap the skin even more tightly and smooth out the air flow whilst, most importantly, meeting the FIA regulations for windows, windshield and spare tyre. His personal challenge was to make it aesthetically pleasing.

On February 1, 1964, Brock and Ohlsen’s work was first tested at Riverside by Ken Miles, who shattered the team’s lap record by three and a half seconds. Aerodynamics, they established, were important.

The coupe’s competition debut came three weeks later, at Daytona. The new Ferrari GTO dominated the field in numbers, but every one was left in the Kamm-tailed Cobra’s wake. The Shelby coupe was five laps in the lead when a pit fire took it out of contention, burning Ohlsen badly in the process. After that race, the press began to call it the Daytona Coupe. At Sebring in March, it took its first win in the GT class. By bending the rules for his own purposes, Ferrari had fallen on his own sword.

Impressed, Ford then discretely agreed to back Shelby’s bid to win the World GT Championship as the series moved to Europe. Ohlsen’s plywood body buck was sent to Carrozzeria Gran Sport in Modena, where the five coupe replicas required for the 1964-’65 season were to be built. The Italian craftsmen, who believed they were ‘improving’ on Brock’s radically shaped tail and correcting a mistake, reshaped it, and added an additional two inches of headroom in error. This turned out to be a blessing as it allowed 1.88-metre Dan Gurney into a cockpit designed around the smaller Ken Miles. The error was corrected for the remaining coupes when Ohlsen was sent to oversee the build of the remaining cars.  Both roadsters and coupes were campaigned in Europe during the 1964 season, the coupes showing their form on the faster courses. The first European win came at Le Mans 1964, with Bob Bondurant and Dan Gurney taking first in GT and fourth overall, well amongst the more nimble prototypes. After Le Mans, it was victory after victory.

Italian Retreat

Unable to beat the all-conquering Daytona Coupes on the track, Ferrari tried to get his mid-engined 250LM prototype homologated as a GT car, but with only a handful of cars in existence, the FIA refused. In retaliation, Ferrari then pressured the Italian organisers of the final Championship event at Monza to cancel it, depriving Shelby of an almost certain victory and the points that would have carried them to the championship; a bit like the Aussie’s underarm bowling.

By weight of numbers and political philandering, Ferrari won the World Manufacturer’s Championship in 1964 by the narrowest of margins.

Shortly thereafter, Ferrari announced he would not field a factory GT team in 1965. Having caught the attention of those in charge of the Ford GT40, Shelby got some of that action and abandoned his Daytonas to the English Alan Mann racing organisation for 1965. In 1965, under Alan Mann, the Daytona Coupes took one-two, one-two-three, or one-two-three-four in eight of the 10 races and, of course, the Championship.

Finally, the original coupe was taken to Bonneville in November 1965 for a series of land speed record runs. It achieved 301kph (187mph) and 23 USAC/FIA world speed and distance records. The Daytona Coupe was never tested in a wind tunnel, but the Bonneville data allowed a calculation that revealed a drag coefficient of 0.29. As beautiful and successful as they were, the six original Daytona Coupes were surplus at the end of the winning 1965 season. Ford didn’t want a threat to the GT40 on the track, and its contract with Shelby stipulated that the Daytonas must be shelved, making way for the GT40’s assault on Ferrari.

Tax and Specter

The cars then languished in Alan Mann’s shop, Mann threatening to dump them in the North Sea rather than pay the tax penalties due if the cars remained in England. Mann’s accountants figured that it would be cheaper to fly them to Los Angeles, where they were initially advertised for sale for US$8500; after several years most sold in the $4000 to $5000 range. Today, the six original Daytona Coupes are each worth millions of dollars. The very first one vanished for 20 years, and became the subject of a bizarre ownership court battle involving the last recorded owner, legendary pop producer Phil Specter, who had driven it as a road car when it was worth nothing!

Having been refused a coupe by Shelby, the British Willment team built its own, using Kiwi John Ohlsen and Frank Gardner to build it. In terms of race successes and longevity, this car actually had the best record of all of them. AC also built a one-off Cobra Coupe for 1964 Le Mans. On June 10, 1964, testing in the early morning hours, it attained a speed of 298kph (185mph) on Britain’s M1 motorway. The uproar in the British press led to AC being blamed for the subsequent imposition of national speed limits in Britain.

This car was involved in a tragic accident at Le Mans and written off. As for John Ohlsen, he died suddenly in 1998, having built two FIA roadster replicas and having started building one Daytona Coupe in New Zealand (see NZCC September 1999 for a story on this Ohlsen-built coupe). His wife Jean, and son Paul, are still knowledgeable supporters of the Cobra fraternity in New Zealand.

History repeats

What if these heroes had the chance to do it all over again — would they do it differently? Bear in mind the first time round, under pressure of deadlines, rules and budget shortcuts, compromises were made. Well, South Africa’s Jim Price, of Hi-Tech, manufacturer of the widely acclaimed Noble sports car, gave them the opportunity.

Jim’s early research told him several things. First, a replica was impossible, as there was no definitive Daytona Coupe design — all six Daytonas were different. Second, the original frame and leaf spring suspension design was antiquated in 1963 when the Daytona was designed. Brock had no choice about the chassis design (remember Appendix J). Third, the original cars were too uncomfortable to command a following as a practical and usable car. The solution would be to create a new, definitive coupe from scratch, drawing on history, but creating a more modern car with spiritual ties to the past. Jim knew there was only one person who could really say what the definitive shape was — Peter Brock, the designer of the original.

Worthy originals

During a 1996 trip to California, Jim looked Brock up in the phone book. Peter had been approached a number of times, and he didn’t want to become involved with a kit car. When Jim replied that he would drop the idea then, Peter was curious as to why Jim would not proceed on his own. Jim replied that he wanted to do it right, and without Peter on board to show them how to do it right, he wouldn’t proceed.

More curious, Brock continued the conversation.

Jim assured Peter that if he joined the project, he could pull the plug at any time and the work would stop immediately. Impressed, Brock agreed to help if Jim would allow him to select Bob Negstad to handle the new car’s chassis design.

Negstad had never had the budget or the facilities at AC Cars to do what he really wanted for the 427 Cobra, having arrived at AC cars in England in 1964 to find the frame tubes had already been cut for a 2286mm wheelbase instead of the 2362mm wheelbase he had envisioned. He was forced to redesign the entire car in a couple of weeks to fit the revised wheelbase. Negstad never considered the 427 his best effort, and didn’t deliver what he’d ultimately wanted for the design.

The dream team was formed — Peter Brock with the body, Bob Negstad with the chassis, and Jim Price with the collateral and manufacturing facilities. They agreed that the Superformance Coupe could be a real street-legal GT. The team extended the wheelbase 76mm and increased length, width, and height proportionally. The longer and wider chassis allowed room to optimise suspension design.

Aesthetic Illusion

Brock felt that it was important in resizing the form to retain the key proportions, including the roofline, which was never done to his satisfaction with the original cars. The windscreen has a sharper rake and more curvature. The new car evokes the image of the original, but is more spacious. There is not a single line on the car that parallels the original, and it looks small in the street but is larger in every dimension than Shelby’s. The search for the right-looking tyres would delay the project for several years, such was the seriousness of their quest for perfection. It was not until 2002 that appropriate rubber became available.

Superformance makes a high quality fibreglass body with several carbon fibre components. In the sills the fully functional side pipes have built-in mufflers. Interior noise can be reduced by internally capping the side pipes and routing the exhaust out the rear. The windscreen is heated, tinted, and shatterproof, the wind-up curved side windows replace the original flat Perspex with a porthole, and the rear hatch is Lexan, tinted to reduce interior heat load.

The dash is reminiscent of the ’60s with Stewart-Warner gauges, and an array of toggle switches. Air conditioning, radio, and glove box are added to make the Daytona a true GT car. The space-frame chassis was designed for better torsional stiffness using the latest techniques and principles, and to accept a Tremec T-56 six-speed transmission and a BTR Hydratrack differential. A number of ‘crate’ engine manufacturers and custom engine builders now sell guaranteed engines from 5752cc to 6997cc (351 to 427ci) with power ratings from 283kW to 410 (380hp to 550) and above, so that choice is left to the final purchaser.

Like the Cobra Mk II, the front features unequal length A-arms with coil-over shocks, but the rear features unusually long lower arms that pivot almost at the chassis centreline. Hi-Tech worked with Bilstein and H&R to design coil-over shocks specifically for the coupe, the result being a comfortable, compliant ride and outstanding handling — a fine tribute to Bob Negstad, who died shortly after the first car was completed.

African Core

In South Africa, the project’s instigator and manufacturer, Jim Price, durability tested the coupe at speeds approaching 160kph on the unsealed roads of the Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa, so its durability is not in question.

More than 600 craftsmen work in the spotlessly clean 25,000 square metre factory in Port Elizabeth on the southern tip of the African continent to produce what you see here.

The Shelby drivers would have been cooked, deafened, cramped and exhausted after even a short race in their Daytona Coupes, but it in the Superformance version — brought over to NZ by its Australian agent, Colin Turner — there are no such handicaps. The car’s interior is trimmed in Alcantara leather throughout, and uses high quality mouldings all made in-house to ensure that the car feels like a well groomed production car — one with enough insulation to make the V8 sound superb, but not intrusive. The long angled gear-lever appears as if it is looking for trouble, but changes are slick and easy, as are the pedal movements, pivoted off the floor.

The steering is light and precise, and it’s as if the car changes character once you are inside it. The race car appearance leads you to expect a raw and harsh experience, but you get the performance, a throaty V8 soundtrack and stunning performance in something you could drive from one end of the island to the other without stopping — a true GT with handling and grunt that would be at home on any track. This is no kit car or thinly disguised track car, but a GT that walks the walk and talks the talk.

Truly a stunning feat of quality engineering from Jim and the ‘originals.’

Load of Cobras

Colin Taylor’s company, Cobra Technology of Warragul, Victoria, has just supplied Auckland’s Bruce Atchinson with a Superformance MkIII, the South African company’s version of the Cobra 427SC. No mean Cobra racer himself in Australia, Colin regularly puts his Superformance though its paces on Australian race tracks. Cobra tech is the agent for Superformance in Australia, and you can buy a Cobra, Daytona or new GT40 from it, built under license from Carroll Shelby Licensing Inc.

Bruce was project manager for the electrics in the Sky Tower and appreciates good engineering. He has owned a few classics, and undertook a wealth of research before he settled on the best Cobra replica he could find.

Although every replica represents an ageless icon, subtle changes meet the demands of modern motoring. Like the later 427SC, the Superformance MkIII has fully independent, unequal length A-arms with adjustable coils over Bilsteins specifically designed for Superformance, hanging off a much better, stiffer chassis than the original.

The car has a fabricated steel pedal box assembly with adjustable pedal pads, while a Tilton clutch master cylinder together with an ATE brake booster clamps Australian PBR four-pot callipers with 325 by 32mm vented Wilwood rotors in front, 305mm by 25mm in rear. It uses Mazda rack and pinion steering, with an original-looking steering wheel behind some period-looking instruments specially manufactured by Smiths of England, and Lucas switches that are assembled in-house and placed in the original SC layout. Hand-made seats upholstered in German specification automotive leather flank a hand-crafted chrome shifter which controls a five-speed Tremec which, in turn, feeds a Ford 8.8 LSD.

Outboard of that are the authentic 15-inch original style one-piece aluminium knock-off, pin-drive Halibrand-style wheels, manufactured like everything else, in-house at Port Elizabeth. Between those bulging wheel arches are genuinely menacing side-mounted exhausts which have a bite worse than their truly thunderous bark if you touch them with your ankle when stepping out of the door.

The whole car is precision crafted, completely factory assembled and looks like an exact replica should, aesthetically and dimensionally correct, but made in glass fibre. Not that you would know it. All the edges are rolled over and reinforced, so the eye never falls on a glass strand or a sharp edge.

However, you can have hand-beaten aluminium off the original bucks if you want.

The Port Elizabeth plant is one of the most self-sufficient automotive manufacturing facilities in the world. Almost all manufacture and design is done in house at Superformance, few donor or previously designed parts are fitted to the car. From the ground up, components are designed specifically for the Superformance vehicle, making it sure-footed and reliable, but just as exciting as the great roadsters of the ’60s.

Is enough enough?

Bruce’s MkIII is just a little different to other Superformance cars in that he has chosen a 7538cc, 433kW (460ci, 580bhp) big-block built in New Zealand to produce 620Nm of gut-busting torque. ‘That ought to be enough’, I thought as I rumbled off, carefully letting out the meaty clutch. Well, I can tell you that in a car that feels like an automotive Jack Nicholson, this is as good as it gets. Wild, scary, explosive, obsessive and menacing in every way and truly, truly fun at any speed. In fairness its handling is not scary, indeed it is very good when you treat the throttle sensibly, but the potential? Well — if you are thinking of burying the throttle, pick a wide open space and take a big spade.

Its cruises superbly. Now I know how those Harley-Davidson riders feel with a mountain of torque from an engine that will fire every lamp post if you want it to. It’s probably the closest thing to a Buell-Harley-Davidson on four wheels, but faster. From 750rpm it will pull in fifth until the horizon rushes up to meet you. Bruce has offered me another go in his MkIII sometime in the future — can a kid have too much ice cream?

Superformanace Daytona Coupe – Specifications

Engines    Ford V8, pushrod ohv
Capacity    5752cc (351ci)
Max power    268kW (360bhp)
Max torque    400Nm
Suspension    ¨Front independent unequal length A-arms with adjustable coil-over telescopic shock absorbers¨Rear independent unequal length A-arms, fabricated hub carriers and coil-over shock absorbers
Steering    Rack and pinion
Brakes    ¨Front dual piston PBR callipers. 325x32mm vented rotors¨Rear dual piston PBR callipers and 305x25mm vented rotors
Wheels    ¨Front 18x8in cast alloy¨Rear 18x10in cast alloy
Tyres    ¨Front 255/45 R18 Rear 285/50 R18
Dimensions
Length / Width    4445mm/1869mm
Height / Weight    1250mm/1320kg
Wheelbase    2367mm
Track F/R    1435mm/1481mm
Weight Distr.    F/R — 46.8/53.2
Performance
Max speed    322kph
0-100kph    4.2 secs
Price    A$128,000

Superformance Mk III – Specifications

Engines    Ford V8 big-block, pushrod ohv
Capacity    7538cc (460ci)
Max power    433kW (580bhp)
Max torque    620Nm
Transmission    Tremec T56 five-speed
Suspension    ¨Front independent unequal length A-arms with adjustable coil-over telescopic shock absorbers¨Rear independent unequal length A-arms, fabricated hub carriers and coil-over shock absorbers
Steering    Rack and pinion
Brakes    Ventilated discs, four-pot callipers
Wheels    ¨Front 15x8J Rear 5x10J
Tyres    ¨Front 255/60 R15 Rear  275/60 R15
Dimensions
Length / Width    3861mm/1753mm
Height / Weight    1219mm/1270kg
Wheelbase    2286mm
Track F/R    1372mm/1448mm
Performance
Max speed    As fast as you dare
0-100kph    3.8 secs
Price    A$120,000

Words: Tim Nevison Photos: Jared Clark

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