Cobra plan for 2010

The cobra has had a pretty good December so far and things are looking good for 2010. This month, I found a grease fitting that I had missed during assembly that was the source of my suspension squeaking. I actually missed the fitting on both sides, but the passenger side came pre-greased while the driver side didn't. A little bit embarrassing, but hey, everybody makes mistakes. Also, I finally got around to shortening the passenger side tie rod so I could get my alignment in check.

I got some of the parts I need to do my rear suspension upgrade for Christmas (thanks mom and dad!) and the rest of the parts are on order. Right now with the stock setup, I have a good 8-12 inches of sway in the back. It's unbelievable really, and makes accelerating through turns downright dangerous. With the new parts there should be a lot less play, and a lot more control over the stiffness of the ride with a set of koni coil-overs.

After the coil-overs I'll focus on a new set of wheels and getting the biggest freakin' tire I can fit on the back in there. I'm thinking about taking it to Fastlane and having them order the wheels - that way if they don't work I don't have to worry about returns. I don't want any rubbing on the body.

After the rear suspension and wheels I will focus on sourcing a new transmission. Right now I am on the watch for a good used T-45, but I might end up looking for a new transmission instead. I like the T-45 because of the gearing 1-4 are pretty close together with a very overdriven 5th gear. I don't want 6 speeds because with a car with this much power, the time taken up shifting could be spent in the power band in a 5 speed. In the rx-8 the 6 speed was essential because of it's lack of power, but we don't have that lack in this case.

There are several new 4.6L builders on the forum so it's an exciting time to be a part of that scene as well.

I've also spent a lot of time working with Tom reassembling his 440 for his 1968 Imperial. His other vehicles have met untimely demises so we've been rushed to get it on the road as soon as possible. Meanwhile he has my truck, therefore I would like to get the Imperial on the road before any bad weather strikes. A cobra with crappy rear suspension, rear wheel drive, summer tires and power to spare does not fare well with winter weather. So far nothing worse than rain though.

Tuned!

I got some new stuff to report: first big news - I finally got 'Toast tuned. I'm putting down 275 rwhp and 280 tq.

I started working on my alignment a bit too. I need to take the passenger side tie rod off and shorten it, but in the meantime I compensated on the driver side. This means my steering wheel isn't centered and I can not turn as far to the left as I can to the right. But at least the wheels are straight.

Dyno Run

Rain

The rain today has come as unexpected and I had, in fact, counted on it NOT raining. I had left the windows down in my truck and those spungy cloth seats are SOAKED. To make things even better - I restained the deck last night and the rain is now running the stain all over my yard - SWEET...

Oil Change

17 quarts of oil to change all 3 cars, plus 20 oz for the lawnmower :-)

Shelbatop!

I drove in to Greensboro for a family lunch this Sunday. I got to see a lot of people I don't often see, including Trevor & Alisa and their lil' chitlin Morgan. Robert & Nancy were in from Colorado. All the usual fam was their too- mom, dad, grandma, justin, jamie, mac & sherry.

We were playing some yard games out in the front when I got a visit from my old childhood buddy Joey Cheek and his mom. It's always nice to see somebody that you only see occasionally so this weekend was very good for me in that regard. I've seen Joey several times since he 'went famous', but I haven't seen his brother Michael in forever - I wonder what he's up to.

We put the top back on Shelbatoast for the drive home. This was the first long, high speed drive with the top on, and it help up great. No problems at all. I do need to find a way to put the top on without scratching the crap out of the car though!

but in the end...

But what I really need to upgrade first is the transmission. Not so much upgrade, as repair. A master rebuild kit runs about $250 for the T-45 transmission and should be fairly basic to work on - especially for someone who knows the transmission. I'll probably see if I can get fastlane to rebuild it. While they have it there, I'll most likely have them dyno-tune it as well.

After the transmission and tune, next up would be the suspension upgrades and then the engine upgrades.

or an engine upgrade?

So I've ditched the idea of putting a blower on this thing. I am skeptical about how the old engine would handle it and I don't really want to rebuild it. Instead, the plan is to go with the old N/A regulars - cams intake & tune. I figure I could easily see an extra 35 horse with that, which would put me at or above 300 at the wheels. Could always delete the cats too and pick up a few more.

Still holding off on the idea of switching to 3.73s in the differential. I like the highway cruise at 2K rpm too much.