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www.Cobraautomotive.com
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Shop Tour
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Shelby
and Cobra Specialists
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All of the
activity in our shop revolves around engine, brakes, suspension work,
and race preparation for Shelby Mustangs, Cobras, and high performance
Fords....as well as complete restoration services for these cars.
This page gives you with a look "inside" to show you as much
as we possibly can about us. We'veincluded a lot of photos
for you on this page, so a few moments of patience are needed while
the images fill in. When this page is ready, you'll have a
very accurate picture of our day-to-day activities here...and more importantly,
exactly what we're capable of doing here for you.
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During race season, there's always an intense amount of activity here, and everybody seems to be moving in fast motion. Cobra Automotive supports many of its customer's race cars, and we field one of our own cars (the trusty #530 car in the foreground). This picture was taken just before loading the cars and heading off to Lime Rock and then Watkins Glen, on August 31st, 2000. The car in the background is one of the original 36 factory R-models (#5R533). We've outfitted it for competitive vintage racing for its owner, Peter Rogal, and it is now equipped with a number of our suspension, exhaust, and brake system upgrades. |
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There's nothing more exciting than seeing a brand new, state-of-the-art vintage race car being assembled in our race shop. Here's John Cropper's new race car, fresh out of the paint shop, just after we got the suspension and brakes on it (photo taken on Jan 11, 2001). This one is red to match his other race car, and will soon be equipped with a dyno-tuned 425 hp 289, '65 T-Bird front disc brakes, truck drums in the back, spring rods in place of the traction bars, adjustable front struts, competition upper and lower control arms, '70 front spindles, a multi disc clutch...well, you get the idea. Let's just say it's not your father's Mustang anymore. |
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Here's a wider shot of our service area and race shop. That's John tuning the Webers on Don Hutchinson's Cobra...and if you look closely, you can catch a glimpse of Dr. David Yanoff's beautiful original Guardsman Blue 427 Cobra back there in the corner (a car we feature on our Gallery Page in this website), which we just finished restoring. Ted Pope's '67 GT500 is on the lift at right; Juan and Maggie Fernandez' #23 Cobra is straight ahead, and we can just make out the tail end of Cary Bentley's Saleen Mustang on the third lift in the upper right...we supercharged that car for him. | |
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In our Body Shop: Marty Beaulieu's '65 "carryover" GT350 was a great project...one of many, many cars we've restored here starting from a bare, media-blasted unibody, using 100% correct hardware and original parts throughout. This was a "soup-to-nuts" project that included a "factory stock" engine rebuild as well. The car is currently being driven and enjoyed by Marty and his family. All of our full restorations like Marty's are performed on rolling dollies, with "rotisseries" used in the early stages, so we can roll the cars completely upside down to detail their undersides. | |
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"Special orders don't upset us". How bad must a unibody be damaged before it's not worth fixing? There's no such thing. We believe we can fix anything, and here's proof...Jay Bentley's factory GT350 R-Model (#5R213) is a massive reconstruction project. Years of racing really took their toll on R-Model #213, and Jay elected to have Cobra Automotive's restoration shop completely reconstruct the car's unibody to its original condition...this will be a totally authentic R-model restoration. | |
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Here's another shot of the same project with sheet metal added. Precision panel fitting is another important factor in a properly executed restoration. We only employ top-notch fabricators and metalworking craftsmen here (if you don't blow up any other picture, at least blow up this one so you can check out the seam at the quarter panel attachment point). When this seam is welded, little or no filler at all will be necessary. We pride ourselves on exceptional craftsmanship...and you can see why. | |
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Our engine shop offers you complete engine building services for your stock restoration project...or, for your all-out race car. The race engines we build here are the most competitive, state-of-the-art endurance engines in the sport... our high-winding, full-competition 289 cubic inch smallblocks are now developing 500 dyno-tuned horsepower. Our catalog lists the key parts we use in these engines, including the cylinder heads and camshafts...(so be sure to order a catalog)! Our 427 and 428 FE engines are another "specialty of the house". If you want a bigblock Ford engine that will be a no-nonsense, flat-out powermaker, we're the Ford house you're looking for. | |
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Our Sales Department is ready to take your parts order and serve your every Ford high performance need. And if you don't know exactly what your needs are, we'll spend the time with you to select the best components for your application. When you call here, you'll find that we're not just order takers... we're a sales department, and we're knowledgeable about our products and eager to answer your questions (don't you just hate it when they say. "This is just an order line, sir...I'm sorry...I can't answer that question")? ...We sure hate that, too. Our sales team has hands-on installation experience with our products. They're equipped to help you, and they're trained to get the right answers for you. |
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