Originally Posted by REDSC400
As many of you know, my "fun" car is an ERA Cobra (Shelby Cobra 2 seat sportscar Replica with a 428 Super Cobra-Jet) and 4 speed top loader trannie. See pics in my gallery or on my website.
Now that Cobra is a FUN car to drive! It is the anti-thesis of the Crossfire. Brutal, High Torque, Hot, Simple, no windows, no top, ultra tight suspension, no power anything, old school muscle car. To that extent it is like a crude Viper.
The Cobra passes anything on the road but a gas station, 10 MPG on the highway and less in traffic. Gets a huge reaction from all, at least one beep or wave or thumbs up per half mile (no kidding). Hard to drive slow with 3.31 rear end gears. A handful and a half if you matt the go pedal. Smokes tires in any gear but 4th. So much torque you can pull from a dead stop in 3rd. You can get to 60 MPH in first gear near red-line of 6500 RPM but not recommended.
The Crossfire is refined, less powerful, much more modern, less of a toy and more of a vehicle built for comfortable travel. It has air conditioning and a radio! Go figure! It attracts some attention but not anything like the Cobra.
...there is no doubt that very good reasons lie behind this car's staying power. Four decades on, and this continues to be one of the most desirable sports cars. ERA is among the nicer of the replicas, but I also recall reading that the Superperformance Cobra offers a huge dose of authenticity.
The saddest thing is that the English still follow this minimal car, maximum engine design philosophy (but we can't buy them here stateside). In fact, TVR makes a range of brutally fast (and difficult to live with) sports cars that any enthusiast would go weak in the knees for. The closest thing we have on these shores to a modern day Cobra is the Viper