Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Hint: Cobra needs better brakes...

A week ago I had the Cobra at Pacific Raceways and after the second session, this is what my right front brake rotor looked like this:



This of course, ended my day at the track, sigh. The crack was especially disappointing given these were crygenically treated, which translates to twice the price of normal rotors, and this was only the second track day using them.

In a way, I was not too surprised since it is almost unanimously accepted that the stock 2003 Cobra brakes are too weak for such a porker; mine weighs over 3800 lbs, wet.

Thanks to the Internet, and Maximum Motorsports, I ordered a set of 2000 Cobra R front brakes; these are a common front Brembo brake setup, originally used on the early 1990's Lotus Esprit. They arrived two days later and I installed them on Friday; here is what they look like:

IMG00075

Pretty! Well, they won't look that good for very long, that nice gold coating is there to prevent rust on the non-wear surfaces.

I'll be breaking them in for a couple of weeks before taking the car out to the track on June 6th. This breaking in period is called "seasoning the rotors", which heats them slowly over time to help prevent cracking... Cross your fingers!

Sunday, May 20, 2007

New to the stable: 2003 Ford Mustang Cobra

I've always been a Mustang fan, well of the 60's and 1995+ Mustangs. It was inevitable that I'd eventually have to try one out.

During the winter I looked around for a deal on a curent GT500 (also a Cobra), but the dealers were asking outrageous markups; a local dealer was asking $25K OVER the $45K MSRP. That is just plain wacky pricing for a Mustang.

So, I looked at the previous generation Cobras which were made in 2003-4. These also had supercharged V8's which make 390HP, compared to the current model's 500HP. After some research on the Internet, it became clear that a boost to 500HP was quite simple for the earlier Cobras. And, they run around $25K; so, for the same amount as the markup on a current Cobra, I can get a clean used previous generation Cobra, and have 500HP!

It didn't take long before I found a 2003 "garage queen" with only 9800 miles in completely mint condition; as far as I can tell, it was never driven in the rain (in Seattle!).

Here is how it looked when I bought Dec 23rd.



Thursday, May 03, 2007

A great year with the Cayman S

I may have been too busy to blog this past year, but I was not too busy to have some great fun with the Cayman S.

Soon after purchasing the car I took it to the local race tracks and as expected, loved it. So, in went the rollbar, racing seats and harnesses.



During the year, the Cayman and I visited Pacific Raceways, Portland International Raceway, Thunderhill Raceway and Laguna Seca and enjoyed every mile, including the 2000 mile roundtrip of freeway driving to Laguna Seca and back to Seattle.


Here is a shot of us at Laguna Seca's famous Corksrew.

Here is Windows Movie in-car footage from Laguna Seca

This is the second time I've made the journey to Laguna Seca; last time was in late 2003 in a Speed Yellow Boxster S. Coinsidence? I think not :)

I sold the Cayman S a couple of months ago, almost a year to the day that I bought it. What a great car! But, a bit too perfect. Not boring, but not exciting either. The Elise is a much more fun track car. More on that later.

Porsche needs to build a 997 GT1


The Ruf CTR3 just brings home to me that Porsche needs to bring back the GT1. Why? Because, it was a mid-engined car, which is a much better performance car architecture than the rear-engined 911.

It is really sad that the such a great car manufacturer is hamstrung by the 911 legacy so much that they can't actually build a proper sports car that does not cost a small fortune! The Carrera GT was certainly a superb supercar, but it really was not something you can drive everyday or to the grocery store; unlike say a Turbo, GT3 or GT2.

Porsche clearly has the engineering capabilities to create a 997-based (or Cayman-based) GT1; a mid-engined 911! Price it above the GT2, say a tick over $200K and they'd give Lamborgini and Ferrari some excellent competition.

Official Porsche GT1 page