Why the 289?

[Paul Blore]

Here's a question re 427's, all of the Kirkhams have a very large grille opening, whereas all of the fibreglass cars are much smaller and are a different shape, which is correct?

cheers...Nige

Need you ask?

[agnoraan]

Well yeah If you look at various photos of Kirkhams, you'll see that the grilles vary from being "lozenge" or more of an oval shape, to being more angular on the sides.





This one is a different shape to yours & appears more oval






This original one also looks more oval compared to the your car.




Most of the 'glass Cobras have the more oval grille opening as per the one above, compared to some of the kirkhams

cheers...Nige

cheers...Nige

[Marsh]

Good to see the Hawk 289 NAN75D is still on these shores.

I came very close to buying that car around 4 years ago from it's original owner James Baxter and only walked away due to concerns over how the car was registered.

I recall that it was documented as a 1966 MGB, so I didn't fancy getting pulled over every time our local constabulary did a PNC check on it.

Funnily enough, it's been for sale for some time with Sherwood Restorations in Nottingham for £42k, so I'm assuming that they've any V5 related issues for the £17k difference over the price I was offered it for...

Marsh

[Paul Blore]

Nige,

I can assure you that all the cars in the pictures you posted have the same size and shape opening, with one small qualification. The front opening on original 427 S/C Cobras (the gold car) isn't quite level and this, along with a few other anomalies has been rectified on Kirkham cars.

Paul

[agnoraan]

Sorry Paul, but I'm going to have to beg to differ with you on this. If you look at the 427 Cobras in period, the grille opening is more "lozenge" shaped than the Kirkhams, just like on the gold car. The grilles on the Kirkham cars are less curved on the sides & the radius in the bottom corners are different to original cars. If you look at the bottom radius on the gold car where there is no damage it's much more curved than yours

cheers...Nige

[peterc]

With all the comments above on this topic it just proves how passionate we all are about our own particular car and will defend our corner to justify that ours is the best, after all we chose to buy it !
Just remember guys we were all friends last week so don't start throwing spanners 'cos others don't share your beliefs.

Back to the original question why chose a 289 over a 427, personally I had always liked a Q car image. A guy at college had a Daimler V8 under the bonnet of his Mk 1 Cortina. Quiet but rather fast! I had heard stories about how fast the Sunbeam Tiger was - like a Triumph Herald with a V8. No one would expect the performance. So since college I had always fancied something small with a V8 under the hood.

Based on this background I had therefore wanted a slab side 289 because it was relatively understated and lighter than a big block 427. Why then have I got an FIA you ask? At the time of my visit to a little known workshop in Frant I did not know Gerry did a FIA model. In a typical technical decision my wife chose the FIA as she liked the lighter shade of blue compared to Gerry's dark blue slab side. I decided that moment was as good an indication of getting permission to proceed with building a Cobra as I was likely to get. I've not regretted that moment!

Being a member of the Cobra Replica Club I can see others point of view. Having a Chevy under the hood with modern dash board is often the norm but definitely not for me. Generally speaking the T289R members prefer the authentic look regardless of whether it's a 289 or a 427 whereas the CRC guys are happy so long as it's got plenty of BHP. I've had quite a few CRC members say they prefer my 289!

[Paul Blore]

I'm not seeing the same thing as you Nige I'm afraid.

The different coloured paint around the opening of the gold car makes if difficult to see the actual shape, along with the different perspective, but they look the same to me. The two Kirkham car are identical from what I can see.

When Kirkham created the shape for their cars, they digitised half of an original car and then mirrored it to get a perfectly symmetrical car, which the originals weren't, they then CNC machined a full size buck to form the bodies over.

Like many hand built cars, each of the original Cobras were slightly different, so the Kirkham shape is based on one particular car, but we're talking minor differences during manufacturing, not a styling change that I'm aware of.

Paul

[Migge]

The pics show my former 427 SF MAGNUM, miles away from original look, brutal lowered on 285/40/15 rears, 225/50/15 front and no fancy bling etc. and with a Chevy but the way I liked it many years ago. The shell is a splash form a splash from a splash bla bla bla from a original 427 car as every manufactorer say, as we know. But I think the opening is correct although it's not very symetrcal as the whole car was not.







Cheers
Migge

[Paul Blore]

This is a picture of the same car (belongs to Larry Ellison of Oracle Inc.) but from a slightly different angle and you can see that it is the same shape as mine:


This is CSX 3004:


This is CSX3047:


I think the angle from which the picture is taken makes a big difference to the perceived shape, but I'm sure they're all fundamentally the same.

Paul

[Migge]

I think on the Kirkham it looks a bit like a rectangle opening with rounded corners. The top and bottom "straights" are longer than on other cars. On the Magnum the radius on the opening begins much earlier.