Curious if anyone here has driven one of these....

[John V]

I've driven a few "fake" Cobras. Most of them Factory Five models and one that was an older kit. I can't remember the name, but it used Jag rear suspension (IRS).

First off, it's not a Miata on steroids. At all. A good friend who has since passed built an NB Miata with a Corvette drivetrain (with a healthy cam, headers, better heads, etc, so around 500whp) and THAT was a Miata on steroids. It steered like a Miata, it braked like a Miata, and it felt very "put together." The power was usable. As a car it was usable. I really enjoyed that car and I'm not really a Miata person.

Cobra kits are, well, they are not that. They can be made to handle OK, but out of the box they are kind of a mess. They require a lot of tweaking to be remotely okay. The braking tends to suck (no ABS). Lots of people build them without power steering, and they're really hard to drive. I'm relatively strong, but I struggle with the manual steering cars. Most people tend to massively over-power them as well. They don't need a lot of power to be fun. A stock C5 drivetrain is more than enough. But mostly people want double that, and it kind of ruins the experience because they don't put down power well enough to use it.

The ride is choppy, they are extremely loud (wind noise and engine / exhaust) so they don't make great cruisers, though people do use them for that. I think mostly they get built for "the look" plus it's fun to put stuff together. There are tons of them constantly for sale for that reason. Once they're built, the fun is mostly over, so people let them go for pretty cheap.

[3LOU5]

Originally Posted by John V

I've driven a few "fake" Cobras. Most of them Factory Five models and one that was an older kit. I can't remember the name, but it used Jag rear suspension (IRS).

First off, it's not a Miata on steroids. At all. A good friend who has since passed built an NB Miata with a Corvette drivetrain (with a healthy cam, headers, better heads, etc, so around 500whp) and THAT was a Miata on steroids. It steered like a Miata, it braked like a Miata, and it felt very "put together." The power was usable. As a car it was usable. I really enjoyed that car and I'm not really a Miata person.

Cobra kits are, well, they are not that. They can be made to handle OK, but out of the box they are kind of a mess. They require a lot of tweaking to be remotely okay. The braking tends to suck (no ABS). Lots of people build them without power steering, and they're really hard to drive. I'm relatively strong, but I struggle with the manual steering cars. Most people tend to massively over-power them as well. They don't need a lot of power to be fun. A stock C5 drivetrain is more than enough. But mostly people want double that, and it kind of ruins the experience because they don't put down power well enough to use it.

The ride is choppy, they are extremely loud (wind noise and engine / exhaust) so they don't make great cruisers, though people do use them for that. I think mostly they get built for "the look" plus it's fun to put stuff together. There are tons of them constantly for sale for that reason. Once they're built, the fun is mostly over, so people let them go for pretty cheap.

What I meant was from an APPEARANCE standpoint, it looks like a Miata on 'roids with its wide rubber in all four corners, headers/side pipes and muscular fender flares.

But I was just wondering about the power-to-weight ratio of a something like this, because after a certain number, it would be really difficult to put the power down without fishtailing all over the place, imo.

I suppose all that wind/exhaust noise would get old after a while....something a good set of earplugs can cure.

[John V]

Originally Posted by 3LOU5

What I meant was from an APPEARANCE standpoint, it looks like a Miata on 'roids with its wide rubber in all four corners, headers/side pipes and muscular fender flares.

But I was just wondering about the power-to-weight ratio of a something like this, because after a certain number, it would be really difficult to put the power down without fishtailing all over the place, imo.

I suppose all that wind/exhaust noise would get old after a while....something a good set of earplugs can cure.

As with anything it comes down to good tires. Most of these Cobra kits are built around wheel sizes that have the right look but for which decent street tires don't exist.

[FC]

Originally Posted by John V

As with anything it comes down to good tires. Most of these Cobra kits are built around wheel sizes that have the right look but for which decent street tires don't exist.

I was thinking that it must be pretty hard to find good tires in that crazy size.