Car Review: The Gulf Cobra

This weeks car review is of a terrifying Chevrolet powered Almac Cobra 427R that is owned by Bevan Wright. This very car is slightly famous in New Zealand and you may remember it from the Leadfoot Festival where it has raced for the past 3 years. It has also been raced at events such as the Wellington street race and Wings and Wheels in Ohakea.

The car was built in 1989 and Bevan has owned it for around 24 years. It is a replica of the 1965 Shelby Cobra 427R. The body is made out of kevlar which is incredibly lightweight (and bullet proof) and only has a small windshield on the driver's side and a removable one on the passenger side. Both the front and rear sections of the body can be removed for maintenance and repairs.

The chassis was custom made by Graham Berry Race Cars including a roll hoop with forward and rear facing braces to the chassis. Suspension is Koni shocks with double A arm suspension all round.

The Cobra is powered by a 7 litre Chevrolet LS7 V8 crate motor that features ported heads, a race cam, forged pistons, dry sump and a fancy Hillborn fuel injection setup. The engine produces around 650 BHP with a compression ratio of 12.5:1. This is matched to a 5 speed straight cut SAENZ racing gearbox with a sintered bronze Tilton triple plate clutch which came out of a NASCAR and a 9 inch Strange Engineering LSD. This results in the car being able to reach a top speed of 185 MPH which must be rather scary in an open top car!

Putting the power to the ground are 17 inch Arrow 3 piece alloy wheels with Halibrand knock off hubs. These are shod with Kumho road race tyre's that are 275/40/17 on the front and 315/35/17 on the rear.

Overall, this Cobra looks excellent in it's Gulf orange and blue livery. I would like to thank Bevan Wright for allowing me to review his awesome beast and for sending in the photos and info on the car.

Stay tuned for more car reviews and other cool automotive stuff. Thanks for reading!!!