No racing stories???

[Russ Dickey]

It pains me to see this section of the forum not have any posts for so long. I know there are some great racing stories, set-up tips, etc. to be shared amongst us Unique owners, so please let us hear them.

I guess I'll start with my best "racing" story of '05. My Unique 289 FIA took "unofficial" top honors in the street-tire class at the Mid-America Cobra Club's annual all-Cobra autocross. I say "unofficial" because the SCCA had stoped scoring us in the afternoon session, and us club members were responsible for tracking our times. But I had the fastest time of 20-or-so cars from various manufacturers, including Factory Five, Mid-States, Hurricane, Premier, Shell Valley, and B&B.

I take particular pride in the handling characteristics of my Unique, considering that I was on crappy Goodyear Eagle GT's w/15" wheels, and most of my competition were running 17" wheels with high-dollar, low-profile street radials.

Here's a shot of me "at speed" - or at least going as fast as I could get rolling in the Arrowhead Stadium parking lot.....

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/data/500/16049AutoX.jpg

[Rickd]

Russ, what motor specs are you running? Just curious, as I also have a Unique 289 FIA, and love the car. Had the motor 'tweaked' going from stock 302, adding aluminum Trick Flow heads, a little more cam, and a new carb. Should have 350 HP or a little more. (as soon as my mechanic corrects a bad installation of the intake - leaking H2o into a cylinder). Adios,Rickd.

[Russ Dickey]

Russ, what motor specs are you running? Just curious, as I also have a Unique 289 FIA, and love the car. Had the motor 'tweaked' going from stock 302, adding aluminum Trick Flow heads, a little more cam, and a new carb. Should have 350 HP or a little more. (as soon as my mechanic corrects a bad installation of the intake - leaking H2o into a cylinder). Adios,Rickd.

Rick:
I run a very mild 351W. All it has is a basic cam, Performer RPM intake, iron Ford Motorsport GT-40 heads, Barry Grant 650 Demon carb, and of course, the Unique headers. Nothing else special. After dyno-tuning, the best it could muster was 280hp/340tq at the rear wheels, which I guess is OK considering my combo.

Definitely not the fastest Cobra around, but it does ok. Luckily, big dyno numbers don't matter as much at the autocross! At the dragstrip, I get my butt kicked on a regular basis (best e.t. so far: 13.00 @ 104mph w/2.0 60' time on street tires).

One of my winter projects includes swapping my engine out for a built stroker with aluminum heads and fuel injected weber look-alike induction, but we'll see how the old savings account looks after the holidays...

[Silk]

Russ - Great pic. How often do you get out to auto-X? I started a little over a year ago, but until late this year had just run my C6 Vette. As well as the Vette handles, I think the Cobra is faster against my benchmark competition. I my add some stiffer front springs this winter, and I have to make some carb adjustments (slight hesitation coming out of turns after threshold braking), but the Unique does handle quite well. We'll have to post here when next year's season starts.

[Russ Dickey]

Russ - Great pic. How often do you get out to auto-X? I started a little over a year ago, but until late this year had just run my C6 Vette. As well as the Vette handles, I think the Cobra is faster against my benchmark competition. I my add some stiffer front springs this winter, and I have to make some carb adjustments (slight hesitation coming out of turns after threshold braking), but the Unique does handle quite well. We'll have to post here when next year's season starts.

Gary:
Since I've owned the Cobra, I've averaged 3-4 auto-x's per year, 2-3 drag racing events, and 1-2 open tracks. I enjoy the open track events the most, and hope to do more in '06 if the budget allows.

When I had my Holley carb, I also fought an occassional hesitation problem while autocrossing. I always suspected it had to do with the way that the fuel was sloshing around inside the bowls during hard cornering/acceleration/deceleration, so I changed accelerator pumps and adjusted floats, but wasn't able to solve it. I have yet to experience that problem with my Barry Grant carb.

With regards to the Unique handling, I agree with you. I'm very pleased with it. Some of the guys in my club rib me about the amount of body roll (because it does seem to have more than other brands in our club), but obviously still turns in good lap times!

[Silk]

Russ,

Just curious - which Holley did you have? I've got the Holley HP Pro, which is supposed to be their answer to the BG carb and a much improved version of the standard double pumper. I'm assuming (hoping) that the stumble is a float issue that can be resolved by raising/lowering the floats - but I haven't tackled the problem yet.

[Russ Dickey]

Russ,

Just curious - which Holley did you have? I've got the Holley HP Pro, which is supposed to be their answer to the BG carb and a much improved version of the standard double pumper. I'm assuming (hoping) that the stumble is a float issue that can be resolved by raising/lowering the floats - but I haven't tackled the problem yet.

I originally had the low-buck Holley 750cfm "universal" carb with vacuum secondaries and electric choke. Too much carb for my car, but had it jetted way down and it ran pretty good. Right up until the point it started stumbling at the auto-x. It also did this during a high-speed session at the Kansas Speedway. As I exited the corners and mashed the gas, it would hesitate a little, then take off. Like I said earlier, I tried adjusting the floats and changing accelerator pumps, but to no avail.

I was in a pinch and needed the car to be ready for an event, so I kinda threw in the towel on the Holley and bought the BG Speed Demon 650.


Truth be told, my BG wasn't good out-of-the-box, which disappointed me a bit. I assumed these carbs were all supposed to be "factory prepped and adjusted" and ready to just bolt on and go. Not the case. I had to mess with the floats quite a bit before it ran right. Oh well. I like to tinker with stuff. Guess that's another reason I love these cars.