Best thing ever? Quite possibly.

[JCH13]

As a car guy and an engineer I often joke with my contemporaries, saying "just machine it from solid billet" when figuring out to make something. This is almost never the right way to make anything. But what happens when you make a whole Cobra out of it? Pure, unadulterated awesomeness, that's what. Every little detail on this car looks beautiful and perfect. It's art that works.

http://www.kirkhammotorsports.com/book_aoe/

 

[Eli]

Simply awesome, but I don't even want to know how much it cost.

 

[JCH13]

Simply awesome, but I don't even want to know how much it cost.

I ball-parked machining and material to run around $800k...
3 designers/engineers at a moderate salary would run around $2M...

 

[JulesMaximus]

Very cool!

 

[CraigRT]

It looks neat but I'm just not that into it for some reason.
Maybe it's cause the body looks goofy unpainted, almost as if to be bling (I know that's not the goal, jussayin')

 

[manimal]

that looks amazing.

 

[Howard]

I went through all the PDFs. Amazing engineering.

 

[Ronstang]

This falls into the category of just because it can be done does not mean it should be done. Who has this kind of time? The result is a really neat car you can NEVER really drive and enjoy because it is not worth the risk.

 

[justfrank]

I'd be happy with a nicely painted Cobra kit car and I could drive it, race it.

 

[roguerower]

That's pretty badass

 

[SSSnail]

That just proves the rich do dumb things sometimes... Larry could have just buy a damn Cobra...

 

[IcePickFreak]

I seen this a few year ago and yeah the engineering & craftsmanship are astounding. That said, I agree with above that it'll barely get driven - it's worth more as a piece of art than a car.

 

[Howard]

This falls into the category of just because it can be done does not mean it should be done. Who has this kind of time? The result is a really neat car you can NEVER really drive and enjoy because it is not worth the risk.

Same goes for any other million dollar car? But we all know those do get driven.

 

[Squisher]

I'm going to go through this all later, but I just skimmed a couple topics. Let me first say that as a die maker and machinist I just splooged in my trousers. Second, it would have been great to to keep the metal shavings in a couple piles, I bet they would have been small mountains.

It kinda reminds me of my garden trowel I made out of 1/4" stainless and a billet of aluminum for the handle. When the bomb hits it'll probably be the only thing left from my house.

 

[HAL9000]

I love that car, but not like that, the chrome-ish colour sucks.

 

[roguerower]

I love that car, but not like that, the chrome-ish colour sucks.

We already know you have no taste and this just confirms it. It's not a chrome-ish color, it's aluminum you idiot.

This was more about the machining/fabrication process than the outcome.

 

[Ronstang]

We already know you have no taste and this just confirms it. It's not a chrome-ish color, it's aluminum you idiot.

This was more about the machining/fabrication process than the outcome.

I wonder if he even knows that the original Cobras were English car bodies/frames and that the bodies were aluminum. There were instances of original ones that were not painted but merely polished almost 50 years ago.

 

[JCH13]

The whole object of the exercise was to do something that no one had really done before to make the best possible roadster. The test drivers commented that this was the first Cobra that ran out of engine (650hp) before the chassis became upset (1800lbs). That is totally insane. It's a car with the power/weight ratio of a liter bike.

Normally I'm one of the first to jump on the "it'll never be driven" bandwagon, but every once in a while it is nice to see something completely novel and totally over the top.

 

[DirthNader]

Car porn.

 

[HAL9000]

I wonder if he even knows that the original Cobras were English car bodies/frames and that the bodies were aluminum. There were instances of original ones that were not painted but merely polished almost 50 years ago.

I did know that and regardless I wouldn't have liked it. Stick a nice lick of blue paint on it and I'd love it

 

[MaxFusion16]

any reason why they went with old school carburetors instead of fuel injection?

you decree that money is no object and then hold it back with carburetors, baffles me.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I learned of this car about a year ago and read through the entire book. The thing is just incredible. I love the singularity of purpose and it sounds like they really cut no corners in building it. Amazing.

 

[Zap]

Wow, to be that wealthy...

That just proves the rich do dumb things sometimes... Larry could have just buy a damn Cobra...

Didn't he? I think somewhere it mentioned he bought one of their show cars, and then telephoned and started discussing how it could be made better with more funding.

Okay, found it in the first paragraph of PDF 00.

The person on the other end of the phone introduced
himself as “Larry Ellison” and asked me, “What
do you have in stock that I can buy right now?” I told
him about a beautiful car we had just finished for Ford
that we had displayed at SEMA 2005. He said, “Good.
SOLD. We have a deal. How much?” After delivery, he
expressed concern that someone could get hurt if they
leaned against the hot, exposed side pipes—a burn
known as a “snake bite.” He asked if we could run the
pipes out the back. I said we should consider making
him a new car.

Same goes for any other million dollar car? But we all know those do get crashed.

Fixed. D:

any reason why they went with old school carburetors instead of fuel injection?

I think it was to keep it like the original Cobra.

 

[43st]

Though the lines are slightly blurred I'd probably call myself an industrial designer by trade. Seeing the work exhibited by these guys is just fascinating.. every shop needs a few people of this caliber.

 

[Howard]

I think it was to keep it like the original Cobra.

Like all of the other things that were duplicates, right?

FI for life!