nice AC cobra!

Ugly bastard, wouldn't have one given......

880bhp version here

interesting stuff from 5mins 25s.

Needs supercharging.

No. Needs a pair of truck turbos and a boot full of nitrous. Does not go too bad though as it is!

On the manufactures website there is what looks like a nitrous bottle in the boot of one of there cars.

I don't believe the power figures.

Me neither.

It's got nirtrous.

I'm guessing at about 90mm stroke, 151mm bore and 10.5:1 CR

Good men!

But I can't be arsed to do the maths. There's no 0-60 time which makes life difficult as 0-124 or whatever it is will be influenced by aero a lot...

0-60 wouldn't let you calculate the power anyway, only what it can put to the road at low speeds. What you need is the CDa and Vmax, even then it could be a limited top speed. The highest speed quoted is 187mph (in acceleration figures) and based on the 427 racing engine cobras of '64 hitting 163mph with 485bhp and working on the (clearly incorrect) assumption that it has the same CDa then it would only need 733bhp to hit 187mph (though it would take rather longer than 10 seconds). Now the scoop isn't going to make the CDa any better nor will the wide wheels and arches, so lets call it 750bhp ish to hit 187mph if the 1100bhp is accurate and the gearing is correct then it would theoretically be a 212mph top speed. Based on my rough calculations that gives a shockingly bad CDa for the cobra (well it is a soft top).

Ah having written that I looked up the non race engine Cobras and it looks like the race engined ones where probably limited by gearing so based on the little 4.7L 289ci 271bhp 140mph block you would only need 650bhp to hit

187bhp meaning that 1100bhp could theoretically hit 222mph with perfect gears again. it also brings the CDa down to a more manageable 38.5% more than that of a 2004 shape MX5.

(All calculations are rough.)

Yebbut 0-60 is a pretty good indicator of power to weight. Anyway, I reckon the power's not 1100 horses because it's an American engine and big horsepower American engines never make what they do as soon as they get anywhere near an English dyno...

The yanks have a fantastic way of calculating power that completely ignores the internal friction of the engine. PLANC

It's German...

When you consider it took 700bhp to propel a bike to 257mph its probably not that far wrong.

Aero plays a role with normal cars above 62 MPH, it become for most cars an limiting issue at around 120 MPH.

There are about 100 HP needed to keep most cars on a level road at 200 KPH (120 MPH). Okay: the bricklike Cobra will need 150 HP... but he claims that the engine has a hell of lot more.

So aero doesn't play any role in his 0-124 MPH rush. If the car has 1000 HP the aero-resistance at 200 kph is 12-15% of his available power, so I suppose it still accellerates somewhat quickly at that speed.

He has choosen 0 -> 124 MPH because he can do that run more or less consistently whereas 0-60 time will be masked by bad traction, wheelspin etc, not to mention spinning rims in tires, broken propshafts and expensif tire/clutch smell.

The 0-200 Kph time has little meaning, doesn't need to be accurate to the .5 sec. If the car has the claimed power nothing roadworthy except for maybe (big question mark) the Veyron comes even close when acclerating.

Topspeed is no issue: European roads do not allow speeds above 300 kph. Been at those speeds on open roads (uptill now) 5 times in my life and it takes preparation and luck with other trafic. The slightest bend in the highway needs very acute and precise steering.

To me the big engine ( bigger than 8l) is very attractif: it means that for 700 to 1000 HP it isn't stressed at all. You can toodle around at 1.800 RPM in 5-th gear doing the odd 100- 130 MPH. When the locals come bothering you with their Porsche's of M3's , you push in the pedal and the car screams away like a cat with its ass on fire.

I must say I like it but then I like to be scared by a car (and by some women too).

Tom De Moor

But the man ain't American... he is a Kraut and has his name and reputation. As to the English dyno's: most won't let his car near as 1000 HP-dyno's are not that common nor that cheap.

In order to test a 1000 HP-engine you need a dyno specced for 1500 HP and a cooling capacity for the car of around 2000 HP. Those figures command respect.

If something goes wrong with those kinds of power, most of the time it is not a question of money anymore, most of the time there are corpes lying around.

Tom De Moor