Phoenix
Member # 013
Well, that was certainly an experience! I drove the Cobra to a Superformance event in Hastings, Nebraska. There were about 40 Cobras there, two Coupes and one GT40. Also a full-race Duntov Grand Sport Corvette, not streetable. Anyway, it started to rain about 100 miles before I got to Hastings, so I had to put the top up. It was pretty cold anyway. I wore two shirts, a hoodie and a leather jacket all the way up and back. I do not like driving with the top on because of limited visibility, but I made it.
There is an excellent road course in Hastings called MPH (Motorsports Park Hastings) and they were very accommodating. It is a pretty safe course with little to hit. It is nearly flat, being in Nebraska corn country, with just a couple of off-camber corners to make life interesting. We first had a braking exercise to learn how to modulate the brakes without locking them up. Then we had a figure-8 set up in the parking lot where I found out that my 10-year-old BFG tires have pretty poor grip, but there was some sand blowing across the lot and no one got great grip. That was a great learning experience and the lessons learned helped a lot on the track, which is about a 2.1 mile course. I ran it all in 3rd and 4th gears. I waved everyone by and thought I was going plenty fast. My BFGs were sliding in lots of the corners, and it makes you appreciate the weight-balance of the Cobra!
We went for a cruise and had about 50 miles on I-80 on a nice sunny day, but the cross-wind must have been sustained 50MPH. It beat the heck out of the windward side of my head. That is something about Nebraska -- it is a very windy place in my limited experience!
The track has excellent facilities including great bathrooms and very good food. The track itself if only a couple of years old, so it is in great shape. With about 40 cars we did not really have enough for the track owner to break-even. He said his break-even is about 60 cars at the price we paid ($200 to $300). The owner who took care of us is a Shelby dealer in Hastings. Cobras and Mustangs. He also owns Gessford engineering which makes, among other things, excellent FE motors. I didn't ask the price -- I know they are way, way out of my price range. Shelby aluminum block, billet parts, etc. I have seen Gessford's ad on Club Cobra.
I think it might be an excellent place for Factory Five to have a get-together. There are so many FFR cars that you could easily get 60 or 80 or 100 to show up and hone your driving skills.
There were no wrecks at all! A couple of cars left the track and ended up in the alfalfa, and only one breakdown -- a Big Block overheated and melted some bearings evidently.
1,402 miles and safely home. Sunburned and windburned.
There is an excellent road course in Hastings called MPH (Motorsports Park Hastings) and they were very accommodating. It is a pretty safe course with little to hit. It is nearly flat, being in Nebraska corn country, with just a couple of off-camber corners to make life interesting. We first had a braking exercise to learn how to modulate the brakes without locking them up. Then we had a figure-8 set up in the parking lot where I found out that my 10-year-old BFG tires have pretty poor grip, but there was some sand blowing across the lot and no one got great grip. That was a great learning experience and the lessons learned helped a lot on the track, which is about a 2.1 mile course. I ran it all in 3rd and 4th gears. I waved everyone by and thought I was going plenty fast. My BFGs were sliding in lots of the corners, and it makes you appreciate the weight-balance of the Cobra!
We went for a cruise and had about 50 miles on I-80 on a nice sunny day, but the cross-wind must have been sustained 50MPH. It beat the heck out of the windward side of my head. That is something about Nebraska -- it is a very windy place in my limited experience!
The track has excellent facilities including great bathrooms and very good food. The track itself if only a couple of years old, so it is in great shape. With about 40 cars we did not really have enough for the track owner to break-even. He said his break-even is about 60 cars at the price we paid ($200 to $300). The owner who took care of us is a Shelby dealer in Hastings. Cobras and Mustangs. He also owns Gessford engineering which makes, among other things, excellent FE motors. I didn't ask the price -- I know they are way, way out of my price range. Shelby aluminum block, billet parts, etc. I have seen Gessford's ad on Club Cobra.
I think it might be an excellent place for Factory Five to have a get-together. There are so many FFR cars that you could easily get 60 or 80 or 100 to show up and hone your driving skills.
There were no wrecks at all! A couple of cars left the track and ended up in the alfalfa, and only one breakdown -- a Big Block overheated and melted some bearings evidently.
1,402 miles and safely home. Sunburned and windburned.
