Visit to Omer's

[commonsense]

Went out to meet Omer Phelps last week, at his shop in Foristell. I was very impressed with the guy. Friendly, thoughtful, knowledgeable, unassuming. Shop is clean, neat, well organized. Checked out various cars/engines he was working on and the build quality seemed superb. He was gracious enough to spend almost a half hour talking with me about the 545 big block he built for Mark Earls that's in my Cobra. We discussed the tuning choices he made and I agreed with every one. Eagle forged crank, Eagle forged rods, forged J and E pistons. Single plane manifold over a dual plane one. His choices on the custom cam grind. Choice of carburetor and fuel/air ratio throughout the rev range. Bore/stroke choices. Limitations of Super Cobra jet heads. Anyone can just put parts together, when building an engine, but an overall plan is what's necessary to separate 'just an engine' from a superb one.

And the proof is in the pudding. I've had the car for more than six months. The engine runs beautifully. It may as well be fuel injected, as smooth as it transitions from one part of the fuel range to another.....except for the huge increase in power when the four barrel opens, of course.

You can open the throttle at any RPM and it just goes. No hesitation, no power dips anywhere. It's faster just flooring it in 5th, than my 6 speed Viper was in fourth.

I've seen 6300 rpm in 5th, which is around 175 mph, and there's no drama, no uncertainty.

I can only talk about my experiences with Omer and this engine but, so far, I couldn't be more pleased.

 

[Tim M]

Bigger ones than me if you've been 175....i dont trust this car much over 130

 

[commonsense]

The guy in the tuner Mercedes later said, at the European Car show, that he was going 165 when I caught him. I wasn't looking at the speedo......

Had no idea I was going that fast........The car was rock solid. All thanks to Mark Earls. Even the wind wasn't bad at all.

He was probably 100 yards ahead when I just floored it in 5th and held on.

I later calculated the speed, using the gearing/tire size, at 6300 rpm, and it computed to around 175 mph. Depends on how much tire growth there was at that speed. Could have been a lot higher.

I think the record for a 427 Cobra was 198 mph on the bowl at Daytona, back in the day. So the aerodynamics seem safe at high speeds, assuming all else is well with the car.