Client profile: Graham Chad Cobra
A somewhat “out of the square” undertaking was this Cobra kit car supplied to us by Suspension Concepts. You see… kit cars are in many cases a one off build using chassis frames that have been welded together without alignment jigs. Perhaps by the novice or home builder………Now that doesn’t make them bad cars………some of the work that goes into’s these builds is honest hard work and built with passion……….however, in the end.…….some parts of the chassis are not always straight. In fact tolerance’s that are visible with the naked eye. This certainly was the case with the chassis & front end of this fine looking Cobra. The ride heights were all wrong, tyre’s hitting the fiberglass guards………crazy stuff like that…..!! When time to get busy, we noticed upon spring removal that some poor mechanic has tried in vain, cutting & grinding the front springs to restore ride heights with springs over 40mm different in heights. There had to be a better solution………. With help from Greg & Jason from Suspension Concepts, the front springs seats were cut out of the lower control arms and in welded a coil over height adjustable spigot. I also cut out the original top spring spigot and once again in went a spigot to suit the coil over spring………The original spring has now been replaced with a coil over small diameter spring with height adjustment via the lower adjustable spring seat……….. We couldn’t change the chassis, so just worked with what we had and it has worked…….!! Suspension Concepts supplied a new set of single adjustable front and 4 x coil over single adjustable shocks for the Jag rear end……….. To conclude , we worked with the client to achieve target ride height settings and the adjustable shocks were great allowing Graham to zero in on the desired ride quality. The Cobra is certainly a beautiful peace motoring history……..with big V8’s and thumping cams its pure mechanical harmony…….. and one of those cars you don’t mind if its takes a few goes to get it aligned on the hoist as it remains a good excuse to leave that engine running just that little bit longer………………
