Owner Butch Capps describes the two categories he believes Cobra owners fall into. "There are those who just want a blue one-someone who just likes the looks of it and doesn't know about the cars' history. The second type is the one who walked into some Ford dealership in 1965 and fell in love right then and has had a relationship with them ever since."
Butch Capps is one of those second-type guys. After seeing a Cobra back in the '60s on a showroom floor and following their colorful racing career, Butch had always thought in the back of his mind that he would own one someday. The affordability of them nowadays, however, makes it unlikely an original will appear in Capp's driveway anytime soon but, being a Ford guy since day one (some of his past rides have included a '70 Mustang, as well as a '91 Mustang), he decided to build a replicar.
Back in 1993, he hooked up with Unique Motorcars in Gadsden, Alabama, for one of their 427 S/C Cobras cars. Unique Motorcars has been in the replicar business for decades, first in Arizona and, since 1981, northern Alabama. After assembling the Unique kit, Capps and the Weaver family (Unique's owners) also began a business relationship. As a rebuilder of Jaguar rearends, as well as being a guru of transmissions (he owns Mid South Gear in Knoxville, Tennessee), Capps began supplying Unique with some of their suspension and drivetrain componentry (he also sells Ford Top Loader transmissions with the distinctive Cobra-type shifter).
Capps drove and raced his Unique 427 for some time, and he still owns it. But wanting something a little different, he then decided a couple of years ago to build a 289 FIA Cobra. Unique had debuted their 289 FIA body style back in 1991 to rave reviews, and, for many, it's a viable alternative to the 427 Cobras already out there. They offer their kits in several forms, from a basic pallet kit to turnkey versions, but Capps wanted to do nearly all the work himself.
Unique assembled a steel 2x4-inch rectangular tube chassis on-site, dialing in the wheelbase at 90 inches. Butch already knew some of the time he would spend in his FIA car would be at the track, so particular attention was made to the suspension pieces he used on his car. The front suspension works around an IFS system made by Unique using tubular A-arms and adjustable Carrera shocks (rated at 325 pounds). A 5/8-inch anti-roll bar was added to gain stiffness and a Wilwood-based disc brake system (using four-piston Ultralite calipers) was also installed.
Out back, one of Butch's Jag rears went in, set up with a Dana 44 third member and 3.54:1 gears, custom chromemoly 11-inch axles, shortened lower control arms, and adjustable rear trailing arms with some stiffing plates added to the lower arms. Another 5/8-inch anti-roll bar was also attached in the rear. Four Carrera coilover shocks (rated at 300 pounds) were used out back while the stock Jag inboard disc brake system was retained.
The engine in Capp's car is a '66 289, which was punched to 294 cubes by boring the cylinders .040. The block was deburred inside and out (by American Automotive Machine in Knoxville, Tennessee) and assembled by Butch using Eagle 5.155 H-beam rods, a stock (but balanced) 289 crank, DSS pistons set-up with a 9.7:1 compression ratio (using a deck height of .010), and Seal Power moly rings. An Erson cam controls the 2.02 and 1.60 stainless steel valve combo in the Edelbrock Performer RPM aluminum heads via a set of COMP Cams roller rockers.