427 Cobra Replica - A Premier Choice

Before any company brings a product to market, you had better hope it has tested the item somewhere, somehow. That's why there are often so many versions of the same thing out there: Everybody has his own idea of how it should work. The same can be said for manufacturers of Cobra replicas-each one is a little different from the competitors' (and they're usually more than happy to tell you why the one they sell is superior to all of them!), but the basic idea is the same.

Take Premier MotorSports, for example. Based in Kansas City, Kansas, Premier builds a very nice Cobra roadster, basing their chassis on the original Cobras: a 4-inch, round-tube, ladder-type design set up on a 90-inch wheelbase. They figured if people wanted a Cobra, they should give them exactly what Cobras had.

However, that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. The argument that a replicar should replicate the original down to the last Grade 8 bolt doesn't hold water for Premier-they like to design a little more safety into their rides than those vehicles intended for racing four decades ago. So, with a fair amount of study done on the subject, they were able to come up with a basic Cobra frame that would utilize some of today's components to make the car not only safer to drive, but more fun, too.

The 427 replica roadster seen on these pages is owned by Rick Fiske, who has worked closely with Premier MotorSports on the development of their roadster line, as well as the company's new P40 coupe (a Mark 1B GT-40 clone). Some of the best ideas in history have started with the question: "What if?" and both Fiske and Premier wanted to see what kind of performance could be derived from Ford's 4.6L modular motor. The idea was to meld the two camps (vintage Cobra looks with an updated drivetrain) together in one manageable and affordable vehicle.

The key to managing the modular motor was the onboard computer, or more precisely, the computer chip that controls the fuel management and the ignition system. Being able to redesign the computer's DNA (something being done to great success with the Japanese imports these days) allows for a profile delivering the higher performance Fiske and Premier wanted. After figuring out some of the computer's coding, they took the information to Superchips, who created both the program and the chip this computer would use.

The motor itself, a 32-valve, four-cam, 4.6L Ford V-8 (mated to a Tremec TKO 500 transmission) was left pretty much alone internally-not even a cam change-but the bore was increased .020 for a final displacement of 284 cubes (or 4.65L for you foreign types). About the only external change was in the induction department: Premier bolted on a supercharger unit from Procharger to give the small-block some more oomph.

The plan worked as the supercharger, the new chip, and four hours of tuning on the MC Racing dyno resulted in a reading of 485 hp with 432 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels. This converts to quarter-mile times in the low-12s with street tires, and an e.t. of 11.02 at 128 mph with drag radials on the car! And these numbers weren't just pulled out of thin air-they were fought for at performance events such as the Hot Rod Power Tour, NMRA events, the VAMP Racing Series, and the Run & Gun event in St. Louis. A recent re-tune has yielded 550 hp with 505 lb-ft of torque, and that's with the custom-programmed chip.

But to get those great numbers, Fiske needed a car that would hold up under pressure, which is what he got with his Premier roadster. Updated suspension pieces, such as the Cobra disc brakes front and rear (12.9-inch and 11.7-inch, respectively) are used in conjunction with a Premier-designed IRS system (based on a 8.8-inch Ford center section) and twin A-arm independent front suspension. Steering comes via rack-and-pinion, and the roadster rides on three-piece Compomotive HB wheels (17 x 9s and 17 x 12s) shod in Goodyear F1 Supercar rubber (245/40-17 and 315/35-17), though the car still had a set of racing tires on for KIT CAR's photo shoot.

Premier has their own paint booth on-site, and the required bodywork was completed before the PPG white paint (with twin blue body stripes) was applied. After the paint cured, the car was rolled over to the interior department at Premier (not some guy working out of the corner of the shop-they really have a dedicated room with rolls of material and dozens of patterns hanging on the wall). There burgundy-colored carpet was laid out, both bucket seats were stitched up with burgundy pleather (a synthetic plastic/leather hybrid), and the dash was covered in matching material before a full set of Auto Meter gauges went in. To top everything off, a replica, wood-trimmed AC steering wheel was added before a pair of five-point RCI racing harnesses were installed.

Fiske has owned a Shell Valley 427 SC roadster (equipped with a 351 Windsor), and he's currently working on a '33 Cabster (a '33 Ford cabriolet with a removable hardtop) from Redneck Street Rods, so he's no stranger to the replicar world. But when the need for speed comes knocking, he knows he doesn't need to go any farther than his Premier roadster to get his thrill on!

RICK FISKE
Olathe, Kansas
Premier MotorSports 427 Cobra replica