King Cobra

Petersons Kit Car Specialty

Not all Elvis impersonators. are alike. Some appear to be a Xerox copy of the King, while others look more like a weird mutation. Then there are those rarefied types who shun the term "impersonator" and prefer to think of themselves as "Elvis Evokers." They seek to evoke the of Presley (whatever that is -- heck, even the U.S. Post Office can't figure out which picture of him to put on a stamp).

Anyway, when it comes to Cobra replicas, West Coast's is like one of those evokers. It doesn't replicate the Cobra so much as draw inspiration from it. And that's good, because the original Shelby 427 S/C was hot, cramped, and ill-handling due to an antiquated chassis design. West Coast's repli-snake is a whole 'nother animal.

Cobra enthusiasts can tell right off that there's something different about the car. First, it has really outrageous lines, with a steroid-injected, muscle-bound shape that makes even an authentic big-block Cobra look a might puny by comparison. And cheek out that over-wide, voluptuous rump and slightly hooked nose. Clearly somebody's had their hands in the car-styling cookie jar.
It's all for a noble purpose, because West Coast's cockpit is the biggest of all Cobra replicas, bar none (except for a Cobra stretch-limo we've seen-egad-but that doesn't count). No contortions are required to climb into this baby, and it feels positively roomy once you've settled in behind the wheel. Hey, even an Elvis pelvis could gyrate in here! And a vinyl-covered, padded coaming surrounds the cockpit, well above shoulder height, so you're sitting in the car rather than on it. How did West Coast manage such ergonomic extravagance? Well, this roadster is not only taller than the original, it also is a full 4 inches wider and 6 inches longer.

Just who is the evoker behind all this tradition-tampering anyway? Vern Redel, the president of West Coast, Inc., has been involved in the specially car industry for some 15 years, initially as a dealer/builder for as many as 27 different companies. He says he learned firsthand how to correct a lot of the weak engineering typical of the then infant kit car industry, and finally got fed up and decided to strike out on his own to become a manufacturer. With some investment help from a wellheeled cousin, he took two years to develop and refine the car, particularly the chassis.

As pointed out in the cover story of last year's Cobra issue ("New Cobra Kits-Better Than The Original?" Nov. '91), the underlying structure is a box-tube spaceframe with main rails measuring 1x2x4 inches. The ancillary framing, some 320 pieces in all, consists largely of lx2-inch square tubing that stiffens the chassis in both the horizontal and vertical planes. The frame is TIG-welded (Tungsten Inert Gas), a much more precise method than MIG-welding. Rather than simply filling in gaps with filler rod, TIG-welding is a heliacal, electrical brazing process that creates a molten puddle in the metal for much greater penetration. It's more time consuming, but also stronger. Incidentally, West Coast subcontracts its frame fabrication to a manufacturer of dragsters and other racing vehicles that uses the same design and techniques on all its projects.

Welded to the spaceframe are twin plates of sheetmetal, with spun fiberglass insulation sandwiched between them to reduce both heat and noise. For reasons of safety, solid Y16-inch steel plating surrounds the driveshaft tunnel and footboxes, and crumple zones have been designed into both front and rear bumpers.

Speaking of safety, Redel is fond of showing pictures of what happened to one of his cars in an accident when it ran up a curb and hit a lightpost. Even though the fiberglass suffered some damage, the post was sheared off completely, and the frame wasn't even bent. This is one stout piece of work. Redel's concern for safety appears in numerous other features of the car, such as the Kevlar fuel cell mounted above and forward of the rear bumper, and the twin-beam door reinforcements. He says the door hardware is 3200pound-test grade. Also, the rollbar is not only full-width to protect both driver and passenger, but it measures 2 1/2 inches in diameter (racing standard is only 2 inches).

Other particulars on the car include either a new customdesigned tubular A-arm front suspension or Ford Pinto pieces (Redel feels they're stronger than the Mustang 11 units commonly found on Cobra replicas), Ford SVO steering, and a Ford 9-inch rearend (no nar-rowing is necessary due to the car's wider track). Recommended Blue Oval engines are either the 429 or its big brother the 460. The 460 has so much torque that it's often used in marine applications to power ski boats and even large cruisers-a fitting comparison, because when it comes to both size and solidness, the West Coast roadster is the flagship of the Cobra replica fleet. It's a big, heavy brute, and needs the low-end grunt. Indeed, more than 90 percent of Redel's cars are powered with bigblock engines.
The one shown here not only has the 460 with twin 750-cfm Holleys, it was also in the process of being hooked up with an NOS fogger system. Unfortunately, the job was not complete when I checked out the car, but it did have the new front suspension (a $1500 option). One advantage is that it offers more caster adjustment than the Mustang 11 unit for improved tracking, along with spring mounts located close to the outer ball joints to reduce ride harshness. In a vehicle of this bulk, these features make good sense.

Even though Redel said he hadn't fully dialed in the setup for my test drive, it felt fine, with good tracking, a compliant motion, and no bump steer. Overall, the feel of the car imparts a sense of security and comfort. This is a Cobra replica you can live with, whether high-speed highway cruising or carving up country roads.

In search of some hard performance numbers, I paid a visit to one of West Coast's long-time dealers, Custom Cars by Robbie, and took out one of his 429-powered cars equipped with a C-6 automatic. Robbie Robinson is an expert assembler and claims he's completed a West Coast kit in as little as 17 days. But then again, he's so experi enced that he hangs the doors in less than a quarter the time the buildup manual states it should take. Redel says the slowest build-up of his kit he's ever heard of was a computer programmer's (who labeled every single component because he couldn't tell them apart) and he got the job done in a year. Prepping and painting the fiberglass body is the most time-consuming aspect of the assembly process. The rest is fairly quick, because the rolling chassis comes prewired and preplumbed, ready for installation of the drivetrain. The price of the package starts at $22,300 (as of this writing), a good chunk more than most Cobra kits, but of course you get much more preassembly work for the money-plus a lot more car. The King would approve. KC