Stupid Questions

[rdc767]

1. How do you insure these cars?

2. Electric harness.  Let say a 302 with carb where do you get one from?

3. How much for a fun motor without breaking the bank? How much horsepower to turn a 12's in a quarter in a corbra?

4. Straight rearend or IRS?

5. What special skills do I need or equipment? I have the basics mechanic tools but no welding skills, painting.  How detail are the instructions?

I am sure I'll have more later.

Thanks
Ron

[Tom]

1:  I have mine insured through State Farm under their "classic/collectible" policy.  Full coverage is about $150.00 per year.

2:  Hurricanes come with all the electrical components you will need.  But if you want EFI, get a salvage yard harness.

3:  Engine $$$?  You can get a crate small block in the $2k range or you can spend $15k+++ on an FE or 385 series big block.  12's?  That's a good laugh.  My 289 has only been on the track once.  10.93 @ 127 MPH.  ANY Cobra should turn 12's all day long without breaking a sweat.

4:  Rear?  Depends on what you want.  Straight axle is fine.  I'm going with IRS on the new build though.  Mostly because I want to spend more money and go a bit more original on this one.

5:  Instructions are pretty straight forward.  If you get stumped, Huricane folks are always a phone call away.  I've had Mike on the phone at 9:00 pm and he didn't seem annoyed in the least.  Plus the owners forum has a lot of good info already posted and questions are usually answered promptly by other owners.  You'll not need to do any welding.  Just paintwork.

If you have more questions, answers are always easy to find here.

Tom.

[LMH]

Tom's right on! The only thing I would add is if your wanting to do a fair amount of drag racing, then go with the live axle. If your thinking of any road course driving, then go with the IRS. That's my $.02
Larry

[Ryan Cassidy]

None of those are stupid questions..... :-)   We all have them.

Tom said everything I would have said so I'll spare you the duplication....


But I have a question...

When can you insure these as automobiles?  IE when can I call State Farm/Progressive and get a policy on the car? Do I have to wait til it's regged with the DMV?

Cheers,

[Tom]

The insurance company will take your $$$ before the state.  In fact, most states will require you to show insurance at the initial inspection process before they will issue a title.

[LMH]

At the moment, while my car is in the build stage, it's covered under my home owners ins. Once it's road worthy I'll have it under it's own policy.
Larry

[Ryan Cassidy]

Larry,

   You might want to check on at....  Certain items are excluded from normal Home Owners policies... I thought the same thing until I talked to a few others in the photography hobby and ended up calling my homeowners.

  For example, My Cobra is excluded, as well as my Camera equiptment (another hobby of mine).  So I needed a specific rider for those. I forget what the term is or the condition that excludes them though.  

  Just a friendly, might want to check if you haven't already.  God forbid something were to ever happen.

Cheers,

[rdc767]

Thanks for the quick response.

10's holy cow!! I'm not a drag racer but that is quick. That is why I am attracted to the cobra, strip or road track!!  

I have a friend that was interested in the Superperformance cobra.  Another recomended the Huricane. I recently was looking at the Hunters Cobra's. Anybody have
any info on them. I like the corvette IRS and front supension included for about 13k.

Can you paint the body and add it at the end? How difficult is it to do it that way? Alignment, number of bolts?

I going to call my state farm agent!

Ron

[Tom]

Hey Ron,

The Superformance comes with a hefty price tag.  Mostly because it comes assembled and ready for the drivetrain to be installed.  I've seen some Superformance cars and they are very nice.  But no nicer than Hurricane.  The resale stays high on a Superformance mostly because they come "professionally" built and it's pretty hard to screw one up from there.  Most folks looking to buy used know that if it's a Superformance, some hack didn't assemble it with eight beers on his breath.  Other roadsters come in various stages of assembly and thus, can be built as well, or as crappy, as one choses.  That's one of the major reasons you'll see resale prices all over the board.  One guys FFR could truly be a $60,000.00 work of art with only $30,000.00 invested while someone else's ERA could be a $25,000.00 POS with $70,000.00 invested.

Regarding the Hunter, look closely at what you get for your money.  There are lots of manufacturers that seem to have a lot of nice features for not much money.  When you add up the price of all the little giblets that you have to buy later, the value goes right out the window.  When it came down to it, I found the Hurricane to be the best value AND a collection of very high quality components.

I will be doing my own body & paint.  I saw a raw Hurricane body and could tell right away that the prep work would be very minimal.  It comes out of the mold that good.  A FFR on the other hand will take weeks of prep work to get it ready to paint.  I've never seen a raw Hunter body so i can't comment on that.

Another nice thing about the Hurricane is that, yes, you can do the bodywork & paint while the body is off the chassis and literally build the rest of the car into a running machine without having the body on.  The body will slip on at any time.  No sanding dust or overspray in your car!

I'm a big fan of Corvettes.  I currently own two.  But I really don't think that a C4 Corvette suspension will have anything over the well thought out front & rear IRS that Hurricane supplies.  You have to remember that the C4 suspension they are supplying was designed in the late 70's.  It is a great design, but just because it says, Corvette" on it doesn't make it perfect for a 2,400# 90" wheelbase car.  Lots of really nice handling roadsters have their front ends designed around  '74 Pinto components.  The point is that Corvettes handle better than Pintos.  But Corvette parts attached to another another chassis don't necessarily make it handle better than one with Mustang or T-Bird parts if the chassis is properly designed.

I hope I don't sound to prejudiced toward Hurricane.  After all, I have no stake in the company and I currently own a competitors car.  But I did a lot of homework before choosing this build and I kept coming back to the Hurricane for the build quality and the value.  If you're going to build your own, I don't think you can do any better.  My S.V. will be for sale as soon as my Hurricane is done.

Tom

[LMH]

Larry,

   You might want to check on at....  Certain items are excluded from normal Home Owners policies

Ryan,
I have it listed as a rider on my ins policy. I carry full replacement costs too. Hope I never have to use it!
Larry