The passing response is indeed impressive.

For me, it's not immediate, though -- it takes a second between flooring the throttle and the system getting the message. It's probably similar to an auto trans kickdown or turbo lag. (Since I have recent experience with neither automatics or turbos, I'm probably being impatient.) If you push the gas to the floor slowly, it'll keep up, but it's briefly flummoxed by mashing the pedal.

Ryan

 

This is attributed to the fact the the ICE is usually off at that point and needs to spin up. This is one safety concern I have with the car. You could find yourself not pulling out as fast as you hoped and get clipped by on-coming traffic...this mean you must be less daring with the TCH.

Sometimes, since acceleration is not controlling a throttle by wire, I think the computer takes a fraction of a second to figure out what to do...

 

Randy,

Nice video. You know, I have always wondered why they print the speedo to 140 mph when the car is physically limited to must less. Why not stopping it at 125? Is this done to make people feel they have a much faster car than they really do? Just seems kinda dumb at first glance.

 

I calibrated my scan gauge II by timing mile markers at 3 different locations. I got it down to within one second per marker for the scan gauge speed set at 60 miles per hour. The TCH read 2 miles per hour fast at that speed. That might be about 3 to 4 miles per hour fast at 100 miles per hour.

The TCH speedometer read 1 mpg fast at 30 miles per hour. I found this is close to the same readings the scan gauge indicated for the last three cars I have owned including the '94 Corolla.

My 2 cents worth, for comparison.

 

Great video - there is nothing like the sound of a healthy V8 that is allowed to really pull hard for some length of time - awesome! As an old gearhead who owned several big block musclecars in my early driving years, it is sometimes hard to make the choice of efficiency over excitement these days, but it is the right thing to do for the planet and our kids.

Still... that sound....

 

Hi Guys,

There was actually 1 casualty I attribute to the high speed test. The foam insulation strip that used to be between the radiator and the header panel. I found it wrapped around the exhaust manifold..

Thanks for the kudos on the video. It was a tough race to run since my eyes were burning so badly from fumes. The Cobra is now gone (sold) and I've since been racing my sponsor's cars to break them in and set them up for their customers.

When I get the car back onto the track, I'll see what she's got full-tilt. I have a GPS Data Acquisition System as well that I can transfer into the car. This will give me fully accurate metrics on speed and elapsed times.

Gary - post more on that new car of yours on order...

 

I'm reposting here some pages from the TCH Repair Manual that I've already posted in other threads, regarding the accuracy of the TCH's speedometer. You'll see from pages ME-40 & 41 that the metric speedometer is designed to be pretty accurate. That's also my experience with it. It's generally within 1% (worst case <2%) of my GPS's speed reading on straight road sections. (On curves the GPS will read low, because of the way it deduces speed from position changes over time. If moving on a curve, it will assume that you travelled along the straight-line chord joining the endpoints of each arc.) It's the US speedometer that's designed to under-read significantly. (Yes, I'm aware of the "UN Uniform Agreement" on speedometer calibration!) By the way, my ScanGauge's speed reading agrees precisely with my GPS's reading.

Stan