Kit Ordered

Ordering My Kit

Having chosen the AK Cobra, it was time to calculate the projected cost of building the car I wanted. To check that I had all the parts I needed, I sent my excel budget off to Wendi at AK. She replied within less than a few hours having been through it, saying that it all seemed okay, but I could save some money on a few options. The speed and friendliness of her reply was a great sign of customer service and re-enforced my decision to go with AK.

At the time of ordering the kit, you need to specify which engine and gear box you want to use, as AK will weld in the correct engine mounts. Note that you can change this up to a month before your kit is due to be delivered or when they start fabricating the chassis.

Engine Choices

I had originally intended to use either a Ford 302 or a Rover V8. To me, these engines with a large circular air filter on top, looked the most in keeping with the original Cobra designs. However, with the potentially tightening in emission tests and low mpg numbers, I started to think if this was the correct choice. I initially discarded the LS engines from consideration as when you open the bonnet, you see lots of plastic rather than a shiny metal air filter. Then, speaking with Dave and Jon from AK, they said that the majority of cars which they are building at present are LS engineered cars. I then spoke to Brian from RoadCraft who was very knowledgeable and he said it's getting increasingly difficult (if not almost impossible) to import sound Ford 302 cores to setup for a Cobra.

The upshot from all of these thoughts and conversations was that I have decided to go for an LS3 engine from RoadCraft. This was certainly the hardest decision of this project so far... Not looking forward to choosing the body paint color.

Ordering

With the engine chosen, I filled in the AK order form an emailed it off to Wendi. I had a choice of delivery dates but I chose to delay this to give me time to get the messy reconditioning of donor parts out of the way first. The kit is due to arrive mid October 2018.

Required Doner Parts

The running gear for both the gen2 and gen3 kits are taken from a Jaguar XJ 40 made between 1986 – 2003.  The main parts you require are the following: 

• Front axle – bottom wishbones, uprights, hubs, discs and calipers
• Rear axle with outboard rear discs –  complete on sub frame including a differential which has a 3.54/3.58 ratio  
• Spare wheels to use on the car during the building and painting processes

The additional donor parts which I require are:

• Jaguar XJS handbrake assembly 
• BMW E34 adjustable steering column (including steering wheel and ignition key for IVA) 
• Rover MK 3 200 OR ROVER 25 SERIES (1995 – 2005) brake servo and master cylinder 
• VW Polo MK 2 heater or a universal heater such as "HEAT3" from Car Builder Solutions

Due to the difference in dimensions between the AK and the XJ40, some of the suspension components require modification. AK operate a system whereby if you send them the following parts, they will include the modified parts within your purchased kit

• Front bottom wishbones 
• Front uprights 
• Rear wishbones 
• Drive shafts

The benefit of this system is that AK have a surplus of these modified parts in stock, so you don't need to add the extra wait time for them to modify your parts. It also means that there are fewer donor parts to clean and paint... as AK do that :)

Why an AK Cobra

Where did it all begin?

I first saw a 'Cobra' as a kid when Mark Evans was building his cobra replica in his 'A Car is Born' TV show.  From this moment I have always found Cobra's to be some of the best looking cars on the road. Since then I have spent many hours reading about their history. My favorite source of this is Haynes AC Cobra Owners Workshop Manual , which was a present a few Christmas's ago.

Since then I have always wanted to one day build my own Cobra. Having finally got to a point in my life where I am able to do this, now is the time!

Which Kit?

Not wishing to start a contentious argument (for that there's the cobra forum) there are a range of Cobra replica kits available in the UK. Whilst I had initially seen the Pilgrim Sumo on 'A Car is Born', I wanted to see how this compared to the other options, AK, DAX and Gardner Douglas to name a few.

Whilst there is a lot of information about these kits online, for me the best way to compare them was at the Stoneleigh kit car show. At this show all the Cobra manufactures have their stands and cars next to each other. This is a great eye opener as you can easily see that whilst they are all Cobra replicas, there are clear differences in design/quality between them. Speaking to the staff members on these stands is a great way to ask those first questions and get more information on pricing.

 As well as visiting the company stands, there are a large number of personal Cobra kit cars in the field outside from the Cobra club. This gave me lots of ideas of what I would like to build and how average people's kit cars come out.

Lastly, having visited the kit car show and thought about the options (and prices), I went up to AK's factory for an open day. This was a great opportunity to see both the factory and meet their very friendly team. During this day we had a tour of the factory, where Jon explained their build process (chassis, body and completion of customer cars) as well as answered all the questions that I had.  Lastly and definitely not the less memorable was the test drive Dave took me on with their latest show car Apple... all I have to say about that is WOW!

So what's next?

The plan is to build a second generation AK 427 Cobra with an LS3 engine over the next three years. At each step, I will be posting progress updates as well as tips and tricks I have learnt along the way.

I hope you find this blog as useful, as I have found the numerous previous blog post by other Cobra builders.