The serious cobra guys have the '' COBRA COUNSEL" members only that they discuss cobra issues on.
In part Cobras are tough to answer questions on because chassis contracts and finished car details got revised multiple times for each batch of cars. With AC Cars, Continental Cars, and Shelby American all doing final assembly in their own facilities, with different local hardware supplied by different suppliers with different people lots of variations tiny to large were mixed into the finished cars. The long time frame was also part of the equation as Cobra production was spread over several years. In some way or another “today’s” sports car had to be better that “yesterday’s”. If one has a grasp of how many parts and practices changed in let us say “1966 MUSTANG GT350s” made in a relatively brief time period in one place and how confusing all the variants can be to first time fans or buyers, multiply those changes by X where X might be a factor between 20 and who knows how many times to cover all of CSX2xxx cars 1961 through 1965. How about COB/COX60xx chassis? Those cars are very different in many ways than CSX2xxx chassis built at the same time side by side. Most owners and restorers that I interact with often don’t even know where to begin asking questions about how day one might have been for their car(s). Just asking what fuel pump and or fuel filtration did a Cobra use sounds simple but it is not and gets more complicated if final out the door installation details are included. More below.
The Cobra Council group of owners and former owners help each other in person, via broadcast message threads, or one on one correspondences. The Club Cobra® Originality Forum has been a technical gathering place for fans, original Cobra owners, and replicar owners / builders. The AC Owner’s Club Cobra (Thames Ditton) Forum is also a technical meeting place but it is not widely used. A very common scenario is somebody asks a question in public and then further correspondence is done one on one if I join in. I have collected a tremendous amount of material and most of it does not lend itself to posting in tiny text boxes in forum threads. Example: I am finishing up my research project on original mechanical fuel pumps and their installations including fuel filtration. My current draft slide show is more than 30 slides. I expect the total number of slides might get up to as many as 50 slides. The digital file is already too large to post on any forum I visit and that is just one of dozens of technical files.
Confining commentary and pictures to just typical STREET car fuel pumps. The subject became more complicated the further I got into it. I created a display stand so I could do side by side comparisons of pumps as Ford supplied them and how engine installers dealt with them. To cover all the possibilities lots of side by side comparisons are required. Here a a preview of one comparison made quickly with a cell phone. It covers most (highest number of cars) known Shelby American installations of just Shelby works modified pumps.
XHP-260 engines in early chassis: There is a pump and its date code and then how three different shops accomplished the final installation including fasteners, fuel filter and its fasteners, lines, and hose clamps. Include some information and pictures on similar pumps that might get one off track. You could also cover stock 4V induction system installations and optional 4V induction system installations with regards to fuel supply lines.
Chassis by number through CSX2125 with HP260 or 1963½ HP289 engines: Almost the same as above including three different finally assembly shops.
Chassis by number CSX2126 onward with 1963½, 1964, post production 1964, and a few 1965 HP289 engines: Pump model, date codes, fuel fittings, fuel lines, hose clamps, and fasteners by three shops. Include some information and pictures on similar pumps that might get one off track. You could also cover stock 4V induction system installations, optional 4V induction system, optional 2-4V induction system January 1964 onward, and the single 4-2V induction system during late summer 1964.
One reason you don't see many Cobra technical questions posted in public by owners is that most don't do much wrenching on their own cars. The shop owners that have been working on these cars since as far back as 1963 have their own networks of contacts for information, materials, and parts. Another is most Cobra owners don’t seem to have concerns about originality. Details one would not pass over on a typical 1966 MUSTANG GT350, even something like model of engine air cleaner, might be totally ignored in a Cobra.