Kirkham Daytona Coupe completed


Sinovac

Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,864
Largo, Florida
Wow.
 

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Geez that's badass. Well done. Yours?
 
Superfly said:
Geez that's badass. Well done. Yours?
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Not yet. :) That one is going to Russia. It is the first Coupe Kirkham completed.
 
Beautiful!!

Is there a clear coat on it? How does one go about keeping the surface spotless?
 
Look fantastic, but finger prints are going to be hell on the car!
 
No clear coat. Just polished aluminum. It really isn't that hard to maintain. I have a bare aluminum Kirkham Cobra and I clean it with Windex. The aluminum looks fantastic when it gets just the right amount of patina. It isn't a car for the hyper anal though.
 
Sinovac said:
No clear coat. Just polished aluminum. It really isn't that hard to maintain. I have a bare aluminum Kirkham Cobra and I clean it with Windex. The aluminum looks fantastic when it gets just the right amount of patina. It isn't a car for the hyper anal though.
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EP? :lol
 
I was being polite :lol
 
I expect the Kirkham coupe will be the most faithful now. Shelby American took over the Coupe from SPF (now the CSX9000 line) and they really civilized it. It was on my shopping list along with the GT but vetoed by the boss who just considered it a Cobra with a hard top. I had a Shelby CSX before and loved it but the boss hated it and would not ride it anywhere after the first year.

I never understood the Kirkham "bare naked lady" idea. Someone brought one to the Shelby American fundraiser last fall and it truly looked awful in the light with swirl marks and scratches in the surface that didn't look like he'd maintained the surface well. I've seen pictures of the striking finish but never seen one up close that matched the pictures.

Cobras (including coupes) need to be guardsman blue. Just my opinion.
 
twobjshelbys said:
Cobras (including coupes) need to be guardsman blue. Just my opinion.
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My Opinion too, but sheesh the Kirkhams are incredible craftsmen.
 
Lambo orange works for me...

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Would love that color on a GT
 
twobjshelbys said:
I expect the Kirkham coupe will be the most faithful now.
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Gentlemen,

The Kirkham Daytona Coupe is definitely the most faithful reproduction as it is the same scale and size as the originals. The SPF (Shelby) Daytona Coupes are bigger than the originals, like our GT's are bigger than the 60's GT40's. The downside is that the Kirkham DC is a tight squeeze for regular size American guys. I had a bare aluminum Kirkham Cobra and the finish wasn't hard to maintain but it's impossible to keep it perfect. You can paint them like the originals but that's not easy to maintain either as the aluminum body dings and dents much easier than the fiberglass replicas. Even stones thrown up by other cars would ding it and with the bare aluminum finish they could be pounded back out and then re-polished or sanded. The aircraft grade aluminum that Kirkham uses is higher quality and much more durable than the aluminum sheets that AC used back in the day. The originals would dent even easier. Not a practical car at all but God what a ride. 650 HP in a 2100 lb. car with a 90 inch wheelbase and open exhaust headers terminating on both sides of your body. Ear splitting noise, blistering acceleration, tricky handling, and about the same occupant protection as a skateboard. I loved it.

Chip
 
Just gorgeous. I'd like to see the Webers under the hood.
BTW, it always cracks me up to see the aspect ratio of the old Goodyears. Imagine the side flex that rubber must have had in hard turns.
 
ChipBeck said:
Gentlemen,

You can paint them like the originals but that's not easy to maintain either as the aluminum body dings and dents much easier than the fiberglass replicas. Even stones thrown up by other cars would ding it and with the bare aluminum finish they could be pounded back out and then re-polished or sanded. The aircraft grade aluminum that Kirkham uses is higher quality and much more durable than the aluminum sheets that AC used back in the day. The originals would dent even easier. Not a practical car at all but God what a ride. 650 HP in a 2100 lb. car with a 90 inch wheelbase and open exhaust headers terminating on both sides of your body. Ear splitting noise, blistering acceleration, tricky handling, and about the same occupant protection as a skateboard. I loved it.

Chip
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Yep, that's right. The difference between an aluminum Kirkham and Shelby is nil - they are built at the same place (now) but the originals are really soft. If you want to get scared of alloy see one of the CSX1000 series car. They are rolled aluminum from the continuation of the AC guys and are incredibly soft. Hillbank had one at BJ two years ago. It was roped off so noone would lean on it for fear they would cause it to cave in.

A Cobra is an awesome vehicle. High horsepower and torque with the short wheelbase make it a tough cookie to handle. It taught me a lot about how to handle the GT. My GT and the Cobra have almost the same HP:weight ratio, but the difference in the wheelbase and the rear/mid engine makes a big difference in handling.
 
If any of you chaps are interested in acquiring one of these beasts, a very good friend of mine in Michigan, who has built many Kirkham bodied Cobras, can also build one of these. In fact he currently has two of them on order. Contact me via PM and I will give you his phone number and email address.

RB
 
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