Materials

All of our bodies are carefully hand laid with the finest of materials. High temperature Vinyl Ester resin is used in all panels with a quad directional sewn cloth – not chopped strand matt. (CSM)

This is an aerospace material as opposed to the “normal” fibreglass or GRP materials of polyester resin and CSM.  The heat  deflection temperature of our resin is 105 deg C ( polyester resin is 74 deg C ) When  you consider that the engine
compartment temperature can reach 80C plus, it becomes clear why we use this resin.

The strength of the resin is also much higher; Vinyl ester resin: tensile strength 95 Mpa; Polyester resin: tensile strength 62 Mpa. Fibreglass also has to be post heat cured at 80 deg  C for 4 hours to reach this strength and to reach it’s heat deflection temperature.

Due to it’s much higher strength, it’s thickness can be reduced thereby producing a structure that is less  than half the weight of a fibreglass product yet is 32 times stronger!

This is achieved by the use of the sandwich concept, the flexural rigidity and flexural strength are substantially increased in comparison with a  solid laminate – if you double the distance between the laminates,  you increase it’s flexural strength by 12 times.

With this result, you may wonder why others don’t use these materials, simple – cost. The resin is  twice as expensive and the cloth is 8 times more expensive! Makes you wonder why their prices are similar to ours.

Why settle for less – this is the 21st century!

We have combined this high strength resin with the exceptionally strong sewn cloth in a composite structure that  produces an extremely light but very, very strong structure.

The Doors

Like the main body shell, the door skins are unstressed.

There is a continuous steel support structure ( side intrusion protection ) from the heavy duty door hinges,  mounted on the chassis to the door latch also mounted to the chassis.

Only the inner skin of the door is attached to the steel structure, so that the outside skin remains stress free.

The Bonnet and Boot

The bonnet and boot lids are again two piece, an outer skin and a finished inner panel carrying the hinges and catches. The hinges  of the bonnet and boot are attached to steel plates inside the inner panels resulting in a stress free outer panel.

 

The Foot Wells

Our foot wells are 50mm longer than the original vehicle for more leg room than any other standard wheel base Cobra replica. We can accommodate people up to 6’5″ easily.

The original brake cooling ducts can be converted to supply fresh air to the foot wells.