289 Shelby Cobra Replica

Scott Richey has loved fast cars since childhood—his father got him involved in the hobby—so it’s no surprise that when he chose to go the kit car route, his projects were of the Snake persuasion.

Scott, a pharmacist from Newburgh, Indiana, says, “I have always loved Cobras and high-performance driving. For nine years, I owned a Classic Roadsters 427 S/C, but when I saw the beauty of this Contemporary 289 (which was available), I sold the 427 and bought the 289.”

Why trade in a classic 427 Snake for a classic 289? Scott says, “This 289 handles so much better than the 427. It really hugs the road. I had a small-block 351 Windsor in the 427, the same as I have in the 289, but my 427 had a Ford 8.8-inch rear axle, and this car has a Jaguar rearend. There is no comparison in the handling. I used to spin out the 427 often, but in the 289, I run out of nerve before it does.” That’s from a guy who has had this baby at more than 145 mph.

Scott doesn’t run out of nerve often, as we witnessed when we caught up with him at last year’s Run And Gun. Scott and his 289 finished in Second Place on the autocross (Street Small-Block Class) and Second on the road course (accelerating to above 130 mph), and was in the hunt for the top spot on the dragstrip when mechanical problems took him out of that competition.

Scott’s 289 is powered by a Ford SVO 351 Windsor crate engine, accompanied by roller cams, Ford aluminum GT-40 heads, K&N air filters, Jet Hot–coated exhaust, a Richmond five-speed close-ratio transmission with a Hurst shifter, a Centerforce 10½-inch clutch disc, and a 14-volt alternator. For extra boost, he added an ACCEL DFI 65mm electronic fuel injection system—eight 24-pound fuel injectors—and an electronic MSD ignition system. The combination puts out 375 hp at 5,500 rpm, with 330 lb-ft of torque at 4,700 rpm.

“I didn’t build this car,” Scott says. “I bought it already completed, and my friend Robert Turpin helps me maintain it and is the mastermind behind its performance; but that doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of owning, driving, and tweaking the car.”

Scott added an EFI fuel-management system as a compromise. He says, “I put five miles on the street for every mile I put on the track—some 1,500 miles a year—and this system is a great compromise for street and track and a better system, I think, than straight carburetion.”

He likes the concept of compromise, saying, “This car is a wonderful compromise between an all-around race car and a car I take on Sunday cruises with my wife, Jackie. The system and the car require very low maintenance and provide exceptional performance and handling on the street and at the track. I also love the 289 even moreso than the 427 because there just aren’t a lot of 289s around compared to the 427 S/C.”

Scott’s 289 FIA Autospeed body fits snugly on a 4-inch chrome-moly frame with a wheelbase of 90 inches. The car sits on a Jaguar rearend and carries a 3.07:1 posi-differential ring-and-pinion ratio. It has custom tubular rear half-shafts, a Watts linkage, and triangulated rear lower control arms, all adding to the exceptional handling. Penske remote-reservoir double-adjustable rear shocks, Eibach rear springs, and Wilwood rear brakes work in concert with competition-suspension front and rear sway bars and front and rear antiroll bars from Canaska Motorsports. The front suspension and rack-and-pinion steering box are both reliable Jaguar XKE designs, and they are accented by Jag spindles, Penske front shocks, Eibach springs, Wilwood brakes, and a Tilton master cylinder. The wheels are PS Engineering 9x17-inchers in front and 11x17s in the rear, and Scott has covered them with Goodyear GSC Eagle tires, P275/45R17s in front and P315/35R17s behind.

The interior is finished with a Moto-Lita steering wheel, Stewart-Warner gauges, Contemporary seats clothed in black leather, black wool carpet, Lexan window glass, and a three-point chassis-mounted 1¾-inch-thick rollbar. The exterior is white with very classic-looking stripes—one black and one metallic green (Scott believes they are PPG colors, but since he bought it assembled, he is not 100 percent certain). “I just liked the clean look of it,” he says. Scott is looking to compete this year at Run And Gun and at the Mid-America Challenge in Topeka, Kansas. He believes his best race runs are still ahead of him in this 2,000-pound Snake.

Would he give this 289 up for an even more powerful 427? Scott says, “No way. Besides, I let my dad drive it, and he loves it. So do I.” And so do we.