September 18th Greater Lansing area Cars and Coffee

Today was the september Cars and Coffee event in Lansing. There was a decent turnout today, and the weather was perfect.

This Gorgeous Ford GT40 replica showed up, along with a beautiful Superformance Cobra.

Having never seen one of these in person, I had to stand and admire it for a little bit.

The exhaust headers are a work of art.

This car, a Superformance Cobra, built in Australia and commissioned by Shelby America as an official replica, was awesome.

Jack, the owner, is an older retired guy who builds kit cars in his spare time. I talked with him a bit about this car and his other projects. This is his 4th Cobra. He's also had a Daytona coupe from Factory Five, which he recently sold, and is currently building a second.

Jack told e a few stories about the car. One in particular stands out. As he told it, he and his wife were in this car out in Colorado, and got caught up in a torrential downpour with hail and high winds. Both he ad a friend in another Cobra had to pull into a truck service station to get out of the rain. 

apparently, owning a car like this brings along special  things too. When you break down in a car like this, there's no shortage of people who pull over to help. Pretty sure I wouldn't have the same luck if I broke down in my car...

Despite the "427 Cobra"  badge, this car has a much bigger engine. Jack tells me it's a Big Block ford with north of 500 cubic inches, and north of 600 horsepower.

The interior on this car, while spartan, is also timeless. It never seems out of date.

Building a car like this is much like the adult version of Building a model car. Though, unlike a model car, this doesn't sit on a shelf collecting dust. This can be, and is, driven.

The 4-1 sidepipes on this are one of my favorite features of this car.

This car has seen many rally-X's, Auto-X's, stage rallys and car meets. Nathan Usher, the owner and driver, has made appearances, and finished well, in several events, including LSPR, SnowDrift, Thousand Acre Wood rally, and more.