1st Australian Cobra

The build – a true story by Peter Gray This is an account of how my Gardner Douglas Euro 427 was shipped to Australia and after 24 months

sweltering in a Perth garage with temperatures up to 48oC it became the first GD to be registered road legal in Western Australia. The journey started in late 2010 with 12 months of discussion with the Western Australian Dept of Transport before they would issue me with an ‘Individually Constructed Vehicle’ license. Without it Customes & Excise could reject my parts & have them shipped back to the UK, at my cost. It still didn’t mean that my car would pass the Australian Design Rules (ADR) that apply to cars and vehicle alterations. Having successfully negotiated this first hurdle I placed the order with GD in Aug 2011, started work in Australia in Jan 2012 & finally got it on the road in Oct 2013. I love the car - everyone who has been in it is staggered by the performance, the handling, the comfort and the simple fact that it very closely resembles a production vehicle, not a home build.

After a few weeks bobbing around on various oceans my container arrived in Fremantle docks in Western Australia in January 2012. Upon arrival it was immediately impounded and quarantined by Border Services as they found a few lentil beans on the container floor. Importing banned foodstuffs into Australia is cause for customs and excise to demand huge sums of money for quarantined storage followed by hanging and/or deportation of the guilty party This should have been avoided by having paid the UK shippers a lot of money to ensure cleanliness and compliance with the various Australian customs and borders requirements. After many frantic and angry phone calls back to the UK the issue was sorted out and I was left to remove the shipment from the docks quarantine area …but only once I had cleared Customs and Excise… I should add that the paper work to carry out this process was epic !! Fortunately I had elected to use a shipping agent in Fremantle and he took care of the whole process and simply sent me bills with an itemised explanation of each bill and tax burden - within a couple of days I received notification that I should come and collect my car ‘bits’

It took me a week to pack things away & I had told my lovely wife that it would mean some parts in the garage…. however the reality was that our 4th bedroom turned into a storage area for car parts. Once it was all away I started filing, cutting & doing some very careful grinding to open up all the apertures for the doors, fuel filler, lights etc. I also had to file away & polish the flash lines that were left from the mold. I should state right now that I knew the first time I laid eyes on the body that I didn’t like the colour.. I had simply selected a colour in the gel coat that I didn’t like! I would have to start saving for a respray….

I opted for a General Motors LS3 6.2ltr Gen IV engine. I purchased the engine parts from the main GM performance dealer in Melbourne. These engine are simple, reliable, have a high specific output and are plentiful as they are the high performance engine in a number of Holden cars. Parts are easy to come by and they will pump out 450+BHP in standard form with little or no stress. The ECU and control loom came from in the UK. The gearbox is a Tremec T56 Magnum 6 speed and after fitting up a decent flywheel and clutch we aligned the box to the engine and get it bolted up.

Introducing my number one helper ‘Gadget’ who heaves and levers the powertrain into position

It took about 30 minutes the1st time we fitted the engine. There was lots of heaving, tugging, swearing and significant blood loss.. However, this fitting was in preparation for the Torsional Stiffness test, which meant the powertrain would have to be installed and removed about 5-6 times before the very final fitting. We became expert at this. If you ever build one of these and want expert installation - call me Engines fitted in 4 minutes flat are now my speciality.. With the engine in place the rest of the chassis, the radiator and heater hoses could all be fitted to complete the rolling chassis..

This is the car set up for the chassis torsional test at an independent, authorised garage. As the is the first of its type into Western Australia, the design regulations demand it be able to pass a torsional stiffness test load of 6000Nm/degree - pretty heavy stuff. Some of the local Aussie Cobra kits have ended up with ‘significant’ stiffening bars and braces to pass the test. As a tribute to the design and quality of Andy’s product it sailed through the test and required no additional stiffening or modifications - a ‘first’ in Western Australia…

While the torsion test was going on - back in my garage the body was being fitted, widescreen frame arms installed, initial panel gapping sorted and a trial fit of the dash. The body was beginning to look like an AC…

One job everyone hates is fitting the roll bars. On a they are structural and functional so they need installing accurately and correctly. Lots of measuring and checking before cutting! It took a day, but we had both hoops in place and the car really starting to look as it should.

ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnccccccccccccct

With the body finished it was time to find a spray shop. There was only one person I wanted to spray my car. His name is Matt & he is an ex Pohm from London and a reknowned hot rod and specialist car sprayer. When I contacted him he told me he was not really interested as he had working on 6 or 7 different Cobra bodies & he was of the opinion that they were a pain to finish and paint to his standard. I convinced him to come and look at my Cobra body as it was not one that he had seen or worked on in the past. Eventually he came to my garage, spent 5 minutes walking round the body and then exclaimed “I want to paint this car !”. Talking with him later he described the Gardner Douglas as quite simply the very best piece of glass and composite work he has come across.

The colour I chose was an old Corvette colour from the 80’s Monterey Red . Being an absolute disaster at choosing colours for either home or car, I was a bit concerned if it would work - that is until I saw the end result of Matts efforts. Quite stunning….

After trailering the body back to my garage I spend a day spraying and painting the underside with Wurths anti chip under seal. Great product that sprays or rolls on very thin & adds minimal weight and lasts forever. First job in reassembling the body

was to finish up the doors and locate the two stage bear claw locks, the intrusion bars, the release mechanism and handle…

Body and chassis just about finished so it was time to lay out the front and rear wiring harnesses, the dash loom and the engine and ECU loom and check out every circuit. I have to introduce a switch and couple of shunt resistors to enable the driver to ‘dim the dash lights’. Why one needs that facility when the Smiths instrument are fitted with 2 Watt peanut bulbs is beyond me. I also had to install an electronic ignition immobiliser that met Australian and NZ design rules.

Every circuit was checked out, not a single fault was found so I have to admit that the few ‘issues’ we encountered later on were purely down to my making bad connections or knocking the odd wire out of place.

This is the car with all the wiring, lights, horn , dash, instruments and fuel system all wired jury rigged so that I could do an engine start and function check out every single circuit and instrument before placing the body onto the chassis - any problems were going to be much easier to figure out and correct at this stage rather than later on the assembled car.

Once all the wiring was checked out the engine management system was connected up and the whole harness system laid out on the car - it looks a pretty complicated mess but in fact is quite a simple layout

With the windscreen in place it was time to start running the hydraulic and electrical life support lines around the engine bay. With the radiators tied back to provide maximum space the chassis and body are ready to be fitted together..

The main harness was run through the bulkhead and the various washer and hydraulic reservoirs fixed into place around the firewall

I decided to fit the bonnet before lifting the body - Simply this made the job much easier than doing it after the body was sat on the chassis.

In Western Australia direct sun is guaranteed to make most normal glues soften so I knew I needed something special when gluing in the carpets and tunnel/ rear bulkhead covers.

I tracked down a very helpful car and boat trimmer who came up with some Western Australian specific glues that remain stable at very high temperature but also retain the ability to peel off when required.

Fitting the door cards was the last items to complete the interior.

The dash was left uncovered for the ‘registration’ checks as I needed to do a couple of alterations after registration.

With the car finished it was off to the ‘pits’ to have the Australian equivalent if the IVA completed. All did not go smoothly, as one learns to expect with the system here. Being the very first car of its type in Australia it was subject to very close scrutiny. Its construction is very different from the local /Australian/USA Cobra market offerings so the road was never going to be easy. I had to return for a re-check having completed a number of ‘actions’ and complied a large amount of design and construction data.

Armed with my ‘rego’ document I was straight off to the licensing office to grab the number plate I wanted and then start driving and enjoying the car.