Thread: Ironman Movie Car Kirkham Cobra

I bought this car in May of 2010 at the Mecum auction in Indianapolis. It was built for the Movie Ironman Staring Robert Downey Jr. Two Aluminum replicas were ordered from Kirkham motorsports by cinema vehicles. One of the cars was crushed during the filming of the movie, but the other was spared, which is the car i purchased.
All of the components on the car were junk since the car was just going to be crushed anyway. The suspension and steering were all reject components, the passenger seat was worn and old, the carpet smelled like cat urine, the gauges had no wiring, all lights were broken or defective, the dash vinyl was used, the radiator was fake, the oil cooler was busted, the sidepipes were fake with no mufflers, and the latches were all broken or heavily scarred. When i removed the gas cap it had FUBAR written on the underside. However, i knew what i was buying. The kirkham is the only aluminum cobra manufactured today. Every other replica is made of fiberglass. When Shelby isnt using Superformance bodies for his continuation series cobras, he uses aluminum bodies from Kirkham. He also buys his frames from Kirkham.
The good: The wheels, tires, windshield, driver's racing seat, and the hood latches are all nice and in good working order. Not to mention, the car has a very nice paint job.

Here is the car as i purchased at Mecum in May of 2010



And its unfortunate counterpart





Transferring car from Reliable carriers to my house.

Very cool! Can't imagine what something like that went for....

It doesn't get any better. Absolutely beautiful car, Resto. Love the blue.

Kirkham is what my dad and I are looking at right now. Looking to go 427 Cammer.

-Markus-

Old reject suspension was removed and replaced with new billet aluminum suspension from Kirkham. No coilovers were installed on the car, just metal rods to keep it at the right ride height. They also did not install a differential or halfshafts

Old Suspension







Clean Frame ready for new suspension. There was a good bit of blue overspray that had to be scrubbed off of the frame.



New front Suspension and brakes







New Rear Suspension and Brakes









Differential and Independent Rear Suspension Installed. The half axles have CV Joints.



Back on all fours after coilovers finally came in this past March.

I decided to go with an all aluminum big bore 427 FE Shelby Engine Block.







I ordered a 482 stroker kit, but ended up with a 527 stroker kit. The company i ordered it from is just about the worst place i have ever dealt with. They also royally screwed me on a set of Edelbrock heads, which i had to have fixed by Keith Craft I'll say this, if you want FE parts, dont order them from a company located in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
However, the stroker kit was still good and had a nice forged crank, although it required a lot of labor to get it balanced properly.

Engine Assembled. I had proline race engines build the shortblock and degree the cam, then i brought it home to finish the rest.







I sent the heads to Keith Craft to have larger valves installed, correct springs to match the comp cams hydraulic roller cam, and to have the heads ported.

Larger valves installed


Heads Ported





Comparison. Before i sent the heads off, the ports matched the intake manifold. The Edelbrock intake was sent off for porting as well

Fantastic buy Im a big fan of the IRON MAN movies ,great to see the COBRA rebuild thanks...

Retro fit roller lifters



Pre-fitting components for photos





T & D Shaft Mount Rockers



Modifying Quicktime Bellhousing for Hydraulic clutch arm



After



Slave system. The arm looks crooked in the picture and that is because it is. Angle was corrected before final assembly.





Billet aluminum pulleys from Kirkham




I degreed the bellhousing, which required offset dowels pins (PITA), and then i buttoned up the flywheel, clutch, and TKO 600 to the engine and installed the combo into the Kirkham.

Oh man, this is incredible! You cant stop now!

Holy shit man, that's going to be one beast of a Cobra! Very nice.

I should have the car finished in the next 2-3 weeks. Ill post pictures of the interior, fuel system, electrical, etc as i finish them.

Thanks for the nice comments. This car will most likely go up for sale after all of the bugs are worked out.