Post-Cold War Cobras; Former MiG builders in Poland crank out Cobras even Shelby can love.(Brief Article)

When we last visited Utah's Mormon-raised, Cobra-crazed Kirkham brothers, David and Thomas, they were beavering away in a former Eastern bloc defense factory in Poland, trying to build aeronautically engineered 427 Shelby Cobra replicas with the help of workers who used to turn out three Soviet MiG fighters per day (June 17, 1996).

Quite a bit has happened since then. With cooperation from the Polish government, Kirkham Motorsports' production facility in Mielec, Poland, is humming along, staffed by former MiG builders, as well as retirees who are passing their Old World skills on to younger workers, including apprentices from the local high school. To date, Dave Kirkham reports, the company has produced some 250 cars, including 100 frames and bodies sold directly to Shelby American in the past year (ironic, considering Carroll Shelby originally doubted anyone would prefer buying a Cobra from ``some guy who goes off to Poland'' to build them).

The 40-employee factory in Poland builds the bodies and frames; another 10 workers at Kirkham Motorsports in Provo, Utah, finish machining of parts and assembly of cars. The completed cars, sans engine and transmission, sell for $59,900. The car is also getting better, with lighter, stronger parts forged from aircraft-grade aluminum replacing a number of cast-steel components in the original Cobra.

``One of the miracles of [computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing] and computerized machinery is the ability to make just about anything out of a billet of aluminum,'' says Kirkham.

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