“I thought it was stupid to have a 1918 taxicab engine in what Europeans like to call a performance car when a little American V-8 could do the job better.”—Carroll Shelby

Is there a more iconic number in the automotive world than 427?

Especially when combined with the words Shelby Cobra? These cars are million dollar collectibles now with one model—the first Cobra built—selling for $17.7 million dollars and it wasn’t a 427! A 1966 Super Snake 427 sold for $5.5 million dollars. So if you want to own a 427 Cobra and are not a billionaire, you’re going to want to look at replicas.

The Kirkham Motorsports 427 KMS/SC is different than most Cobra replicas because its body is made from aluminum instead of fiberglass as many replicas are. At a previous SEMA show, where I photographed it, the car above was displayed with no paint, just its polished aluminum skin and if you look close enough you’ll see that a racing stripe has been etched into the metal—all of which only made getting the exposure a little trickier than normal.

How I made this shot: I photographed the Kirkham Motorsports roadster using a Canon EOS 50D with now discontinued EF 22-55mm f/4–5.6 USM lens that produces a 35-88mm equivalent angle of view. Bracketing in one-third stop increments, the best shot (at least the one you see here) had an exposure of 1/100 sec at f/6.3 and ISO 800, which was one-third stop less than a “normal” exposure.

Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography that’s now out-of-print but new trade paperback copies are available from Amazon for $21.50, with used copies starting around five two bucks, as I write this. For reasons I don’t understand, the Kindle version varies in price.

From Jamie Zartman, Grand Junction, Colorado

The photo was taken with my old Panasonic LX5, during the annual Ferrari Club street fundraiser show in Naples, Florida, that’s held every mid-February. The light was dappled and harsh and I only had a second or two to grab the shot before people would have walked into the frame.

This was long before I learned to shot how to RAW, or even aperture priority (just used the very dependable iA mode). With its f/2.0-3.3 lens, the Panasonic LX5 always delivered excellent JPEG’s.

The photo was taken at 1/400 sec at f/4 and ISO 80 using the small, 1/1.65-sized sensor. I feel the cafe scene behind the Cobra was a good backdrop, and it was only later that I realized the waiter’s shirt directed by the umbrella, said HEMI in large letters. The photo is slightly cropped and was converted more recently to black and white using the now free Silver Efex Pro.