Cobra RADSPEED Driver – Key Takeaways

For 2021, Cobra is introducing three RADSPEED models. Low spin and forgiveness are key elements of all three designs. The retail price is $449 with full availability beginning Jan. 29, 2021.

If we’re going to wrap our heads around the story behind the new Cobra RADSPEED Driver family, we’re going to need to establish a basic understanding of where the name comes from.

“Speed” is because it’s fast. Every driver is fast. But even if we all know it, there remains a compulsion to say it.

“RAD” is an obvious play on 1980s’ slang. In that context. it’s short for “radical” which I suppose could apply to Cobra’s weighting strategy across the RADSPEED lineup – though that’s not it entirely.

The RADSPEED name itself is meant to be both memorable and fun in much the same way as Rocketballz and Big Bertha were for TaylorMade and Callaway. That’s some of it but far from all of it.

The RAD in Cobra’s RADSPEED is actually short for Radius of Gyration.

Radius of What?

In a normal year, it would almost be PGA Merchandise Show time so I’ll forgiving the Orlando contingent for thinking that Radius of Gyration describes the minimum distance from the talent at Rachel’s Men’s Club and Steakhouse — at which it’s not entirely hygienically unsound to eat your steak dinner.

Yup. That’s my second Rachel’s reference this year. 2020 has been a struggle for all of us. I won’t apologize.

That said, it’s probably best we consult with our friend at Merriam-Webster for this one.

Radius of Gyration: The radius of a cylindrical surface coaxial with the axis of rotation of a body such that if the entire mass of the body were concentrated in that surface the moment of inertia and energy of rotation would be unchanged

Or not …

Radius of Gyration for Dummies

Let’s see if we can simplify this a bit.

In this context, the radius of gyration can be thought of as the maximum distance away from the center of the clubhead’s center of gravity where Cobra engineers were able to position weight in a way that actually improves performance.

The idea is to push significant chunks of mass away from the center of gravity to create distinct performance differentiation between RADSPEED models.

To be sure, this whole “radius of gyration” thing is fresh language around what golf club engineers have been doing for years. Moving weight to the perimeter isn’t exactly new thinking. In that respect, RADSPEED is an evolutionary product but it also serves to reinforce Cobra’s position as the leader in low center of gravity engineering.

To every extent that PING is a back CG, high MOI company, Cobra is a low CG brand. That’s core to every driver design philosophy and there’s no deviation within the flagship line.

You can go back at least as far as FLY-Z to find Cobra talking about pushing centers of gravity low. LTD and, to an even greater extent, LTD Pro pushed the idea of low CG into uncharted territory. The goal is to get more speed and lower spin while trading away as little forgiveness as possible.

Through several years of progressions – Fs 6 through 9, SpeedZone and now RADSPEED – the engineering philosophy hasn’t changed. It’s who Cobra is.

So, as we move forward, keep in mind that while the goal of the RADSPEED lineup is to provide three discrete performance options, low CG (relative to its competitors) is an integral to each of the designs.

Cobra RADSPEED Drivers – What They Have in Common

Before we get to what separates Cobra’s RADSPEED, RADSPEED XB and RADSPEED XD, let’s quickly run through what the three models have in common.

T-Bar Chassis

Cobra RADSPEED drivers feature a refined version of the T-Bar (think T-top Trans Am) chassis construction that was integral to the SpeedZone design.

It’s seven grams lighter than the original version. The two-piece thin-ply carbon-wrap body and crown pieces have also been refined, saving another six grams relative to SpeedZone.

We’ll talk about what Cobra did with that extra 13 grams in a bit.

CNC Milled Infinity Face

The CNC milled face has become a signature feature of Cobra’s drivers and that’s not changing with RADSPEED. Cobra’s position is that milling allows for more precise tolerances.

Ultimately, that leads to more consistency from part to part. Not only does that get you more reliable CT (speed), it gets you bulge-and-roll radii (a contributing factor to both accuracy and launch and spin consistency) that are consistently closer to the actual design spec than what you get from hand polishing.

Again, “polishing” is a euphemism for “grinding”.

The milling pattern on the face has been updated. We can haggle over whether it looks cooler but the changes this time were purposeful. The tweaks help with moisture management by better channeling water away from the intended hitting area.

Radial Weight Pads

Cobra has taken its weight savings and reallocated it to fixed weight pads low in the head of the three models. While the amount and position of mass varies by model, in each case, the pads serve to drive the center of gravity low.

New Colorways

The black and yellow colorway from SpeedBack and SpeedZone has been replaced – mostly. The new Turbo Yellow/Black combo retains a hint of yellow but brings more of a neon vibe. If you think it’s reminiscent of Nike’s Volt, I’m certainly not going to argue with you.

For what it’s worth, Turbo Yellow, and I suppose what still qualifies as Avalanche White, are basically accent colors. The black finish depends on the driver model. It’s matte black in the standard RADSPEED Driver and gloss black in the RAD XB and RAD XD.

The secondary colorway for RADSPEED is Matte Peacoat/Arsenal Red. It’s a palette reminiscent of the Limited Edition US Open 4th of July SpeedZone offering.

It’s been a few generations since Cobra gave me a blue one so I’m more than happy to see it return to the retail lineup. Besides, I’ve got a closet full of navy blue peacoat shirts (and pants…and jackets) so, yeah, score one for color coordination.

With that out of the way, let’s look at how the three RADSPEED models differ.

Cobra RADSPEED Driver

If you’ve been away from Cobra drivers for a while, the thing to know is that the standard RADSPEED is what once upon a time would have been called the Plus model.

With flippable weights in the front and rear, it’s the most adjustable of Cobra’s RADSPEED drivers but understand that in either configuration, RADSPEED should shake out as one of the lower-spinning drivers on the market in 2021.

It features twin eight-gram radial weight pads in the front along with swappable flip weights. What’s notable with RADSPEED is that a heavier 12-gram weight is factory installed in the front with the lighter two-gram weight in the back. That should give you a sense of how serious Cobra is about positioning RADSPEED as a low-spin driver.

 

According to Cobra, all other things being equal, RADSPEED should deliver 300 rpm less spin than SpeedZone.

A single eight-gram weight is anchored at the back and while that does counterbalance the front weights to a degree, it allows Cobra to steal back some forgiveness without raising the center of gravity significantly.

Cobra RADSPEED Driver Trajectory and Forgiveness

The laws of physics being immutable, the rules for what happens when you flip the weights haven’t changed. The front setting will be a little faster, lower spinning and should produce a flatter trajectory. The back setting is going launch a bit higher, spin a bit more and give you some additional forgiveness.

With the heavy weight in the rear, ball flight should be neutral. The front weight position is slightly fade-biased.

Compared to SpeedZone, the center of gravity in both positions is a bit lower and a bit farther back. That puts the forward position somewhere between F6+ (how bad did that one sound?) in the middle of its range and the LTD. If you’re looking for a low spin that retains a sensible amount of forgiveness, that’s pretty much the sweet spot.

The Cobra RADSPEED Driver is available in nine and 10.5 degrees with an additional 1.5 degrees of adjustability at the hosel. The stock length is 45.5 inches. A 44.5-inch Tour Length option is available through custom order.

Cobra RADSPEED XB Driver

The RADSPEED XB is the replacement for the SpeedZone Xtreme. Xtreme started the year as kind of a sleeper driver but as the year went on, it woke up and made a lot of noise to the point where it should be a part of any sensible “driver of the year” discussion.

Point being, Cobra set a reasonably high bar for itself. With RADSPEED XB, it’s trying to gyrate itself to the next level.

XB, which presumably stands for Xtreme Back (weighting), is Cobra’s higher MOI offering. That shouldn’t suggest uber-high MOI like you’d get from a PING G400 MAX or PXG 0811XF. That’s not Cobra’s sandbox. Because low CG is the driving force in Cobra’s driver engineering philosophy, the company’s MOI numbers are never going to be as high as some of its competitors.

In fact, RADSPEED XB’s MOI is actually a bit lower than SpeedZone Xtreme. That might sound like a negative but the modest drop is more than offset by the lower center of gravity.

CG depth and MOI don’t move on the same scale so if you’re asking if you should give up a couple hundred points or so worth of MOI for a center of gravity that’s one millimeter lower, I’d tell you it’s worth considering.

Cobra RADSPEED XB Weighting

RADSPEED XB’s RAD(ial) weighting comes by way of a pair of four-gram weights in the front and a fixed 20-gram weight along with a swing weight tunable six-gram weight in the back.

All of that leaves you with a driver that sits about 1.5 millimeters above the neutral axis with an MOI value somewhere in the 5,400 ballpark. I don’t expect everyone to understand those numbers in their full context so, first and foremost, understand that RADSPEED XB is the most forgiving of Cobra’s new drivers.

It should also be mentioned that, while many make the claim, the Cobra RADSPEED XB is the rare driver that actually fits within any legitimate definition of both low spin and forgiveness.

Cobra’s data suggests XB will spin about 150 rpm less than SpeedZone Xtreme and when all the other parts come together, is up to four yards longer.

The Cobra RADSPEED XB is available in nine, 10.5 and 12 degrees. Another 1.5 degrees of adjustability is provided by the hosel. The stock length is 46 inches. A 44.5-inch Tour Length offering is available through custom order.

Women’s versions are available in 10.5 and 12 degrees.

Cobra RADSPEED XD Driver

It’s commonplace for big manufacturers to offer three distinct models within their flagship lineups. With entry-level models not a thing anymore, performance has become the exclusive line of demarcation between the various models. That works to the benefit of golfers – particularly those who make the effort to get fitted.

The leaders in the driver market have settled on dedicated, anti-slice, draw-biased drivers as a means to reach a broader audience. PING has the G410 SFT, TaylorMade and Callaway have SIM and Mavrik Max, respectively – and while, thus far anyway, Titleist has stubbornly refused to join the slice-killing party, it only makes sense that Cobra would opt in.

RADSPEED XD is your new eXtreme Draw option.

To be sure, with FMAX, Cobra already has a draw-biased offering but the Cobra RADSPEED XD is the company’s first-ever dedicated draw-biased model in its flagship lineup (though I’d be remiss not to mention that F7’s weights could be configured in a draw-biased orientation).

Cobra RADSPEED XD Weighting

Like the Cobra RADSPEED XB, the RADSPEED XD offers a pair of fixed four-gram weights in the front. The fixed rear weight pad is eight grams. Like the XB, the swing weight tunable port is outfitted with a six-gram weight.

The differentiating feature of the weight configuration is a 10-gram weight pad fixed in the heel. It’s a good bit of where RADSPEED XD’s slice correction comes from.

In Cobra’s consumer testing, it found that RADSPEED XD provides nine more yards of draw relative to its F-MAX. It remains to be seen how RADSPEED XD will stack up against PING’s G410 (and soon-to-be G425) SFT. We consider that to be the industry benchmark for slice correction. At a minimum, with RADSPEED XB Cobra has inserted itself into the anti-slice conversation.

Anti-Slice + Forgiveness?

One of the ongoing misconceptions about draw-biased drivers is that they’re more forgiving than standard (neutral bias) drivers. That’s almost invariably not the case. Creating draw bias requires moving weight into the heel. The heel being more forward than the rear of the driver, MOI numbers are lower in draw-biased drivers.

You can have extreme forgiveness (MOI) or you can have extreme draw-biased slice correction but you can’t have both.

Again … immutable laws of physics and whatnot.

That’s not to suggest a brutally unforgiving driver. In terms of MOI, the RADSPEED XD sits almost exactly between RADSPEED with the heavy weight in the front and the RADSPEED XB. That’s still pretty damned good.

Toss in a center of gravity that’s lower than what you’d find in the typical anti-slice driver and you’ve got what, on paper anyway, looks like a serious performer for golfers with a serious slice problem.

The Cobra RADSPEED XD is available in 10.5 and 12 degrees. An additional 1.5 degrees of adjustability is provided at the hosel. The stock length is 46 inches.

Women’s versions are also available.

Cobra RADSPEED Stock Shafts

Cobra’s stock for the RADSPEED lineup looks like this:

High Launch/Mid Spin: Project X EvenFlow Riptide Blue Mid Launch/Mid Spin: Fujikura Motore F3 Mid Launch/Low Spin: ProjectX HZRDUS RDX Smoke Low Launch/Low Spin: Fujikura Motore F1

Options vary by head model and shaft flex, so here’s your matrix.

Cobra RADSPEED Pricing and Availability

Pre-sale for the Cobra RADSPEED family of drivers begins on Jan. 15, 2021. Full retail availability starts two weeks later.

The retail price is $449. It’s hard to argue $449 is any sort of a bargain but it’s notable that Cobra remains priced $50 below most competitor offerings. That’s the best value in the mainstream market though I’d be remiss not to share that SpeedZone drivers are on closeout for $349.

A RADSPEED junior model is also available for $349.

RADSPEED Fairways and Hybrids, as well as RADSPEED Irons are also available.

For more information, visit CobraGolf.com.

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