Wow guys ... quite a thread!
Well, I don't have any Cobra stories yet ( my ERA is still under construction
) but I do have an observation.
I think many on this forum would agree, one of the greatest car collectors of all time was Bill Harrah. For any of you that went through his collection (as I did in the early '70's) before it was broken up, can attest to the amazing quality and quantity of the cars ... all of them as best I know were 'stock' and operational. Evidently Harrah was a stickler for having each car correct.
Some of the collection still exists at the National Automobile Museum and what really caught my eye when I visited a few years ago was one of Harrah's personal cars, the 1977 Jerrari Wagoneer. He also had a Lincoln with a Chrysler motor in it, if I recall correctly.
So here is someone that clearly knows cars, can have pretty much any car in the world and chooses to have some one of a kind cars. In a similar fashion, Jay Leno certainly knows automobiles too and he has a few 'different' cars as well (the Leno Toronado for example), along with his 'correct' cars.
What's the point ... people like what they like, and sometimes the more knowledgeable the person, the more unusual the car.
Just my .02
