I think it was Bob Lutz who once said (loosely paraphrased)..."People don't buy watches to tell time, they buy them for the looks. I can buy a $10 Timex that keeps the same time as a Rolex." He was using this analogy to the styling on vehicles and why people didn't want to buy GM products.
Same can be said about kit cars.The Cobra is so popular because of the inherent sexiness of the body and it's timeless beauty. Yes, you'll have people buy the kit for the engineering that goes into the chassis but to make it really successful (meaning you can actually make money off it) then the looks have to draw the masses of people in so you sell more than 2 of them.
Have you thought about approaching an industry leading designer, like Camilo Pardo (Ford GT), Joe Iacono (
http://joeiacono.com/) or any other up/coming car designers to see if you could partner with them? What these guys are usually lacking is the ability to get anything more than just a design on paper or go past the body/paint work. They need someone who can design and manufacture the whole car from the ground up, allowing them to do the exterior design on your creation.