I can't fill you in on the 'history' of Robnell, but can provide a little insight from a prospective customer. Back in '89 I made several enquiries and went to Melbourne to visit the factory. Rob was much the entrepenurial guy, going 20 to the dozen, pitching the sale and very passionate about his venture, all this without any arrogance.
He showed me around the workshop explaining the process and different options. He was just introducing the billet arms for the Jag rear and had a car in production with these fitted. He left me to wander around at my own pace and I marveled at all that was around me, Cobra heaven.
Then came the icing on the cake; a blast in the 429. Now mind you this was my first ride in a Cobra, in fact only the second ever I had even seen. The first being the RMC factory pace car at Wannaroo Raceway (Barbagello).
The Factory was at Bayswater North in an industrial/comercial estate. We wound our way out of there on to the main duel carrigeway to a set of traffic lights. The lights went green and my grin just widened exponentially. The roar of the side pipes and the accelleration just phenomenal.
Rob explained he was in the process of achieving low volume compliance on the two models and as such discouraged anyone purchasing kits varying from his specification, so there would not be any second rate Robnell's out there draging the name down. As part of this strategy, the sale of kits was to be ceased as they were primarily a means of financing the compliance process. As we all know the costly battle with constant changes in ADR's may have been one of the factors that that saw their demise. He had such a vision about the direction of of his company, that my visit was actually an interview in determining if I could build the car to his standard. At the time the future wife was hounding me about buying a house, and I figured it would be a too long build time for me to finance what I calculated at the time, to be a build cost in the region of $50k. A lot of money in '89 when our first house was just $110k. Still kicking myself for not getting at least the starter kit, as when I bought my G-Force I still didn't get a start on it for over 4 years.
Below is the glossy brochure and if it will fit, the price list from '89.
