Hi Graham,
This is my first post on this forum so you could call me a newby but your post has brought me out to say some things.
Making a decision on which way to go is always a bit of an issue and I look back on my own experience and where I have come from in the 2 years since I made the decision to build a Cobra and if you are interested in the ramblings and mental state of an aging devotee you are quite welcome to go to a blog I created just for the purpose and see the chops and changes I made to my thinkingin the lead up to laying down some cash.
Cobra Dreaming
The amount of research that I carried out put me in a position to determine just what I wanted to achieve and how I was going to do it
I got a first hand insight to the Pace 427 at the Cobra Nats last year and was able to speak not only to Craig White (Pace owner) but to Brad who is in the final stages of a Pace construction and several other interested lookers on and I was mightily impressed with what was on offer and the comments recieved. I had determined that I did not want to spend my days running around wrecking yards and found that Pace offered me exactly what I was looking for, they will supply all the components to what ever level I want to build the car.
Prior to seeing the car in the flesh I has been communicating with Pace for some months just asking questions and getting answers, sometimes at midnight and a multitude of photos of the body, chassis and other parts started to roll in.
I had looked at various other manufactures and was impressed with all of them and what they are doing but my decision to go with Pace was the completeness of the component list and the ease of the build and also the fact that it was unique so straight after the Nats I placed a deposit to get in the que.
As madT2007 said, do youself a favor and visit the factory. I did this in late November and got the cooks tour and walked away after completing build sheet No. 27 absolutely convinced that my research that also included the opinions of Victorian Cobra Club members had steered me in the right direction.
All my communication with Pace outside of meeting face to face has been via email and the response has alway been with in a very acceptable limit.
As others on this post have indicated, the negativity is coming from a souce that is obviously a little upset and he may well be justified, that is not for me to judge however, I wanted to tell you my experience with Pace has been a good one so far and nothing seems to be too much trouble. We have set a delivery for March but the more important criteria is that the order is complete on the day the car is picked up and yes, I am getting for that day.
I wish you well in your decision which ever way it may be but work out what you want to do then set a budget, double it and multiply by 10 and you should be ready to go.
Cheers
Russell