[marksar]

Ok, sorry I haven’t had a chance to respond guys so this is gonna be long. Let me start off by debunking some theories. The guy that was selling it (and yes I did end up buying the car) was 70 years old. He didn’t have pictures on his computer to send (this was his second time using Craigslist) and he didn’t know how to send a picture in a text message, lol! He offered to mail me pictures but I live 20 minutes away so just I chuckled and headed over there. He is an enthusiast, not a builder, so he doesn’t know all the mechanical ins and outs of the car to begin with. He wanted the ‘true cobra experience’ so that’s why he went with the Contemporary, it’s the closest to the real deal. Now that he is getting up there the Cobra wasn’t being used as much as his ’04 Viper GTS so that was why he decided to let it go; so someone else could enjoy it. I talked to Nick (thanks for the recommendation he was a very helpful guy and I will for sure use give him my business in the future) and he said if I didn’t get it to let him know because he knows a lot of people that would.
Now the car is by no means ‘restored.’ It’s a driver for sure, but hell I’m an E-5 in the Air Force so Im not making 40k+ toy money to begin with. It does have the torsion bar front suspension on it and he replaced all the bushings on the front and rear end along with all the shocks and some of the brake lines. Mechanically the car is now very sound. When he got the car it had a piece of junk Ranchero engine in it and he replaced it with the 392 stroker because it put out similar hp/torque numbers to the original Cobras and that is what he wanted.
The car never had knock offs to begin with. It started life with bolt on ‘turbine style’ wheels similar to, but not exactly like, those on the Fox body mustangs. It also was built with a 350 Chevy, thank God that is gone or else I would never have gone to look at it in the first place.
Some of the bad things: he put too many covers over the car last winter and the paint couldn’t breathe and moisture got trapped in there. So the trunk looks like it has herpes on it along with the tops of the doors. Im going to put a new wiring harness in it this winter, the one in there now has been shade tree mechanic’d to hell, looks like garbage, and I think it would take longer to figure it out than just replace it.
Some of the nice things I got with the car were all the extras: Hard top, soft top never used, tonneau cover, both sets of side curtains, TWO sets of wheels and tires (the billet torque thrusts and bolt on Hallibrands.) The other REALLY nice thing that kinda tipped me over to buy the car was the solid history and documentation he had. He had everything; the original builder’s manual that has the original builders notes written throughout it, the names of all the owners, a picture of the car when it was first completed, and he even has photo copies of the ‘For Sale’ ads from Hemmings when it was first sold in 1993 and the original ripped out of Hemmings when he bought it in 2010. The paint and wiring I can fix, but in my honest opinion the history and documentation of any car is priceless. Well I gotta go get my wife and hope she doesn’t get too mad when I pull up. Will try to get pics up later!