I will throw my hat in the ring on this one and just give you my thought. I'm 29 years old and 50% of my friends I've asked love the cobras and 50% think they are stupid and way to expensive for a "fake" and would rather have a 68 Camaro or newer Z06, GT500 ect. Personally I really like them.....so yesterday I was lucky enough to catch a ride for about 20 miles of freeway riding in a SPF with a 427 stroker. My initial impression is that I want the car because it is identical to what I would build and just looks absolutely stunning. I'm just not sure about the drive train.....I like the SBF for the single point of they cam and how it sounds at idle. While cruising unless you were at 3000RPM the exhaust seemed to chop and gave me quite a bit of ear fatigue kinda a headache actually. On the other side I'm a roll on speed guy and I really couldn't tell if the 427 had enough power for me......don't get me wrong it was dangerous and fast but you know what I'm saying. It was very raw and felt seat of the pants fast but after a pull or 2 up to 100mph I'm not sure if it was much faster than my mustang but we are talking passenger seat not driving seat which is a whole other ball game when you have to be focused on driving one of these things. These are just all things that were going through my head. Your gut is telling you get a fuel injected coyote car and strap a blower on it if you want...make a 100rwhp more and get double the gas mileage.....then when the SBF fires up you go no way I have to have that idle! I think the only way to do it is almost get the car with the SBF first and then you will either love it or hate It and wish you had a modern powertrain. There will always be classics and period correct importance laid upon these cars.....the growth lies in what Vintage is doing with all the mod motors and fuel injected setups, custom options, non traditional colors.....that is what the majority of new purchases will be. I only think this because if you want a younger demographic we want superchargers, good gas mileage, outstanding performance, and we don't want to work on stuff. There aren't any big power N/A cars anymore on the market besides maybe the viper. If your a 60 year old right now pretend you grew up driving the cars of the late 90's and then turn around and see besides the "cam sound" what is appealing about a SBF that gets 10mpg. I will more than likely end up with the SBF but long term I could see myself doing something else and this will factor into my decision. Either way I have appreciation for these cars but the modern powertrains and options are something that cant be avoided with these cars. Nothing like riding in a cobra though and that alone will hopefully keep them alive. What other 2300lb roadster can you put 600hp into and go make a bunch of racket
At the end of the day younger people go what do I get for 60K so options matter more than ever....and then buying a 4K trailer and hauling it to a road course in your 65K ford F250 days are getting farther and few between. The younger people want street cars. Went to the Goodguys national show in Nashville over the weekend.....AMAZING the amount of hot rods, rat rods and just absolutely sick cars were there. The sad part was the majority of the spectating show was middle age and older people. To be fair though it all boils down to $$. I'm extremely blessed and can purchase the car that I want at this point in life.....I still have a hard time justifying the $$ thinking I could be going out and finding a built Z06 with a blower on it making 700rwhp. Just to many options these days!