The Scientist in me compels me to add my viewpoints to this discussion.
There is always lot's of back and forth; between replica owners and CSX owners, and between CSX/MKIV/SPF/K/FFR/ERA owners and the general public/car show spectators; and it all orbits around the term "real".
Real? Really? How many times has the word "real" been tossed out in this thread alone?
"Is it real?"
When this question is asked, the inquirer is actually asking: "Is your car an authentic, genuine 1962-1967 Shelby Cobra with an aluminum body, and a CSX2x or CSX3x serial number?"
- However, most people are not adroit enough about Cobras (nor the english language, for that matter) to frame their question in such non-ambiguous terms (This aspect of humanity's linguistic laziness, or ignorance, is why Lawyers thrive...
)
Because let's face it: If they are asking, then what they are probably wondering about is:
A) Whether your car has a racing or other significant historical background to it, and
B) They are probably concurrently wondering if you happen to be one of those mythical "rich people", who live in some alternate dimension where spending 400k+ dollars on an automobile is as "normal" as running down to the local Home Depot to purchase a new lawn mower is, for them...
To the pragmatic question "Is your Shelby Cobra real?", there is only one valid binary response: Yes, or No.... It either has a CSX2x/CSX3x serial number, or it doesn't...
Or, it could have a COB or COX serial number and be rightly called an "AC Cobra"
It all boils down to questions of authenticity, and genuine-ness.
I just wanted to throw my 2 cents out there about the term "real" being used to differentiate something that ALL of our cars qualify as... They're all real.
Are they all Genuine? Sure - Some are Genuine and authentic 1960-something Shelby Cobras, a few are "asterisked" as Shelby "Continuation" cars, which still makes them "genuine" as
Shelby's, but still not nearly as "authentic" as a CSX2x or CSX3x car; some cars are genuine COB/COX AC Cobras, some are genuine AC/Autokraft Mark IV's (I concur that the case could be made that the AC/Autokraft Mark IV is also a replica, since it exhibits the body contours that were designed into the "original" Cobras by Shelby, not by AC)
All the rest are genuine "Kit Cars" (Sorry to offend all you Aluminum Kirkham guys, and ditto to all you "Carrol Shelby endorsed" SPF guys- Your cars are kits, according to the US EPA and the legal system...
)
The Blowhards will argue about Shelby endorsements, fiberglass versus aluminum bodies , round tube versus square tube, and all other manner of "Blah Blah Blah" in an attempt to alter your OBSERVATION of what their car REALLY is... It's still a kit.
Kit Car: - An incomplete, or partially assembled automotive chassis & body assembly, lacking a powertrain, and unable to leave the factory of manufacture under it's own power; and therefore not illustrative of the term: "Automobile"
Whether your Kit car left it's factory as a "complete rolling assembly", or whether it arrived at your house as boxes of parts- It was incomplete until someone installed a powertrain, wired it up, and make it go "vroom" for the first time.
Carrol Shelby's endorsement of your car does not make it any less of a kit - Not a single genuine, authentic Shelby Cobra was ever built in either Utah, or South Africa.
Ahhhh... and about that term: "Kit car" - We all know that in the actual world, many people at car shows lean on that term as a perjorative, as if your car were sitting on a plywood and 2x4 "chassis", and could come apart into a heap of scrap at any moment, and that you, as the owner of such obviously
synthetic, Cobra wannabe garbage, are clearly a 2nd-rate Poser.
I refuse to descend into discussions born out of hubristic class-segregation and who's better than whom, based on the cars that they own
Or, maybe they toss it about as if your car is a "counterfeit" Shelby Cobra (a viewpoint not legally shared by the US Patent and Trademark Office, since the matter was legally discussed, and legally settled, in 2010; and Shelby, unfortunately, lost) - See the excerpt of the legal ruling in the posts above.
When people ask me "Is it a kit?" My canned response is "It's a Classic Roadsters car, yes" and if they are interested, I then take the opportunity to explain the dimensional differences, the chassis engineering differences, and why the deeper foot-wells, and the lower cost of ownership, appeal to me, etc...
So, you can have your "reality" (as defined by Shelby, and the US legal system) - But only as long as you respect my right to exist in
my reality, where I enjoy my fake, fiberglass, 2nd rate, middle class, wannabe poser car, in peace...