[mrmustang]

Welcome the latest addition to our garage. ERA 2080,originally built in 2002 by our own Robert "Grumpy" McLinden (RIP). Painted in a 2002 Subaru white pearl with what appears to be a Root beer metallic stripe, almost all ERA options, top, heater, wipers, including comp rear, except Wilton wool carpet. A good friend (Tom L.) in the northwest had made plans to purchase the car, but had to sell his existing cobra first, unfortunately, the buyer of his car passed away a few days before the deal could be consummated. With Ron the seller of the FIA, here in SC was moving to Arizona, and had a short time to either make arrangements to ship the car, or sell it to someone else. Tom reached out to me, told me what had happened,and to see if I knew anyone who might be looking. I then reached out to Ron (who I had spoken with last August or September before I bought my SPF 289 roadster) and offered myself as an emergency out if he could not find another buyer (he had quite a bit of interest in a short time, with one post on facebook). Fast forward to this past Thursday afternoon, when I surprisingly receive a PM asking "when would you like to pick up the car". With the movers coming at 10am this past Saturday, I showed up at 7:15am as his short and long distance potential buyers could not make the deal happen in his timeline.The whole ride down I kept thinking that I was out of my mind, was really was not looking to purchase anything automotive related, as my garage space was almost at a premium, the other side of my brain (with coffee now waking it up) was thinking, it's only 2.5 hours from the house, it's too good to pass up. Sight unseen, and fully committed already, I was further thinking it was a project car needing work, and I could use a non honey-do project to work on this spring. Once I arrived, a brief review of the car, dusty, a little dirty, could not even tell the car was white pearl,at this point, I thought it was just Wimbledon White. Even after stopping for gas on the way back (directly across the street from the only SPF dealer in SC, go figure), I still was second guessing my purchase. Truth be told now, after a really good cleaning, inside and out, I find the car to be well kept by it's two previous owners, and is in fairly good shape given it's 20 years old. A few paint chips here and there, a section of the upper passenger seat material cracked, nothing serious so far. Three days in, and it has yet to mark it's spot in the garage. Fires right up, and after a few minutes of warm up (no choke), idles quite nicely. Plate and insurance now on the car, only had a few minutes for a brief 3 mile ride to the gas station yesterday. Tight as any of my other ERA's, even after all these years. Will most likely pull the wheels and start my usual (anal) tech inspection later this week, fix anything I may find, then take it out for a longer ride.

SWMBO has already made the comment of "his and hers" Cobra replicas, I wonder which one will be her first to actually drive .

Bill S.