[Dirty Harry]

I was always "Ford crazy" as a youngster, just because everybody else liked GM's. As I got older and became aware of the Cobra and CS's successes, this car intrigued me more and more. Alas, though, marriage and kids intervened and my job is a low-paying one and the dream seemed impossible.

Just the same, I subscribed to Kit Car magazine and dreamed about the Cobra I didn't think I could ever have. I thought that a kit was such a great idea because any numbskull with money can have anything he wants, but could I really build a car myself?

Financially, I just couldn't see my way clear on a state trooper's salary. With my wife's urging, I decided to go for it, though, and get a second job.

I ordered a complete kit from a (still existing) company. The salesman said that he wanted to make sure that I didn't get cold feet and back out. He sent a Fed Ex truck by my house to pick up my deposit check for $2500. The next week, the company went bankrupt. I was out $2500 and hugely depressed.

Again, my wife urged me to forge ahead. I placed an order with Shell Valley with the agreement that they would get no money from me until the kit was loaded on my trailer. Reluctantly, they agreed, and that's how we did the deal.

I refereed high school basketball, mowed lawns, baled hay and worked as a security guard so that the family would not feel the pinch of me chasing my dream. The whole project came from my outside income.

The result is a nice looking, though unspectacular, Cobra replica that runs great, is very dependable, and gives me a great deal of enjoyment. It is the first car I ever built. My skills and tools are now much better, and I'd like to do it again, this time not repeating any of my earlier mistakes.

By the way, the company is back in business and doing OK, I guess, but I never got anything but dumped on. Just a "Classic" lesson in caveat emptor, I guess.