[Russ Dickey]

What Keith Martin needs to realize is that given the choice, most of us would probably own originals if we could afford them. But since I'll probably NEVER be able to afford an original Cobra, a replica is my only outlet for "living the dream".

I will say that there is a bad stigma surrounding "kit cars", and what most people don't realize is that the majority of Cobra replicas and continuation cars are actually better-engineered (in most cases) than the originals. New suspension, brake, chassis, engine, and transmission technology has allowed for this. I've also met people that were like "Yeah, but your car was assembled by hand in somebody's garage", saying it like that's a bad thing. I remind them that the originals weren't done much differently, as they were also hand-assembled cars, just like ours are, in what amounted to a small shop in LA.

I think people still associate the word "kit car" with taking the body off of a Fiero, and replacing it with a crappy look-alike body of a Ferrari or Lambo. I call this "Bradley GT" syndrome. I've actually met people at car shows that think the whole premise behind the Factory Five "Donor Car" program is that you take the body off of an '87-93 Mustang, and drop a Cobra body on!!

I must admit, and this is probably my Cobra-snobbery showing through, that I don't have the same respect for other non-Cobra models of kit cars, because I've never seen one or riden in one that was engineered for sh*t. They were all junk.

I think the Cobra replica market has been engineered over the past 25 years to be superior to the majority of other replicas. However, I think that a lot of folks, including Mr. Martin, still lump our Cobras in with those damn Bradley GT's.

Russ