I purchased my Contemporary CCX-3-3408 in April of this year from the second owner who lives nearby in Irvine, California. He said and I believe its true, that the car was professionally built by some shop in Arizona as the car has an Assigned Identification Number, issue by Arizona affixed to the front frame. The car is currently registered as a "1965 Ford" with the California DMV. Appears to have a built 350 Chevy (angled plug heads, aluminum Bowtie intake, Edlebrock 4 bbl, headers with sidepipes) which runs extremely strong. Dual remote
oil filters mounted behind the front cross member. The rear gears are extremely steep at about 4:11, Jag XKE series 1 front and rear suspension, Muncie 4 speed with the correct reverse angled mustang shifter, white body with the twin darker blue racing stripes.
When I purchased it, it was in serious need of complete maintenance with numerous water, fuel and
oil leaks. After replacing all the hoses and fabricating the copper intermediate pipe, lower water hose connection, tightening up the front timing cover and
oil pan bolts and replacing a fuel line I was all set. Also had a serious front end shimmy that I ultimately traced down to two slightly bent front wheels (of course only after replacing all tires and rebuilding the front suspension!).
My daily driver is a 2001 Z06 and I have owned numerous other high performance cars ranging from a 1967 427 Vette that I did a complete frame off restoration on to a 911 Porsche, Miata, Firebird Formula, BMW M3, MGB, '67 Nova Super Sport among many others and to be truthful this just might be the one car I keep for the rest of my life as I truly enjoy it that much. This is the best compromise yet for a true, traditional open sports car with muscle car performance. Finally after vacilating all my life between sports cars and muscle cars I found the best compromise!
Next steps I'm considering include converting to a street 427 Cobra version with under car exhaust, getting rid of the racing stripes and sidepipes. I was originally going for an ERA kit and had accumulated all the parts to make a nasty, original 428 Cobra Jet motor, with a low riser and dual Holleys but this damn small block Chevy runs so sweet and strong the 428 and parts are collecting dust in my garage! Contemporary truly makes (made?) an exceptional, original cobra replica. When those Superformance guys give me trouble I tell them "Let's compare convertible tops". Contemporary's convertible top and sliding windows is much more closer to the original Cobra far and away and frankly is not an embarrassment to be seen in like the Superformance version. Maybe that's why they never put the top up on them?