Wanabe,
Dax vary depending on year of chassis manufacture - up to early '85 (including mine
) the chassis was not actually made by DAX (only two were brought into Australia that I know of).
After that, they started playing with the design - in particular, ability to accept wider rear wheels ('85), and changed steering geometry/layout (about 3 different types - '85, '86, '88). There were quite a number brought in to Oz over that period.
Early to mid '90s John Tojeiro joined them and redesigned the chassis again. Then a couple of years ago they moved to the DeDion rear end as an option
.
There is a DAX forum on the
UK Cobra Replica Club site and you can search for threads that discuss chassis differences. In general, DAX have a good rep in the UK.
Re: 302 - have one of them. Is set-up as a "Street Boss" - Cleveland Heads, "Street Boss" manifold, mild cam, 650cfm Weber. Idles rough, but plenty of low down grunt. Estimated 330hp. Would only trade it for a big block (and the DAX will fit one of them
).
Re: Auto - have one of them too. 3 speed (C4) with shift kit, 2500rpm stall and Pro-shifter. Works well but I always think it would be nice to have a later model 5 speed with manual override.