Sounds like you ARE getting your "valve" adjusted a couple of times a year.
If you had an extra distributor cap in your trunk, along with your tools and other spares, a cracked one wouldn't leave you "dead somewhere", if you could diagnose the problem.
I think, for a lot of guys who end up keeping their Cobras for any length of time, doing at least some of their own work is part of the appeal of having one of these cars. They take you back to a time when almost everybody (almost everybody I knew, anyway) worked on their own cars. Furthermore, considering the crude, primitive nature of these little fuggers, it seems important to me for owners to be more familiar with them and spend a little time doing routine maintenance, if nothing else. Getting under the car a couple of times a year, at a minimum, gives you an opportunity to notice stuff that isn't right before it does become a big surprise.
And heck, I'm only one of the "checkbook builders"!
You're suggesting $300
oil changes and valve adjustments on a forum where many guys have assembled their own cars and some have even fabricated most of the car, for goodness' sake!
Lowell