Spotters: Any idea which Cobra maker this is?

[SunDude]

Hi Andy,

I just arrived home in Ottawa from the auction in Toronto. I spoke with your son about the car yesterday and was about to post some of the details, but of course you beat me to it. Too bad I wasn't able to meet you in person at the auction, but you were sitting near the stage when I popped over to check out the car.

I must say, your car is very nicely done and I was very impressed. If I had room in my garage and bank account, I would've bid. I know it was set to cross the block this afternoon, while I was en route back home. Did it sell?

Brian

P.S. The body mold for your car and by extension the Aurora GRX was an early 260 Cobra, CSX2013.

Originally Posted by Andys289

Mystery? Sorry I would of responded to this earlier but I didn't know until someone told my son at the auction there was a thread here. I haven't visited this site in several years and just recently rejoined.
This car has nothing to do with an Aurora. The body for this car was from a mold taken from an original Cobra prior to the mould being sold to the person that started Aurora Cars.
Actually the only part that came from Aurora is the windshield frame and glass that I purchased because at the time it was easier, safer and cheaper than ordering one myself from Contempory Cobra in Mt.Vernon New York
The chassis, suspension and aluminum work was contracted to a street rod / race car chassis builder in 1981. His name is Brad Watson. Brad also did a some of the chassis design work for Aurora Cars as well as modification work on cars that customers requested. ie there were 2 Auroras that I know of that were delivered with Chevy small block V8's. If you were to see the two chassis side by side the only parts that are the same is the front and rear hoop. An Aurora has a fiberglass one piece interior tub, trunk floor, inner fender panels and as one of you mentioned very tight foot boxes. All my interior panels are aluminum rivetted to a lightweight steel structure that makes the chassis very ridgid. Also the interior floor in an Aurora slopes up toward the front making it very tight around the pedals. My floor is flat and the boxes are almost 3" wider each side. My clutch and brake pedals rise up from the floor as do the original cars. Also we raised the trunk floor to fit the mufflers in the recess so that ground clearence would not be an issue. Its not. hence the exhust location.
I completed the car in the fall of 1984. It was licensed in the Spring of 1985
It has won several awards over the years starting with 3rd place in the Peoples choice awards at SAAC in Dearborn in 1986 and Best Street Machine and Best New shown at Motion in 1986

I have driven it every summer for 27 years and I will miss it dearly.

I always believed that the Aurora would of been a great car except for some decisions that were made that prevented it.
The up-sloping floor and the pedals down out of the top along with the narrow foot boxes made it too tight for any one with a larger than a size 9 foot to drive.
The boxes were narrow to allow for the one piece fiberglass tub to be put in place around the hoops. If they were made separate they could of been made wider but that require a lot more labour.
The use of off the shelf Mustang II front suspension made the tires and wheels stick out past the body work made an otherwise beautiful car look bad. Even with a 2 1/2" negative offset wheel.

[Sawdust]

Andy
I was at the auction with Brian. I agree your car looked fantastic and very well put together. I hope you had good luck at the auction.

Stu.

[Andys289]

First off. The car did sell. Auction didn't go as I hoped. Pretty sure I got scammed.

SunDude - sorry I didn't get to meet you. From what my son tells me I think we could of talked Cobras for all afternoon.

Haywood - Is there much of a following here for Aurora Cars? This car I just sold was 1 of 2 Cobras that I had. The way the Aurora car was done always bugged me. As I said earlier I believed the car could of been better.
Anyway to prove my point ( noone really cared except me) I bought an Aurora in 1993. Totally disassembled it to the bare chassis. Sent the chassis to CSC and had them extend the side rails so that the floor could be flat and the put a dropped floor in under the pedals.
I then sold the Aurora body to Johnex and rebodied the Aurora with a 289 FIA body.. The FIA body is 6" wider than the slabside (427 is 10" wider)
Since the tires stuck out past the body 1/2" and the standard offset wheels are 2 1/2" = 3" x 2 car sat perfect. Was a nice car. Friend of mine still owns it.
But I have several parts from the original Aurora. I need to clean up my garage.

[SunDude]

Andy, sorry to hear you aren't happy with the outcome. It seemed like you had an excellent time slot on Sunday, and your son told me that you had a reserve on the car.

But in the three times I've been to that auction, I've never felt there was much money in the room. A good place to buy. Maybe not a good place to sell.

I would've loved to talk to you and hear more about your experiences with the two Cobras, with Aurora and with Johnex (the first iteration, I take it...). Cobras are my favourite subject to discuss.

I also told your son about the SAAC-37 convention at Watkins Glen (Jun 7-9). It's not far from the GTA, if you're interested. And it's the 50th anniversary of the Cobra, which means it should be a special event. I'm going.

[Haywood]

Originally Posted by Andys289

First off. The car did sell. Auction didn't go as I hoped. Pretty sure I got scammed.

SunDude - sorry I didn't get to meet you. From what my son tells me I think we could of talked Cobras for all afternoon.

Haywood - Is there much of a following here for Aurora Cars? This car I just sold was 1 of 2 Cobras that I had. The way the Aurora car was done always bugged me. As I said earlier I believed the car could of been better.
Anyway to prove my point ( noone really cared except me) I bought an Aurora in 1993. Totally disassembled it to the bare chassis. Sent the chassis to CSC and had them extend the side rails so that the floor could be flat and the put a dropped floor in under the pedals.
I then sold the Aurora body to Johnex and rebodied the Aurora with a 289 FIA body.. The FIA body is 6" wider than the slabside (427 is 10" wider)
Since the tires stuck out past the body 1/2" and the standard offset wheels are 2 1/2" = 3" x 2 car sat perfect. Was a nice car. Friend of mine still owns it.
But I have several parts from the original Aurora. I need to clean up my garage.

Is there much of a following here for Aurora Cars?
Can't really say for sure as I'm a newbie here and found this site by accident very recently and was kinda trying to see if I could help out the guy with #51 in Denmark with his "Doody" problems which still makes no sense to me as to why he is having problems?

A "following" here?
Maybe more like an interest If anything I kinda guess.
I would rather guess that the Aurora Cars site would have the strongest following if anything?
I mean only an honest maybe 130-135 were actually built regardless of what is said about 170 being built.

After reading that you dissasembled an Aurora Car and took the body off the frame I think I may need to take a sleeping pill tonight?
Otherwise I may find myself fighting with the bedsheets thinking I'm in a Tyvek suit and hearing the noise of a cone shaped die grinder buzzing away?

That's a heck of a lot of work to undertake.
And you can never get back the $ put into a project like that.
As much fun as a convert Cobra may be?
And nothing sounds like a Ford.

At this stage of the game in life?
I'm looking for another '72-'76 rust free Triumph TR-6 with a factory hard top, OD and a/c.
Thats a fun car after you have battled with the electrics which I will call "Lucas the Knight of Darkness", rebuild the rear shocks and replace ALL 6 of the driveline U-joints at the same time.

Also looking for another '90's Acura NSX with a T top.
After seeing the new one, I can only imagine the $ of the older ones will rise?
Kinda kicking myself in the butt (which we have all done) I guess?
For not buying a '92 black on black manual Ttop twin turbo down here in SE FL a few yrs back for under $35k.

From a pilot transferring to NYC where he wouldn't even need a veh.
He had an EZ $20k just into the engine and it was done right.
The engine was pulled and built around the turbos, not just an "add on".
It was tame on the street until you put the pedal down and you would get sucked back into the seat. The NOS was a bonus too.

I had a fun test ride in that car and 170mph felt like going 80mph.
Dotted white lines on the highway become solid after about 130mph or so.
But I'm sure most here know that.


Just a factory NSX with upgraded tires was "Mosport Ready".
Many moon ago Japan did reverse engineering on US built cars.
And more recently and not all that long ago Oshawa GM did a reverse engineering on the Acura NSX.

I hear ya "Andy" on cleaning out the garage.
If you have anything "Aurora Cars" I can only suggest the Aurora Cars site.
And here of course also as it is a non biased Cobra site.
Don't really have much in the way of Aurora Cars stuff myself other than a few posters and maybe some hood emblems maybe?

And maybe a chitload of pics from way back then maybe somewhere?
Then again with a 900sq ft garage at home that I couldn't park a car in even if I wanted to?
I know that somewhere in there is my 1975 Kawasaki Z1B bigblock turbo murdercycle.
Somewhere in there?

Sorry for the "lengthy" but that's just the kind of guy that I am
At least I broke it up into readable paragraphs.
Can ya imagine if it was all just one solid read without the breaks?
Ya I woulda fallen asleep too.

[SunDude]

The weekend's auction results have now been posted. Of the four Cobra replicas for sale, only two sold.

A blue Contemporary Classic 427 (no. 3031) sold for $44,000. For the most part this was an OK older car, a bit rough in spots but generally fine. But the front track was strangely too wide and the narrow-ish 225 tires stuck out proud of the front fenders.

Andy's red 1985 "Aurora" special sold for $31,900. IMO his was the nicest Cobra of them all and was in the best overall condition. Not sure why it didn't fetch a better price, other than to guess that the 289 body style isn't as popular with bidders as the 427.

A green Factory Five did not sell at a high bid of $21,000. Sorry to say, but this car was a complete mess. $21K was a gift.

A red CMC-Street Beast did not sell at $26,000. This car was rough around the edges and would not start on stage, but it was not nearly as awful as the green FFR. After crossing the block, the car sat on the floor with an asking price of $27K on it. Why the seller didn't take the $26K bid is a mystery to me.

[Andys289]

Originally Posted by SunDude

Andy's red 1985 "Aurora" special sold for $31,900. IMO his was the nicest Cobra of them all and was in the best overall condition. Not sure why it didn't fetch a better price, other than to guess that the 289 body style isn't as popular with bidders as the 427.

Thanks for your kind words Brian. Unfortunately with an auction you need more than 1 person who wants the car

Again, this car has nothing to do with Aurora, the car was built before Aurora started building Cobras - the mould for my body was just sold to them.

[delrossa]

The Aurora's had a safety hood latch mounted in the center of the cowl in the engine compartment. The interior of the engine compartment does not look like an Aurora. The Aurora did not have external trunk latches but I guess somebody could have installed them. I don't think it's an Aurora but it has a lot of it's features.

[Andys289]

Originally Posted by delrossa

The Aurora's had a safety hood latch mounted in the center of the cowl in the engine compartment. The interior of the engine compartment does not look like an Aurora. The Aurora did not have external trunk latches but I guess somebody could have installed them. I don't think it's an Aurora but it has a lot of it's features.

Did we not cover this?

[delrossa]

I saw the later posts after submitting mine. The later posts explained everything.
thx

[Haywood]

Originally Posted by Andys289

Thanks for your kind words Brian. Unfortunately with an auction you need more than 1 person who wants the car

Again, this car has nothing to do with Aurora, the car was built before Aurora started building Cobras - the mould for my body was just sold to them.

Just out of curiousity "Andy" how bad was the "BP" for buyers and or the % for consignment sellers at this auction?

As a buyer I have pretty much given up on stand up auctions since a few years back at a Ritchie Bros auction when I realized that the vending machines behind me were bidding against me.

I now find that having someone to go and look at what I want and take pics without my spending $ on flights,car rentals, hotels and food is a more economical way to go.

I mean I gotta do the logistics anyways to get the heavy equipment to where I wanna get it gone to.....so its better for me to bid online and pay someone else to do the inspections with the pics that I want.

And as far as Heavy Equipment goes.
Who's buying paint? NOT me.

[SunDude]

If anyone's interested, Andy's beautiful 289 is again for sale, this time at Plaza Kia in Thornhill, Ontario, at an asking price of $42,000 CAD.

Find it HERE on AutoTrader Canada.

[meat]

That poor little Cobra needs to find a home!

Your pal,
Meat.

[aurora cobra]

It's clearly not an Aurora. The side louver is correct for cobra but not for Aurora. Aurora used a 260 cobra for there molds #(2013) which did not have side louvers, they cut there own and made the corners to square..

[Haywood]

Originally Posted by aurora cobra

It's clearly not an Aurora. The side louver is correct for cobra but not for Aurora. Aurora used a 260 cobra for there molds #(2013) which did not have side louvers, they cut there own and made the corners to square..

As I don't believe that "Andy" ever stated that this car was an original Aurora Car.

Not really all too 100% for sure either myself on exactly what the story on that car is.

And as far as the louver cutout goes.
ALL of the Aurora Cars had the louvre cutout that was incorporated into the fiberglass mold with at leat a half inch recess that could be cut and trimmed.
ALL of the body parts came out of the mold like that.

The louvre holes were not cut out after the fact.
Only the actual louvers were cut and trimmed to size to fit into the hole.

So few of these cars were built and yet there are more misconceptions of this car than there are actual facts.

For example I had a great chuckle reading about an Aurora Car listed for sale in California on Hemmings.
As the title for the car is for a 1970 Ford F150 pickup truck.
It's silly at best.
Hey look it up and have a good chuckle for yourself.

[SunDude]

Well, I'm pleased to report that Andy's 289 Cobra replica has just found a new home with a fellow Ontarian.

The new owner is a nice guy who -- like most of us -- has dreamt all his life about owning a Cobra. And today, his dream came true. Maybe he'll post some introductory words and pics on the forum and get to know you guys.

Meanwhile, I just want to offer him a hearty congratulations and let everyone know that this interesting car has gone to a good home and a good owner.

[Haywood]

Good deal !
Guy in London that bought it I would guess? (no need to say unless he says so himself)

He did have some interest in car #68 in AZ.
But without doubt he got more bang for his buck with this car.
Car looks pretty tight and more meat than potatoes.....enjoy

[aurora cobra]

not an aurora

[SunDude]

Originally Posted by aurora cobra

not an aurora

we know

[Haywood]

Yes you are quite very correct that it is NOT an Aurora.
And if it was an Aurora?
The buyer would probably end up beating his head on a brick wall just trying to figger out what kind of simple maint things to replace like brake pads or muffler bearings even?

I can only guess that buy buying this veh from the actual builder there will be some information with a build sheet that tells him just exactly what parts were used to replace simple maint items?

I sure don't remember the correct viscosity of "Blinker Fluid" that went in an Aurora.

And yes I am poking a lil fun at the Aurora.
It was a well built car to a certain extent but, the fact remains that when it comes to replacing any simple maint parts it's almost a guessing game there.

There never was a simple build sheet for the owner to be able to buy and replace any simple parts that would need to be replaced plain and simple period so, don't "Blain" me for that one.
I'm sure that at least Brad got a chuckle out of my "don't Blain me" comment?