What to look for in this Cobra?

[joyridin']

Kind of looked like a CMC to me also, but the gas inlet is on the rear quarter and CMC/SB never did this. It could have been changed. Also, the rear quarters do not have any lip. Not sure if they all had this or not, but my old car had a lip.

[Ahmet Tuncay]

Well gents, just wanted to let you know that my friend and I went out and looked at this Cobra. Thanks to you I was able to have an intelligent conversation with the salesperson there (who was very sensible and nice btw) and assess the merits of the Cobra.

The Cobra itself was a CMC/Streetbeast on an Mustang II built in the early 90's. It came with a binder full of records from some of the past three owners, and along the way it acquired the Tremec 5 speed and the 30 overbore 302. It is registered in CA under SB-100

Aside from the cosmetic anomalies some of you noted, there were a variety of other paint/body issues that might not be surprising on any 20+ year old fiberglass car, but are very distracting on a Cobra. It certainly did not look very pampered and showed all sorts of blemishes. Under the dash was just a mess of wiring with lose speakers hanging free, carpets worn to the floorboards, handbrake assembly that was very lose, etc. The engine compartment was ok but also showed 20 years of experiments with wiring, zip ties, torn steering boots, etc. At this point we didn't really need to drive it, albeit when we walked it, the salesperson was moving it around and of course it sounded great inside the showroom.

To cut the long story short, this might be all the Cobra one should expect for $25K but my advice to my friend was to pass on it. It really seemed no better than a 20 year old used car with lots of cosmetic and potentially mechanical needs. This is a special vehicle that deserves some special care from its owners (I guess it's the last one that really matters) and didn't receive nearly enough of it. $25K might be a fair price for it but I wouldn't buy it for any price - would rather buy one from an owner who took care and pride in owning a Cobra and really took care of it in all ways. YMMV.

Thank you again for the education, I'm much better prepared for the next one.