What Is The Future of The Cobra Replica Industry?

[Buzz]

Originally Posted by jhv48

I question the word “exciting” when attached to electric vehicles. Yes they can be incredibly fast, but exciting? Not so sure about that.
Consider this: how exciting would top fuel drag races be without the noise of those massive hemi engines on the edge of grenading?
How exciting would nascar races be without the noise? How exciting would F-1 or Indy car races be if they were silent?
I know I’ve lost interest in F-1 since they swapped the high revving normally aspirated engines for turbocharged engines. When they flew by at 19,000 rpm, the screaming engines would give me chills. Swap to electric engines, I won’t watch.
As for our noisy, smelly scary cobras, electrify them and they become as exciting as a Prius to me, no matter how fast they are.
And, yes, ev’s have their place and they are the future, I just don’t think a self driving silent car is exciting. And I want excitement in my vehicles. Millennials want non-involvement and self driving vehicles so they can spend more time on their phones. I want total involvement in my driving experience and the cobra does just that.
Just one guy’s opinion.

I absolutely get what you're saying and I enjoy the noise as well. It's just that I find high performance exciting in all its different forms. I can appreciate Cobras without having to hate the (long overdue) Tesla Roadster. Between noise and performance; If I had to choose one over the other, I'd rather have more speed with less noise than all noise and no go. I can't help but shake my head when I see (and hear) slow little cars with great sounding fart-can megaphone exhausts lugging along at 40 mph but sounding like they're doing 150 . The Cobra blew past them with awesome sound and fury, but I also enjoyed shrinking them in the rearview mirror in comparative silence driving my old Cadillac CTS.

Electric and Cobra to me definitely do not go together. Cobras are visceral, savage beasts. A car that looks like a Cobra with an electric drivetrain is sort of like mixing a good, hot scotch bonnet pepper sauce with vanilla ice cream. I can enjoy both individually - but definitely not together!

[kanuck]

Everyone who buys an electric vehicle should take a trip to a coal fired powerplant and see how the sausage is made. I was in Cumberland Tennesse this week and that plant has 4 stacks 2 of them are 1001 ft tall and they other 2 are around 800 ft they were belowing away in all there glory.

PS:Who lays bricks at 1001 feet I want to meet this guy.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by kanuck

Everyone who buys an electric vehicle should take a trip to a coal fired powerplant and see how the sausage is made. I was in Cumberland Tennesse this week and that plant has 4 stacks 2 of them are 1001 ft tall and they other 2 are around 800 ft they were belowing away in all there glory.

PS:Who lays bricks at 1001 feet I want to meet this guy.

The Electric Car crowd is by and large based on the emotion of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). As you said, you don't want to know how sausage or electicity is made. All electric cars do is move the point of creation of some kind of evil from the tailpipe to a gas/coal power plant far away from here. There is not and will not be enough wind/solar power to create the supplemental power consumed if the electric car conversion in CA really starts by 2035... It seems that politicians were required to fail basic sums in the 3rd grade and could never ever handle multiplication. If they did the party wouldn't support their candidacy.

If you've ever been to the Grand Canyon in the 90s during one of the "inversion" days the "smog" came from the power plant nearby. Costs got too high and it was decommissioned in 2019.

As far as the migration is concerned, I think EVs are a perfect fit for the average city commuter. A friend has a Tesla and gets a range of about 350 miles, which for him is 3 to 4 days of use if he has to go visit customers. I think local trades people will love the EV Ford pickup. But they're not ready for my usage model which includes a 800 mile drive-in-one-day one way trip.

Fossil fuel will never end. I can't imagine what a battery operated D9 cat or road grader or snow plow would look like. I don't think Boeing has a battery operated 737 on the books (at least not in their stockholder reports )

[twobjshelbys]

Yep, sure, California has plenty of electricity. NOT

Newsome today made an executive order to "increase electricity supply" (yeah, how does that happen?). Don't charge your car or use your air conditioner...

California asks to stop charging cars, save energy after gas vehicle ban: https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics...major-heatwave "It asked consumers to avoid using major appliances and charging electric vehicles between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. "

Sure, an all electric CA will happen by 2035.

[eschaider]

I think we are all missing a potential hidden benefit of the conversion to renewable energy sources for travel. With the cost of air travel, that our politicians burden us with, being so high, we should require them (our politicians) to fly electric aircraft!

I can see how this entire renewable energy sources for traveling problem can become a self-correcting problem, potentially in a very short time.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by eschaider

I think we are all missing a potential hidden benefit of the conversion to renewable energy sources for travel. With the cost of air travel, that our politicians burden us with, being so high, we should require them (our politicians) to fly electric aircraft!

I can see how this entire renewable energy sources for traveling problem can become a self-correcting problem, potentially in a very short time.

Since there aren't any electric airplanes make them take electric trains. Lets convert all of Amtrak to battery operated engines.

[Harpoon PV2]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

Since there aren't any electric airplanes make them take electric trains. Lets convert all of Amtrak to battery operated engines.

Actually, all our trains are electric! At least Diesel electric, where the diesel engine runs a generator, which powers the electric motor. Just like our Navy's nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines! I have wondered why car companies haven't done this for a few decades! Think about it, the generator would be easier to make low emissions, and they could easily get 200mpg or more. Cheers, Dennis

[eschaider]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

Since there aren't any electric airplanes make them take electric trains. Lets convert all of Amtrak to battery operated engines.

Electric planes and politicians were made for each other, especially when the batteries die in flight

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by Harpoon PV2

Actually, all our trains are electric! At least Diesel electric, where the diesel engine runs a generator, which powers the electric motor. Just like our Navy's nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines! I have wondered why car companies haven't done this for a few decades! Think about it, the generator would be easier to make low emissions, and they could easily get 200mpg or more. Cheers, Dennis

Yes, I know that the engine on a locomotive is actually used to power a generator. But I'm wanting the idiots to get across country on 2 D-cells. In 4 hours. Just to show them how stupidly insane this whole thing is.

Another consideration... Refineries depend on constant throughput to operate at peak efficiency. Remember that even now when the formulations change refinery operation is interrupted. If electric vehicles truly dominate, then refinery production will be cut as consumption goes down, eventually to the point where refineries will shut down leaving fewer and fewer. Not all products will be needed - for example, you don't get diesel (and jet fuel etc) without some portion of the product being gasoline... And when the volume goes way down, the cost and prices will go way up. Expect the cost of an airline ticket to go up as fuel costs change as will all those products that refine at less than gasoline. Since current refineries produce about 50% gasoline from crude, and gas will be waste product what will they do with it???

[cycleguy55]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

Since there aren't any electric airplanes make them take electric trains. Lets convert all of Amtrak to battery operated engines.

Electric aircraft are definitely on their way. Baby steps so far, but there's no doubt they'll be a 'thing' for short hops.

Harbour Air’s Electric Seaplane Just Successfully Completed Its First Point-to-Point Flight

The retrofitted Havilland Beaver flew nearly two miles from the Canadian mainland to Vancouver Island.

https://robbreport.com/motors/aviati...ht-1234741669/

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by cycleguy55

Electric aircraft are definitely on their way. Baby steps so far, but there's no doubt they'll be a 'thing' for short hops.

Harbour Air’s Electric Seaplane Just Successfully Completed Its First Point-to-Point Flight

The retrofitted Havilland Beaver flew nearly two miles from the Canadian mainland to Vancouver Island.

https://robbreport.com/motors/aviati...ht-1234741669/

Ring me up again when it can fly from NY to LA non-stop.

[Unique427]

[deleted]

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by Harpoon PV2

...I have wondered why car companies haven't done this for a few decades! Think about it, the generator would be easier to make low emissions...

I thought of this alot of years ago when EVs were starting to gain traction. I thought it would be a good match for a low RPM, high torque 2 cyl diesel engine to run a generator. But apparently it's not a new idea and had been tried at some point in Europe and deemed impractical. Don't know why. The Top Gear guys in fact did a parody on the theme...

[Harpoon PV2]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

Ring me up again when it can fly from NY to LA non-stop.

The first cross country flight was made in 1911 a Wright Flyer, The Vin Fiz, Piloted by Calbraith Perry Rodgers, only took 50 days, I am sure an electric plane could beat that record!

[eschaider]

I still like an electric plane with a politician in it and a dead battery at about 30,000 feet. It just seems like a self-correcting problem ...

[Unique427]

Originally Posted by eschaider

I still like an electric plane with a politician in it and a dead battery at about 30,000 feet. It just seems like a self-correcting problem ...

Now that there is a darn shame ..... since there would likely be room to squeeze more than one onboard.

[Harpoon PV2]

Getting back on track! I worry about companies like ERA. I have seen, where the original owner want's to retire, brings in a partner or sells outright, and next thing you know, the company goes belly up, like Classic Roadster, which seems to come and go every few years! Are they in business this week? A sadder tail was Suffolk Sportscars. Roger Williams, made replicas of Jaguar SS100s, which were really nice, no Chevette parts here, all Jaguar drivetrain, they were even recognized as continuation cars, like the SPF and CSX replicas! Then he got a partner, who brought with him over 400,000 Pounds Sterling, no chump change there! They branched out to build C Type Jaguar's. These too, were bought by management at Jaguar just like the SS100! Then the new partner decided a replica of the Land Rover Defender would be a good fit. Problem was, British Layland, along with Jaguar, was bought out by some Indians, (not our Native Americans, but the original Indian's!) Long story short, Suffolk was sued out of existence. Fortunately, they survive today as restorers of fine antique automobiles. But it is a cautionary tale! Cheers, Dennis

[Tommy]

My opinion is that sales of new Cobra replicas will decline over time, putting pressure on the companies that build them. And I too have been the victim of a business that was struggling to stay afloat in a declining market. It was the last few customers who were hurt the most. That is why I have repeatedly warned others on this forum to never rely entirely on a business' past reputation. Situations change and it is very common for an aging owner AND the less skilled party buying his business to NOT disclose that fact to current and prospective customers.

[patrickt]

Tommy has jumped on it. Both the Cobra building companies, and the custom engine builders that support them, are not necessarily marked for extinction, but they will be relegated to boutique status.

[sunman]

Classic Roadsters is not belly up.
It was bought out of bankruptcy 2016 by Ryan Martens cheap as the bank was saving money not having to pay to haul it to the dump!
Ryan did not deliver and the “Classic 427” is what’s left for sale.

All the Sebring fiberglass is available from Robert Haugen in Oregon.
I’ve got the Cobra hardtop moulds and will start making tops when I wrap up a project I’m about to finish. Step number 1 in my plan.

Classic was revived in 1996 and then liquidated by the Duchess Capital Management Corporation like the movie “Wall Street”.
Duchess was Gary Rutherfords first car, MGTD with Chevette motor.
Duchess is now a multi billion dollar operation and one of the partners was banned from trading by the SEC a couple years ago.

Jeffery Davis (CMC, Street Beast, all the Florida cars LLC owner) got Classic Roadsters LLC in 1989, he has a mansion on the Florida intercostal waterway.

It’s very complex what Duchess did, the SEC and bankruptcy filings are amazing.
I’m writing a chronology I’ll post someday.

Party On