What can this Cobra be used for?

[750hp]

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/A-C-COBRA-Rep...#ht_717wt_1139

Now don't get me wrong. It looks like a very nicely built car, but after someone just paid $79000 for an automatic, left hand drive Factory 5 Cobra - live axle, carb'd big block with working sidepipes, what on earth is the new owner going to do with it???

Can it be registered in any states?

[Merv and Sharon]

Sweet looking car!

[spookypt]

Far out brussel sprout!

If he managed to get it through as a Vin'd 1965 as another QLD member has with a Factory 5 RHD car perhaps he can get it rego'd in QLD on full compliance.. Dunno....

[boxhead]

I will be suprised if the sale goes through.
If it does I would suspect there is going to be 1 disapointed new owner out there.

If teh new prospective owner has not done some checking on what is required for rego then it will be one expensive way to find out.

But as Spook has said, maybe it can be put through????

[Legless]

Originally Posted by spookypt

Far out brussel sprout!

If he managed to get it through as a Vin'd 1965 as another QLD member has with a Factory 5 RHD car perhaps he can get it rego'd in QLD on full compliance.. Dunno....

I think that little loop hole was closed long ago and he's advertising it as a new car. As far as I know the only way to get this on the road LHD in NSW is to steal a number plate or two.....hell they don't even have to be the same and just stick em on! Sshhh don't even involve the RTA. That should get you down the road for k or two........maybe even 3 cause you wont hear the siren!

[Merv and Sharon]

7.8 litre Ford. It should go well. Would need RHD, new seats with head restraints, lap sash seat belts (stupidly) and the exhaust ... May be too much to do unless there is some arrangement for 'club plates' for Cobras for restricted use, such as some Mustangs?

[Rob. Smith]

Originally Posted by Merv and Sharon

7.8 litre Ford. It should go well. Would need RHD, new seats with head restraints, lap sash seat belts (stupidly) and the exhaust ... May be too much to do unless there is some arrangement for 'club plates' for Cobras for restricted use, such as some Mustangs?

Merv, I doubt the carbed engine would be emissions compliant either.

[Merv and Sharon]

True Rob but I have some friends with cars like this (maybe they are authentic and older) and use "club plates". Just wondering ....

[RNJ]

beam and torsion tests to.
swerve and recovery tests
fiberglass tests
double catching door locks
ADR approved glass
ADR approved lights and reflectors
and all the stuff merv mentioned

[Legless]

Talk of ‘club plates’ brings up an interesting point and let me say at the outset I have no practical knowledge or experience in this area, what I know is only what I’ve read on the net and I have not talked to the RTA or RTA signatories/engineers so my interpretation may be complete crap and I also live in the home state of the fun police, NSW so my ‘knowledge’ is skewed towards achieving rego in NSW for an imported car. I’m sure some of you on this forum know much more about these issues than me and believe me, I’d love to be proved wrong. In theory you can import any vehicle manufactured before the 1st of January 1989 without restriction but it can’t be registered LHD unless it is at least 30 years old and it has to comply with the ADRs that were relevant at the time of manufacture. Vehicles manufactured after the 1/1/89 need to be imported through the RAW scheme and comply with the raft of ADRs.

Anyway, it seems to me that due to a couple of factors, that just maybe, from next year there will be a better opportunity to import replica cobras, assuming nobody moves the goal posts in the interim.

1) A favourable exchange rate…. maybe, who knows? If China can generate enough internal demand and keep importing our resources our currency should be pretty strong against the USD and British pound. In my opinion, the deflationary pressures in the world market as debt is unwound will probably keep the price down on all sorts of assets including these cars for quite a few years.

2) There will be a larger pool of eligible cars to choose from as some of the early replica cars such as Arntz and Contemporary will be reaching 30 years of age, please note this does not mean titled as a 1965 Cobra blah blah blah. It means it was manufactured and was first registered 30 years ago. At 30 years of age they can be conditionally registered as LHD without major compliance issues having to be addressed, as long as you are a member of an RTA recognised Historic Vehicle Club. The car can only be driven to and from club sanctioned events and to and from repairers. I did ring the RTA a while ago seeking information about what was involved in getting the Cobra club recognized by the RTA as a Historic Vehicle club but gave up waiting for them to return my call. Street rod registration is for pre 1949 vehicles only.

So in summing up as far as this newish Factory Five’s future on NSW roads go; err it seems a tad bleak to me and as Craig said “what on earth is the new owner going to do with it???” Unless of course it really was manufactured in 1965 as stated!

[Merv and Sharon]

I believe that Craig White is getting a Contemporary? They are supposed to be one of the almost millimetre perfect bodies in relation to an original. Craig?

[750hp]

Originally Posted by Merv and Sharon

True Rob but I have some friends with cars like this (maybe they are authentic and older) and use "club plates". Just wondering ....

Merv - just to clarify, do you mean "special interest concessional registration" (ie: available to 30+ year old cars belonging to a special interest car club http://www.transport.qld.gov.au/Home..._vintage_cars/ ) or do you mean "trade plates" (ie: allowing a workshop / car dealership to legally drive an otherwise unregistered vehicle by temporarily affixing a small square 4 digit plate http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/q...99725/s54.html )?

If you know of Cobras registered on concessional registration, I'm all ears! If you know of people driving around on trade plates, it's probably best that we don't go into any more detail.

Legless - next year is on the mark for Arntz and ERA, but Unique have been making Cobras since 1977 and Contemporary since March 1979. Having said that, I reckon you would need a mountain of paperwork to clearly and absolutely verify the age of the car. The manufacturers probably wouldn't go to a lot of trouble to assist in the resale of a car that they offloaded over 30 years ago. An example of this is what the current owner of Contemporary wrote in response to the history of the company "Since all of the company records were destroyed when Burtis went “Belly Up” in 1999, I can’t tell you for certain how many kits were produced, but I’d estimate that the Contemporary’s total production was somewhere between 1,400 and 1,500 kits."
You'll then need proof of when the "box of bits" actually became a legally registered vehicle. There may be a lot of people who are more fastidious with their record keeping, but I reckon you'd be lucky to come up with that kind of proof for any car. Having said all that, I agree that there will be a number of Aussies looking closely at older US Cobras as they are offered for sale!

[Merv and Sharon]

Craig, I don't know a lot about this but I think I was meaning the "special interest concessional registration". As such with the 30 year rule ... it may not qualify.. but some would, depending on how much of the car had to be made then

[spookypt]

There is a pre 89 LHD Contempory in Australia, Qld, Gold Coast that is registered!

Seen it, touched it, smelt it!

As Ripley would say... Believe it or not!