Newbie Seeking Advise - Cobra on a budget

[gcarm]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum. So hope some of you 'old hands' can give me some advise.

I've been thinking about building a Cobra replica for some time. Now I've decided to get serious about it.

To give you some background about myself. I am a qualified Electrical Engineer and have a lot of experience in electronics design and software. I have also been pottering about with cars for most of my life. My first car was a Datsun 1600 which I basically rebuilt with a 180B engine, etc, etc.

Recently I've been rebuilding a couple salvaged/written off cars. Along the way I've taught myself to MIG weld, repair dinged panels and I'm reasonably handy with a spaypainter.

So I'm not intending to build one of those lego kits that you put together with an instruction manual. I am expecting to do a lot of the work myself, which I'm hoping will allow me to complete a good quality Cobra on my limited budget (expect to spend around $30~35K).

So I'm looking for recommendations on which kit would best suit me as a starting point. I'm thinking that if I purchase a donor car, and can reuse a lot of the components, this would minimise my outlay. Was thinking of a Ford XR8 with the Boss engine. Could I also re-use any suspension components, brakes, drive shafts, steering column, etc ?

My minimum starting point would be the fibreglass shell plus a fully engineered chassis. Add parts from a donor car and salvage yards. Then purchase specific parts needed from somewhere like Snakebite.

Regarding compliance, any recommendations regarding a good Sydney based engineer ? What sort of costs would I be looking at for compliance ?

Am I being realistic with my expectations re budget, or am I looking at significantly more $$$s ?

Advise appreciated.

Cheers,
Greg