Geoff - welcome to ClubCobra...there is a very active Texas Cobra Club group here in the Dallas area and we generally get together once or twice a month. Our "First Saturday" breakfast or lunch should be in about 10 days and you should plan on coming out and meeting the guys and seeing about a dozen Cobras.
I took delivery of my Unique 12 months ago and have been driving it now since late February '02...absolutely love the car. If you want to talk about building a Unique and why I chose this car - e-mail me your number and I will give you a call.
Here is a partial copy/paste from another post (Excelguru) that might give you some food for thought and prompt some responses from other members.
1. How do you really plan to use the car? Frequent street driver? Serious racing? Mostly car shows?
2. How much money do you really anticipate spending for the total project? $30-Grand? $40-Grand? $50-Grand?
3. How important is the "correct appearance" to you?
4. How much time do you really want to spend in the garage completing the car?
All of these questions (and more) are important for various reasons:
1. People don't usually like to toss a 50-thousand-dollar car around on a race track (there are exceptions), so a less expensive replica might be the best choice if you plan to race it a lot.
2. Don't let anyone tell you that you can finish a Cobra for a buck and a quarter. You need to be very realistic about the costs involved. Take the time to work up a detailed spreadsheet of all the parts you'll be ordering from the manufacturer. And I do mean ALL the parts. Determine EXACTLY what is NOT included. Add these items and assign realistic costs. After all that, you need to add at least $1000 to the final tally, just to be sure. You might be surprised what a "$10,000 Cobra" really costs to complete. I performed this task years ago and quickly determined that the "deluxe pallet" cars are worth the additional money.
3. If a very "correct" appearance is important to you, then you'll want to look for something other than the FFR. They're simply too distinguishable. That's not a bad thing, it's just a fact. Having the correct appearance was VERY important to me which is why my short list was composed of Unique, ERA, and Superformance (SPF). All of which are more expensive than FFR.
4. If you have a 2-car garage, you can expect to take up both bays (and then some) during the construction phase. You might want to run this by your wife is you're expecting her to park outside all winter (especially in Massachusetts). Completing the car will take longer than you think. Ask anyone (except an SPF owner). You'll want to consider this when deciding how complete to order your car, initially. The "deluxe pallet kit" that I ordered allowed me to complete the car in a relatively short period of time, but still allowed me to do enough work on the car to feel like I had a hand in completing it. It was a nice balance for my situation.
Good luck in your search and hope to get a chance to meet you at the next TCC - Dallas meeting.
Looking for Cobra owners/builders in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Many Thanks
Geoff........
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