The future of Cobras and hobby kit cars?

[G-Pete]

Originally Posted by NewYorkGuy

And I wanna see my wife's daily disgust when she goes into the garage and sees our environment friendly electric car parked next to a gas guzzling, loud, outrageous, in your face Cobra!

......what I see is, soon you have to make choice between the two.

[blykins]

Honestly? I think the market is getting saturated. I see more and more Cobras for sale here on Club Cobra.

I would think that going to the London Cobra show pretty much put the nail in the coffin for me. If you're out and about here in Louisville, you may see one or two Cobras per year out on the road, which makes it fun and intriguing. When you go to a Cobra show and see 300 all at once, it kinda takes the fun out of it....for me anyway.

[dallas_]

Originally Posted by blykins

Honestly? I think the market is getting saturated. I see more and more Cobras for sale here on Club Cobra.

Just curious, are you seeing a decline in orders for engines?

[blykins]

Originally Posted by dallas_

Just curious, are you seeing a decline in orders for engines?

No sir, my business stays pretty steady. However, I build for more than just the Cobra crowd.

[NewYorkGuy]

Originally Posted by blykins

Honestly? I think the market is getting saturated. I see more and more Cobras for sale here on Club Cobra.

I would think that going to the London Cobra show pretty much put the nail in the coffin for me. If you're out and about here in Louisville, you may see one or two Cobras per year out on the road, which makes it fun and intriguing. When you go to a Cobra show and see 300 all at once, it kinda takes the fun out of it....for me anyway.

Those 300 Cobras, your guess to how many owners are under 40 yrs old, how many are new builds, and how many are trailer queens(under 5K miles) ?

I dont believe the Cobra replica is too expensive for younger people. I've been to plenty of import/tuner shows and many cars are past $60K. The Import King is the Nissan GTR and that starts at $100K. Young or old, people find the money for the cars they want

[itstock]

Originally Posted by NewYorkGuy

Those 300 Cobras, your guess to how many owners are under 40 yrs old, how many are new builds, and how many are trailer queens(under 5K miles) ?

I dont believe the Cobra replica is too expensive for younger people. I've been to plenty of import/tuner shows and many cars are past $60K. The Import King is the Nissan GTR and that starts at $100K. Young or old, people find the money for the cars they want

You can drive those imports every day of the week. That is where your logic is flawed when it comes to the younger people. They would need two cars if they had a cobra, or in more simple terms, the cobra isn't anywhere near being practical.

Young people, under 30, generally don't go out and buy $60k plus fun toys that can barely be driven. A $40k bmw? Sure. A new evo? Yep. Maybe a gtr a couple years after landing their fast big job? I've seen that. But not something that you need to garage and can only drive on the nicest of days.

[jhv48]

My take on the future of our hobby is this: If we don't start inviting other groups to our car shows (tuner cars, low riders, etc.) we are going to go the way of the dinosaurs.

If you attend a car show anywhere in the country, what do you usually see? A bunch of Vietnam vet aged guys sitting in beach chairs beside their 50's or 60's era hot rod.

We, (and I'm one of the above age group) need to start including the younger generations and their cars. We can learn about their cars and culture, and share our history and knowledge with them.

I admit, I'm usually bored stiff at a car show! Same cars, year in, year out. I would love to see some youthful blood injected into the hobby. It's there, but it isn't interested in hanging out with a bunch of old farts that just sit around their cars and yell at kids that get too close to the paint.

I've seen some of these tuner cars and they can be awesome. Most have engines and paint jobs that cost more than our completed cars.

If we want the hobby to grow and continue, we must embrace and include the future. Right now it's a we-they type mentality. We could learn from them and teach at the same time. Mutual respect and inclusion is needed if we want the hobby to persist.

Keep going the way it is now and the hobby (as we know it) will die with us.

As an example of a company that is moving into the future, take Factory Five Racing. They made their mark in the kit car business exclusively with the cobra and Daytona replica. However, they saw the writing on the wall and now offer the 818 kit built with Subaru parts (as opposed to mustang parts for the cobra). This car appeals to a more youthful builder and even is being built with all electric power. And FFR has already built 200 of these kits since they were introduced one year ago. I think the hobby is alive and well, but is moving in a more relevant direction.

[AL427SBF]

Originally Posted by jhv48

... However, they saw the writing on the wall and now offer the 818 kit built with Subaru parts (as opposed to mustang parts for the cobra) ...

Their '33 Ford is pretty sweet, more adaptation to a broader market.

[dallas_]

Originally Posted by jhv48

As an example of a company that is moving into the future, take Factory Five Racing. They made their mark in the kit car business exclusively with the cobra and Daytona replica. However, they saw the writing on the wall and now offer the 818 kit built with Subaru parts (as opposed to mustang parts for the cobra). This car appeals to a more youthful builder and even is being built with all electric power. And FFR has already built 200 of these kits since they were introduced one year ago. I think the hobby is alive and well, but is moving in a more relevant direction.

And RCR with their SL-C.

Interesting.

[Ron61]

There has been a huge decline in Cobras and other of those type cars around this area. We used to have 15 Cobras and a lot of T-Buckets and other type of kits and street rods. Now there are just one or two Cobras and I never see them any more even at the big car show. I see a couple of the guys who still have their 32 Fords and a few street rods and that is it.

Ron

[scottj]

Originally Posted by dallas_

And RCR with their SL-C.

Interesting.

I've enjoyed this hobby for 15 yrs, but if I was starting now, I'd go with the SL-C...

[PSB]

Originally Posted by scottj

I've enjoyed this hobby for 15 yrs, but if I was starting now, I'd go with the SL-C...

Me too! (see avatar)