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Originally Posted by Dirkdaddy

I think the entire collector car segment, including these Cobras are going to have a big adjustment going forward. Not that I'm looking forward to it.

The prices are constantly changing on collector cars. The last "adjustment" happened about 2010, when you watched the price of cars either drop 10-20%, or just remain completely stagnant. Now in the past 2 years, these cars have started their travel back uphill, often surpassing the pre 2010 price.

As for me, I'm looking forward to the market dropping out again. I'd like to start buying classic cars every couple of years.

The next couple generations (I'm over 50) I have noticed are less and less car-centric, and many young guys are about as dumb about cars now as what women were teased to be years ago. Many I'm pretty sure would be challenged to change a tire. Using a clutch for many raised on automatics is way beyond them. Many are not exposed to repairing cars or even adjusting something. I have tried to talk to some of the young guys about adjusting timing, something that isn't done of course on modern engines and their eyes gloss over and they don't even know what the heck I'm talking about. Carbs the same thing, it might as well be a mysterious black box. Of course there are gear heads and racers who are the exception, but when I was in HSchool every guy just about knew about cars and could ID cars and discuss various engines they came with, etc.

Other than the clutch argument, the same can be said about generation before generation. "Every guy" when you are in high school did not know those things across the board, it is just how you want to remember it in your circle of friends. Interest in cars as a hobby, whether it be racing or shows, has been rather consistent for the past 40 years. Sure, some things have changed such as going from American muscle to "Tuner" cars, or from tuning a carb to doing the tune through a computer, but statistically speaking, the interest as a percentage hasn't changed. But cars have continued to go up in price, and there are a lot of other distractions in this ADD world so many of the cars are simply out of reach for the younger generation.

How many "car guys" over 50 know how to tune their car through EFI-Live? Or how about building their own micro-squirt setup? Sure, they know how to adjust timing by moving the distributor, but give them a new car and they are as lost as most living people are when it comes to adjusting a carb.

I think the pre-war, even pre-60's cars are heading for a big downslide as the generation they are relevant for are getting on in years. The bulk of new generation doesn't want cars that struggle to reach to 60mph, have no creature comforts and are so totally out of date. You can see this in the popularity of "resto-modded" cars that are more user friendly and have modern car powertrain, suspension and even A/C.

I kind of agree with this, but lets face it, most of those pre 60's cars weren't selling that great anyway. Here comes an obvious exaggeration; The market for a car that looks like a box with little to no styling, pretty much does nothing fun, cool, or interesting will always be the same. Of course certain collectors will still want the "first", or the "rare", or just the interesting antiques. But the wooden wheel cars never really had a huge market for collectors in terms of collecting or value. That isn't to say that some of the higher end or historically significant cars don't go for big money or garner huge interest.

RE: Cobras, well they are not typical cars are they? While the Miatas and other sports cars will be the bulk of what most people can afford or play with, I think there will be a market for Cobras as an extreme sports car. Just not sure how many of the newer generations are going to have the ability or interest to build them.

Without knowing the cost or performance of a Cobra, pretty much anyone can look at it and say, "COOL CAR!". That goes from 4 year olds to 80 year old women. It doesn't matter. When you add in the performance, whether it be the power to weight ratio and handling of the original or replica, or the significance and heritage of an original, the Cobra will always be a landmark car.

As far as the Cobra popularity question asked in the original post, my guess is that a lot of these manufacturers go the way of the dodo. If it isn't do to the rising manufacturing costs of a limited build car, it will be do to federally mandated guidelines. If you are asking simply about the interest of the Shelby Cobra, I bet it stays the same for many decades to come. While the new cars are getting more and more animated, people will still yearn for that raw power without computer aide. Anything from classic muscle, to more modern cars like the 2nd gen Viper or Carrera GT, will continue to at least follow inflation. In other words, there will always be a market for them, and perhaps down the road, the value will increase considerably more.

And as I type this, the CSX2135 1963 289 Cobra goes for $885k.