Not Ranked
The comp cars had single 4V MR and possibly but doubtfull HR, the SC had 427 MR with both dual four and single four carbs, the early street (CSX 3101 to 3199) cars had 427 Low Risers with 2 x 4V, the 3200 cars had 428 with single four barrells, and the CSX3300+ cars had 427 MR with single four. As you can see most of the 427 Cobras came with 427s and not 428. I don't know how this rumor got started and I sure wish it would die.
As for $200K restorations, easy. Before we started making parts prices for parts were way way expensive. Remember their were only 348 + a few cars built. AC cars charged a fortune for parts. If the car has comp brakes the parts to convert to comp brakes (steering arms, rear uprights) were extremly rare and $$$$. Do you remember the orginal NOS mirror that was sold last year on e-bay for a small fortune? How much are a set of original Blue dots worth? How much to date code the engine. Someone has to pay for the time to find these parts. It is things like this that drive up the costs dramatically.
In engineering there is something called the 80/20 rule. It is 20% of the effort will get you 80% of the results. It is the last 20% that takes 80% of the effort. We have found that the rule is closer to 90/10
Sorry to ramble
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