[ItBites]

richsd,

I guess to many of us, a cobra is a car that looks like a cobra (BTW, an Ultima does not look like a Cobra). People ubiquitously can recognize a Cobra at 1/4 mile distance, but a side-oiler is just a powerplant, not the car. Most folks cannot recognize a correctly-equipped Cobra side-oiler from a schoolbus engine, so I wouldn't consider the engine to be, as you state, a key point that defines a Cobra.

And, what is the "spirit" of the original? 2 seat roadster? Wind in yer hair? Too little weight and too much power, Fat tires that are still too small? smell of gas? Smell of burning rubber? Loud sidepipes? Freedom of the American sixties? Or must use Ford Engine?

What is it people love about Cobras? Very few in the general public will tell you they love Cobras because they are Ford powered. Heck, Country Squire Wagons are Ford powered, but they do not have the Cobra "spirit", so the "spirit", by definition, must derive from something other than the powerplant.