[DanEC]

Geeezz - I purposely bought a BB 66 Corvette many years ago to restore with a non-original 427, because I didn't want to screw with the numbers matching hysteria, buying any allegedly matching numbers car is likely a rip off, and I didn't want to hyperventilate every time the original starter or alternator failed. For a long time admitedly non-matching number cars were looked down upon until most of the crowd wised up to the fact there are more 427 tri-power 427 cars running around now than in 1967 and most of the people buying number matching cars actually had re-stamped motors anyway. Few, except the hard core Corvette guys, have any idea what kind of 427 I have in my coupe and I have just as much fun driving it as the guy with the overpriced car and "allegedly" original motor. Same with my 67 GTX with the 68 440 motor in it.

I myself like something that looks very faithful to the original Cobra, but look at most of the reproducition and replica Cobras - very few are even trying to build something faithful to vintage appearance. And Kirkam cars - beautiful - magnificant - but how many bare-aluminum, mirror polished Cobras were running around in the 60s. Real Cobra, Reproduction Cobra, Continuation Cobra, Replica Cobra, Kit Cobra - who cares - as long as it floats your boat.