Need advice on a superformance purchase

[patrickt]

DEL, don't get caught up in the heat of the moment. The first question I would have is did he let you drive it? If that hit to the front end was more than just a love-tap it will give itself away with a decent test drive. No offense, but you don't sound too experienced on this "Cobra stuff" thing. I think you should send out an SOS to your local Cobra Club, make friends with a couple guys there, and then seek their assistance in assessing this car -- assuming the car is near you and they can actually lay hands on it. You could probably do that over the Holidays since they're probably on vacation and itchy to get out of the house.