FII Roadster - Thoughts

[kkosche]

Great feedback. Appreciated.

A lot of options at that price point, that is for sure.

If one was going for value retention, hard to beat a '05 / '06 Ford GT. However the performance, while respectable, is becoming pretty pedestrian . . . One can get a ZR1 for about 1/2 the GT's price that will beat it in the majority (all?) of performance attributes. The ZR1's on the other hand were pulling $120K (or more) just a couple years ago . . . and now can be found pretty easily for the mid $80's with under 10K miles. Performance per dollar . . Corvettes are really hard to beat . . . which is why I have my modified C5.

There are some really nice replicas . . no doubt. To build what would be close to the FII is very difficult to do for under $100K . . . and in the end the foundation (frame / chassis design) would be inferior.

One thing I like about the FII is the frame / chassis design is all Shelby. . . huge dollars spent on the Series 1 design. . . in my mind it is as much "Shelby" as the continuations . . as the continuation bodies come from Kirkham I believe, engines / trans are usually modern versions of past . . so what are we left with? Frame, chassis and assembly. I think I would prefer a glass body, as there are many more folks who can work on glass if something bad happens.

With all this said, the FII is a strange combination . . Body is quite a bit larger . . so it is "Cobra like". . . not a replica. Series 1 chassis were never meant to be a "modern Cobra". Unique animal which will appeal to a much smaller subset of the population.

The other consideration (would apply to any Cobra purchase) is I live near Seattle. It is easy to forget (we have had a great summer) how much rain this place gets . . . so an open car (no top) has some serious considerations if one was to use it for anything more than a day drive.

The smart thing to do would be to continue to enjoy my C5, and go buy some investment property . . yet the combination of performance, Shelby history, the story, the story . . are all so appealing.