Hey! How about a poll? :LOL: :rolleyes: :CRY: **)

Fpsb ;)

You beat me to it.

You should get full credit. I heard it from you first. ;)

Does it really make any difference? Call it whatever you want. The saying "to each his own" comes to mind.

U have the right mindset and maturity.

Tribute car is tossed around a lot. Forget who it was, but somone called our fiberglass cars..."Glorified Tupperware" :)

Here's a long shot, call it what the manufacturer calls it :LOL:

Ok I'll throw my less than two cents in. I thought some time ago Chobra was a unique name for a Chevy powered Cobra or thingeedoo.. It sets it apart from the rest as something unique.


Just don't use the word Cobra by itself. It is being both descriptive and accurate.

ERA Cobra
Continuation Cobra
Kirkham Cobra
Stallion
........
Call it anything you like....

Yep - think I'll just go with ERA 427 and avoid all the ruckus. :rolleyes:

I'm probably going to hate myself for offering an opinion here, since I don't own a Cobra or Cobra replica, but since I've been a guest on CC for five years, I'll stick my neck out. To most of the car guy/girl world, if it looks like a Cobra, it's a "Cobra". There are bad "Cobras" (like a Cobra body on a Miata) out there and good "Cobras" (like a Kirkham). And,as much as you'd prefer to think otherwise, most anything built after 1968 that generally looks like a Cobra to most car folks and the general public is a "kit Cobra" As someone said, a tissue is a "Kleenex", a photocopy is a "Xerox" and a cola is a "Coke". If someone makes something that looks like a Cobra, it's a "Cobra". If someone asks, "Is it real?" they mean whether it was put together by Shelby prior to 1968. Anything that wasn't assembled prior to 1968 is something else. Call it whatever you want. A recreation, tribute, reissue, replica, continuation, authorized reproduction, etc, it's not what folks mean when they ask whether it's real.

If the folks in Venice didn't put it together before 1968, it's not a "real" Cobra. Ouch! Whatever and whenever and whomever screwed it together after then affects only what it's worth. A continuation may be worth more than a Kirkham, which may be worth more than a Factory Five, which may be worth more than something Billy Joe Bob threw together in the backyard.

But what I truly don't get is this endless squabbling that I've witnessed since I've been here. Whatever "Cobra" you drive is probably a better car than 95% of the driving public gets behind the wheel of. When you drive down the street, people point and smile and car guys/gals wish they owned one. Geez, just drive the damn things and enjoy what you've got.

So mine is a Backdraft Roadster. Its not stated as being a Cobra. So I don't have to worry about calling it a replica, I just call it a Backdraft Roadster. The fact that the registration says 1965 Cobra is just a mistake on DOL's part. :)

I was holding my breath reading your post waiting for a SAAC definition quote.:cool:

Thank you HealeyRick, your post above (#31) says it well. When I'm driving along, running through the gears with a stupid looking grin on my face, I couldn't care less about any of this stuff.

A new name for Cobra replicas....


I vote for "Irving"

Or maybe "Fred"

Or if not USA sourced possibly "Guido"

But never at dusk!!!!!

If you need SAAC, Merriam-Webster or a Juris Doctorate to tell you what a "Cobra" is, you have no business driving one.

C'mon Rick, you telling me that none of the Healy purists ever gave you grief over the fact that you ruined a perfectly good Healy by stuffing a SBF in one? :LOL:

Just when Rick has everyones ear, Dallas puts a perspective in place. I love it. Keepa goinggggg!

In the Healey world, my car is known as a "modified Healey" or, more popularly a "Nasty Boy". And yeah, we get grief from some of the purists. But it seems to have decreased over the years and if they complain too much we give them a ride, pin their shoulders to the seatback during acceleration and that shuts them up. But even though it's modified, my car is still a Healey. There are some replica Healeys out there in fiberglass, but they are mostly called by their replica names. like "Sebrings" rather than being termed Healeys.

My point here is that there are damn few original (built by Shelby before 1968) Cobra owners that post here. Everyone else has got a replica, continuation, tribute, etc. of some kind or another. Just accept it and move on. Some are better than the original Cobra, some are just as good, and some are terrible. Some are faithful recreations while others are mere approximations. So evaluate them for what they are without regard to what they are called.

If you want to see who has got the "best" Cobra, get them all together and find out which one accelerates quickest from 0-60 mph, and 0-100-0 (I vaguely remember that figure), does a fast lap in a road course, best top end and best 1/4 mi. Isn't that the true test of a Cobra, not all this other window dressing?

But to me as an interested observer, this never-ending squabbling over opinions of what's "best" is just silly. I get it. As car guys, it's what we do. As a Healey concours judge, I've been involved in plenty of the same inane conversations.

So at the end, enjoy the car you drive without dumping on the other guy's car. They are all pretty damn good and pissing other folks off isn't making them any happier and likely not you either.

Mines a Cobra to me, when I'm asked if it's a real one I will say its a Reproduction or Replica made by Superformance not a Kit car. It's manufactured in a factory with all new parts, not a home built car using donor parts. I'm not dissing anyone who has one like that but there is a difference. Some of those cars are probably nicer than mine while others are really horrible.

In the end when driving it I'm not worried what anyone here says, I'm just loving it!