Shelby buys CAV GT40 for 80th Birthday !!

[Brent Fenimnore]

Good questions by most, a few negative thoughts or remarks from the anti Shelby group dosen't hurt either.

We do plan to reduce the retail price through our efforts over seas. At this point in time CAV will not be building and selling complete 427 rollers to the general public. In fact we are still in the prototype process and proveout stages of the program and will get a much clearer picture of the potential savings within the next few months. I am not sure all of you know the differance between a Cobra and the typical kit car version but to be quite honest maintaining the original configuration of the 289 or 427 Cobra is very labor intensive and machining costs are rather high no matter where it is built. Our target price for the fiberglass bodied car (which will actually soon be refered to as composite by all) as a complete roller is between $49,000.00 and $59,000.00 US.

As for the jab about standard business practices I do not think I have to respond to it negatively but rather refer you my friend to customers that have actually stepped up and done business with SAI instead of standing in the background chucking rocks. We have made vast improvements to the CSX4000 over the course of the last seven years and have tried our hardest to keep costs as reasonable as possible. Please do me a favor and ask the typical Kirkham owner what they have invested in their car after it is complete and then you may look at our prices a little differently. I must state that the reason I use the Kirkham customer in the price comparison is because they are by far the closest in configuration to the units we build.

The cost reduction that we are working on at CAV for the fiberglass 427 Cobra is just one of the steps we are taking in our attempt to get authentic Cobras in your hands at reduced prices. Its a big world out there and we have hundreds of potential suppliers knocking on our door every year.

P.S. Bruce, we tried to offer licensing agreements to several of the kit car builders about ten years ago and they declined stating that they can build whatever they want. The proposed price of the license was a $1000 donation to the Childrens Foundation for every car they sold.

Thanks,

Brent Fenimore