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13Likes
11-14-2003, 06:34 AM
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CC Member
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Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 1,313
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Who made the first cobra replica
And in what year. Does that car still exist?
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11-14-2003, 06:43 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: P. O. Box 96, CATAUMET, Massachusetts 02,
MA
Cobra Make, Engine: Butler with home-rebuilt 393 Cleveland stroker(Ya---ikes!)
Posts: 3,036
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Dunno..........BUTT........
....it may have been Steve Arntz in the late '70's. This company later was taken over by Ron Butler---there was a long run of Butlers which followed. Still, there may have been earlier companies.....Unique? All I know is Arntz is considered a (the?) pioneer cobra replica-builder.
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Freddie
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11-14-2003, 06:45 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Los Angeles, CA,
Posts: 314
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I would venture it is Unique Motorcars, which has been making replicas since 1977. After that, I know of the AC Mark IV's sold in the 1980's through Ford dealerships. They have a 302 carbureted engine, no sidepipes (under car exhaust), 5MPH bumpers, side marker lights, 3-point harnesses, and center mounted fuel filler like the 289 FIA cars.
Bill
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11-14-2003, 06:47 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Los Angeles, CA,
Posts: 314
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I forgot about the Arntz and Butler cars. I know of one Arntz car in Southern Cal. It has a SBC in it.
BD
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11-14-2003, 06:57 AM
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Join Date: Sep 1999
Posts: 355
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FIRST REPLICA
AS far as the "first" it is hard to say there have been cars made from various parts and sources all thru the 70s. But as far as the
first advertised replica I have to say ARNTZ , with there bad
a$$ 12 inches rims tucked inside the rear wheel wells.
thanks DEAN
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11-14-2003, 09:43 AM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Plantersville,
TX
Cobra Make, Engine: Self Built, 427 USRRC, 427FE, Toploader
Posts: 583
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first replica manufacturer
Fred,
The FIRST manufacturer would be Tim Fighur, who built over a 100 COBRA replicas by 1972, advertised widely in magazines, flyers, car shows, and not a singular type builder.
grumpy
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11-14-2003, 10:11 AM
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Join Date: May 2003
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Never heard of a Fighur cobra...
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11-14-2003, 10:33 AM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Right in the middle of the beautiful Texas Hill Country - Boerne, Texas,
Posts: 681
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My father built a cobra in 1982/1983. all he remembers is 'picking up the frame and body at some dump in nebraska'..I think he said the guys name was "Dino". I have an album of photos that I will post.
It had jag running gear.
blake
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11-14-2003, 11:02 AM
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Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: corpus christi, tx78414 usa,
Posts: 401
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someone posted a list a while back of all of the manufactures and when they begin. being a computer retard i haven't been abel to locate it. anyone here able to bring it up?
paul
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11-14-2003, 11:15 AM
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Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Lighthouse Point,
FL
Cobra Make, Engine: EverettMorrison,408W,Jag rear, toploader
Posts: 85
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Here's a link to some Cobra history. I don't know if it's accurate or not, but it seems that alot of work was put into it.
http://www.cobratrader.com/cobrahistory.html
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11-14-2003, 11:56 AM
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Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: corpus christi, tx78414 usa,
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great job jopper! thats the on that i was thinking off.
paul
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11-14-2003, 12:12 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Plantersville,
TX
Cobra Make, Engine: Self Built, 427 USRRC, 427FE, Toploader
Posts: 583
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meatisms are not facts!
fellas,
Watch out that you get facts infected with meatisms. He insists to this day that ARNTZ was the "father", "pioneer", "founder", "originator", and dozens of other paraphrases for the first replica COBRA, builder. Just a person he had been told as being the first, once Meat was sold on the fact, it became just that, a "meatism".
The time line he shares is a 80% or so actual timeline of facts for the same reasons.
We all fall prey to the "tales of yore", no ones fault, lawyers win huge cases on the lack of facts and peoples re-running of memories. It's also much easier to agree as disagree since proving such takes a bit of effort.
CowTown, Tim of ALLIED FIBERGLASS and the year 1968. Several bodies actually adorned old wrecked out COBRA's until the values of them rose to allow for shipments of panels from ACltd/UK.
Lost facts reminds me of the CORVACE that raced in the 1957/8 era and kicked ole' Shels butt in his MASER for various laps on the SCCA/USSRC circuits where they crossed, but SHELBY has been sold as having the "first" idea of American Iorn in a AC, not so, by track records and pics.
grumpy
Last edited by grumpy; 11-14-2003 at 12:15 PM..
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11-14-2003, 12:25 PM
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Thanks Grump. This all makes for fascinating reading...
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11-14-2003, 02:46 PM
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Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Lighthouse Point,
FL
Cobra Make, Engine: EverettMorrison,408W,Jag rear, toploader
Posts: 85
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I have a Cobra Restorers catalog from 1999. If this is true or not I don't know, I'm only sharing what I have.
On page 2 of their catalog is this paragraph:
"Replica Cobras marketed today trace their lineage back to either Steve Arntz, who designed the Arntz Cobra, or the Allied Fiberglass Cobra body sold by Dean Morrison. Both of these bodies were "splashed" from the body of an original Cobra, complete with all the "warts" of the original. To our knowledge, no one has built a new 427 plug from scratch.
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11-14-2003, 03:07 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Plantersville,
TX
Cobra Make, Engine: Self Built, 427 USRRC, 427FE, Toploader
Posts: 583
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"splashes"
jopper,
There were three COBRA 427' that were splashed in 1968, ALLIED having done one of those. The other two were also splashed for various "one offs" and "replica" reasons for damaged or "air" cars as some persued at the time.
No one until my brother and I built a plug from scratch in 1972 and another for a wide/lwb body that customers wanted to utilize vette suspension. Photographs and company documents back this up for that time frame, see if you can get someone to supply anything earlier. I doubt it, this has came up many times over the years including being "meat" slapped several times on this issue, no showdown on photos/documents happened, since he or his sources just couldn't come up with them.
Our plugs came off of hundreds of measurements from the likes of CSX3272 and many others. George wouldn't let you even think of "molding off a pristine car. Body shops of that era were the biggest culprits at "splashing" when a car was damaged and in their shop.
Often wondered where others came up with their molds, just overcopying was the normal name of the game.
grumpy
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11-14-2003, 03:27 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Lighthouse Point,
FL
Cobra Make, Engine: EverettMorrison,408W,Jag rear, toploader
Posts: 85
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grumpy
I congratulate you on building a plug from scratch. Could you please educate me as to how you do that. I'm not being smart I really want to know.
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11-14-2003, 03:52 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Sacramento,
Posts: 110
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The Metamorphosis of a Cobra
Another one to consider is the Stallion, made by Silver Classic
Coachcraft in 1979. The replicas were road tested and actually were designed for racing. Brooklands Books has a book aptly titled "Cobras & Replicas" 1962 - 1983.
The three page story/review and photo shoot was done by Dennis Alder. Back when the book was published, the only advertised heavy hitters were ERA and Contempory and they compete with an original AC in a road test. Pretty cool stuff.
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Butler Racing Inc. 058
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11-14-2003, 03:59 PM
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Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: LI,
NY
Cobra Make, Engine: ERA / nascar side oiler
Posts: 211
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Was fiber fab an early "kit"?
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04-01-2018, 06:18 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Harrison,
AR
Cobra Make, Engine: BDR, 418
Posts: 175
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I have the same question, any info on Fiber Fab? especially quality...
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04-01-2018, 08:45 AM
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Join Date: May 2007
Cobra Make, Engine: JCF supplied the body,frame,and some of the driveline-I completed it to be a very accurate 289 slabside
Posts: 144
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This gives some of Fiber Fab's history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiberfab
However this information is incomplete. The company actually started making kit cars in a small shop in Palo Alto, California around 1964. I lived there after graduate school at Stanford (a couple miles from the shop) and worked at nearby Lockheed Missiles and Space. I would stop by the shop periodically to watch progress on the first car. It was a one man business run by Warren Goodwin that quickly outgrew the small shop and relocated to larger quarters not far away. A few years later Goodwin was arrested for killing his wife an died of a heart attack in jail. The company started out making cars (Aztec, Avenger) that were closed cars that somewhat resembled a GT-40. Later they made MG TD replicas. I'm pretty sure they never made a Cobra replica. The quality, in my opinion, was just OK, similar to most all of the kits of that era since they were made to a low price point. Apparently the company has restarted as Fiberfab US making cars that look similar to the early ones but with much improved quality.
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