Which is the best Cobra kit?

[Lowell W]

Brian,

For some Cobra owners, "dead nuts accurate" is of paramount importance. If that's what you want, the choices are limited and covered elsewhere in this thread. But when you get to the part about "...how much different?" and "...obvious or subtle?", NOW you're becoming very subjective. The only way for you to tell is to look at a bunch of cars and decide for yourself. The best place to do that is at Spring Fling in June (assuming it happens this year), where you'll be able to see somewhere between 200-300 Cobras parked in the downtown area of one little town. You may be the type of guy who can spot (and object to) differences too subtle for most people to see. Or, you may be unable to spot them but decide you want the car to be as "true to the originals" as possible for whatever reason (not going to speculate on motives). Or you may look at a hundred Cobras and think, as I do, that they're all beautiful when assembled right and decide that horspower or cost or extra room or something else is more important than originality. For example: With the more accurate reproduction cars, it's almost a requirement, at least from the standpoint of maintaining the car's value, that you install an FE engine. If that's what you want, fine. If you really like the 427 body style but want to use a Windsor or big block or some other engine, some of the other manufacturers support these combinations and they don't negatively affect the value of the car.

In the end, the way to decide which car is right for YOU is to look at a bunch of cars, list what's important to you, narrow your choices down to a handful, talk to the manufacturers and decide on one. Sort of like finding a wife: Some guys buy the first Cobra they see, some may buy and sell several Cobras before they find the one they really like (or none at all), others shop around and end up with the one they want to keep. Some guys try to tell everybody who will listen that THEIR wife is the best... Some guys don't care whether other guys think their wife is ugly because she has lots of horsepower...or whatever... Some guys pay more attention to other guys' wives than they do to their own. So long as everybody's happy...