Average Age?

Thanks Velvet!!! If it wasn't for you they would allcould be calling me "kid". I just turned 25 in the middle of March. Picked up my kit at FFR in may of 98. She is currently in paint shop and should be "done" by first part of may. I realize that most of you envy my age. I envy yours, see I figure you guys for the most part are closer to retirement that I am!! By the way, my version of retirement is: Have enough cash that I never have to think about cash, and drive the crap out my cobra all while relaxng and having fun!! I have a wife and one great little boy who is one and a half years old. He can say daddy and cobra both!!! (so can my wife but whe won't LOL)

This is a great thread, took me 30 minutes just to read it!! I just found this forum and think it is great. Looking forward to making friends and hopefully meeting some of you at Run & Gun. Maybe while we are there one of you can show me how to drive??? I have never in my life been on a real race track!! (just good old back roads in Indiana)

Nice reading all of your post, feel like I know you already.
Jason Knepp
FFR #1413

I am 37, I saw 'Gumball Rally' in high school and was hooked. I pick up my car on Monday or Tuesday next week. 66 Butler, 428 CJ, Jag Sus. etc. An old dream come true.

Yearjoy

I'm 52 and entered my midlife crisis at 17 and have never looked back, well, I AM sorry I sold my GT-350. Better recalculate that average age

Mid-life crises, I don't think so. Extended childhood, a good possibility after all toys are toys.
I'm 46 and a product of the 60's. Though born in 1952 I recived my license around 68' in the middle of the muscle car era.
I remember going to the Chevy dealer with my dad to look for a new family car to buy, we got to the showroom and I got behind the wheel of a light blue 65' corvette coupe (I was only 13 at the time) all the crying in the world couldn't keep my dad from buying that white w/blue interior 6 cly. chevelle malibu. From that day on I have been a muscle car nut and have had a few of the great ones in my time but with the price of an original cobra always being just above the financial limit line I never acquired one.
I have followed the Shelby legacy since the 60's and have been following the kit car industry since the early 70's (you remember the VW dune buggys and the bradly GT don't you).
For me the cobra has always been like the highschool sweetheart you never got together with and spend the rest of your life wondering about.
I have helped others over the years build there dream and with the completion of the major remodle done on my home I can now focus on my dream. By this fall I will have ordered my kit and like so many others have already done it will be a FFR cobra. For me the FFR is a tried and true kit with a large following, good bang for the buck and I won't worry about beating the hell out of it on the street or track. It's a driver and I'm going to drive it.
Don


[This message has been edited by Don DePontee (edited 03-27-99).]

well, Don, when you get that bad boy built, y'all come on over and see 1502. He'll be a little hongrie about then! cheers Matt

I'm 32 and my midstates cobra project(60% complete) will be my first V-8 powered car. Wanted a 427 cobra since I was 10 years old-can finally afford one!

53 here, A word from my wife to other wives and girlfriends, " I'd much rather have my hubby working on and driving a cobra than chasing some other woman, lol".

WOW! So many cool stories and so many points that apply to me also. I'm 37 but really have not decided which car yet. My little boy isn't even two yet ( didn't get married 'til I was 32- too much stuff to do and it took that long for the right one to show up). Finally got to the point where I make a FEW bucks more than I need to live, but I'm not wealthy by any stretch. Hopefully this forum will be a lot of help over the next couple of years as the project starts and progresses.
I first became enamoured of the snake when I was 14 and my brother showed one of our uncle's car magazines from 1963 that had a road test of a 260 version cobra that was amazing. Well, as happens to many, life gets going and things get pushed aside. Until a few years ago I saw one on the street and it all came back with tsunami force. I love building things and want to finally get my version of the "coolest car ever made". Being restricted to a tight budget, I'm still debating building or buying the frame. If someone out there can tell me the dimensions of a backbone frame that fits under a standard cobra body I will set about building it.
Well, I've rambled long enough. I'll post tech questions in another section later. Thanks for coming up with this site and for all the great stories. Hope to join the owners and end the dreaming soon. John

John K.,

Welcome To Club Cobra!

It's a great group of people from all over the place!

Our frame is more a copy of the original - 4 inch round tube, ladder style. Would be happy to help you if you decide to go that route.

Enjoy the Club!

Neal

We need more people on this thread. So far, I am the oldest adolescent in the thread!

Regards, Art

Well OK Art, here we go with another story. I am 55 and have been a Ford nut all my life. In the late 60's I had a 289-271 high performance Mustang that was just about the fastest small block street racer in these parts. Marriage and kids put the performance stuff on hold but I could never forget the first Cobra I ever saw. One Sunday afternoon at the local drag strip a Caddy pulled in with a 427 Cobra on the trailer. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. He fired it up and took it off the trailer for tech inspection. It failed because it didn't have an approved bell housing. The owner fired it up again, put it on the trailer and took off. I never got to see it run but I never forgot the sound.

Years went by and the kids grew up and one day when I was looking for a car, my wife said that she liked the looks of the T-Bird. A week later there was a Super Coupe in the driveway. That was sold a couple of years later when I bought a '97 Mustang Cobra. I always felt that kit Cobras were too expensive but after a year of research, I have made the big step. It will be delivered in a few months and the "project" will begin. I guess that I will have to sell the Mustang to complete the Cobra but that's life.

Fords and Mustangs must run in the blood since both of my daughters drive Mustangs and one has just bought a Cobra kit with her boyfriend.

I guess that I have rambled on long enough.

Regards, Wayne

Wayne M.

Great Story! I could hear that Cobra trailered behind the caddy at the drag strip as you were describing it!

Anxious to hear more about your kit and how the build up goes.

Also, please have your daughter and her boyfriend get involved in this forum if they could/would.

Thanks!

Neal

Well ill jump in, im a regular contributor on the other forum, first post here. Im 30 and have loved cobras since i was 14 or so. Told the wife one day that it was my favorite car but id never be able to afford one. Figured id never get one untill i saw the price of an ffr. Mentioned it to her half seriously a few days later and she says "so ya gonna do it?" thats all it took. Im almost done! I work at Ford here in Dearborn Mi. doing body design.

Another newbie here! just found this site the other day and have been waiting for time to type something up. I did'nt build mine as I did'nt have the room or the skills... did'nt want the wheels to fall off at 100mph:-) Never thought short of winning the lottery that I would ever own my dream car. We had a 96 Mustang Cobra that I was getting to the point of wanting to modify and just drive on the weekends but miles were adding up quickly and I wanted something different. Met a guy in Oklahoma while attending a car show that had a Saleen Cobra and was getting very interested and started saving my pennies. One day my cousin (who I lost lastb year to cancer) and my wife were talking and my cousin said Mustangs are cool but always changing. Why don't you go after something you have wanted all your life? My wife said you get the Saleen and it will be cool and your car. You get the Cobra and it will be OUR car. That's all it took. We were going to have one built by Cobra Restorers out of Georgia until me and the credit union went to war. Seems after telling me no problem for several months, reality kicked in right before we were going to visit them. Seems they were not going to give me ANY money until it was finished. Well let's just say we parted ways. Started looking for a used one which we found in California. It was close to what we wanted and the price was right so I sold off all of my collectibles, traded the Mustang in for a Dode Stratos for my wife, took all I could get out of an old IRA that was'nt doing anything and put a big enough down payment so I could obtain financing. The rest is history as we have had it a little over a year and I'm allready gathering parts for the eventual transformation. It is set up as a street car and I want to change it to the S/C variety. It's an ERA 427S/C with a 427 sideoiler stroked to 450 with more goodies than I would have been able to swing had I had it built as I would have had to go with the 428 to save money. Looking to take it to Tulsa Oklahoma this year for the Mid America Shelby Meet we have attended the last 2 years as spectators. Almost forgot it's blue with white stripes, black roll bar and sidepipes. Will send a picture to Brent as soon as I figure out how:-). Sorry to ramble on but have been waiting for a web site like this since I got the car.

By the way i'm 44 in the Dallas Texas area.

Time to Bring this thread back to the top - got some new members and we'd like to hear your Cobra story.

Thanks!

Neal

My cobra dream started when I was in school. I had a 1970 Pontiac Firebird with a 455, all restored. It was FAST. Then I decided I wanted a 1995 V-maxx motorcycle, that was FAST. Then I decided to purchcase a Cobra. I sold the car, I sold the motorcycle, then my wife sold her 1991 convertible RS camaro. We now have REALLY FAST Midstates Cobra with a Gessford Racing 428. Wow!!! I love my Cobra. I just got my Cobra back in early March from the paint shop, Pace car blue with stripes and the meatball. I also purchased the hard top for the Cobra. Oh, I just turned 28 this past March. Also thanks to Brent for designing this web site and for helping us get our new club linked to Club Cobra.
Mile Hi Cobra Club
Denver, CO
Charles Howard

This is a great thread. It's very interesting to read how the desire to build or at least own a Cobra got everyone.

I am 44 but my average age is much younger . I started my pursuit of a Cobra in 1982. I wouldn't have believed this except I still have the brochures in their original envelopes with postmark dates.

For me I've been involved with my career for a long time and really had not been thinking about Cobras or any cars for that matter. Anyway one day my brother said, he was thinking about building a Cobra. I started asking him what he had looked at and told him what I had looked at some time ago. He told me everything he had been looking at was on the web and gave me the addresses so later that night I went and checked everything out.

It seemed at the time to be a snap decision but it wasn't, I had wanted to build a Cobra for a long time I had just forgot. Anyway looking at all the information brought the desire back and I was committed to building a Cobra. In fact at that time I couldn't see why I shouldn't build a Cobra. That was June 1998 and am nearing completion of the project and it has been a blast just building the car. I can't wait to drive it.

See you on the road,

-Irv

[This message has been edited by Irv Lennert (edited 04-10-99).]

Due to the elevated age of most of you I'll make sure I pack some extra lawn chairs in the back of my Cobra so you guys won't get so tired at all the Cobra events.

OK, here's my story: At 10 years old, I was summering in Narragansett, Rhode Island, and while hanging out on the boardwalk, a British Racing Green Cobra, with sidepipes rumbling the earth I was standing on, pulled into the parking lot. Having been raised around cars all my life (my Dad owned a junkyard - I still say it's the world's greatest playground for a kid!) I was very excited and fascinated to see this little car that made so much noise! I was just starting to realize what the word "bikini" meant at that age, and my God, the bikinis that surrounded that little Cobra fascinated me as well! Other than a couple of other chance encounters, I never saw the beast again, and the years passed.

I've had sports cars and motorcycles all my life, basically had put together my own cars from the junkyard, then went on to college and got serious with life. I had toyed with the idea of building a kit car back in the late 80's (my junkyard genes were acting up), but the bride got prego and I stopped thinking about it. 3 kids & a vascectomy later, I'm still driving motorcycles and starting to think that I should try a hobby a little less dangerous, the kit car idea started again. My natural (bikini)selection was the Cobra.

I sold the Harley 2 weeks ago, and I've been tearing down a Mustang 5.0 (junkyard genes again) after work. Yesterday I put a deposit down on a Burtis F8. Now, the fun begins.

46--that's how long my teenaged mind has been on this little round ball. The wife wastes her time on PTA, watching the kids, and volunteering for all kinds of things for the unfortunates of the world. Not me! As far as I'm concerned, life revolves around which car to drive today. If the sun is out. the Cobra wins. I've been autocrossing a '92 Vette since new--but the Butler (351 Cleve., Tremec 5spd., MG/Jag) now kicks its butt. I also use an A6 Quattro for road rallies, the 96 Impala for cruising, the 65 Mustang for club drives, and the 76 Bronco for stomping on Mother Nature. Couldn't do all of this when I was young. Gotta go--one of them needs to be driven very hard and then put away wet.

Ronbo.