Rick Kopec's "What's Your Beef?"

[decooney]

While some folks are wasting time studying words in dictionaries and registries, all worked up worrying themselves trying to figure out what is better or worse than what someone else has, others like us are driving cars made up of any kind quality parts we want, driving them as much as we want, loving every minute of it.

Parts are parts.

[RodKnock]

Originally Posted by decooney

While some folks are wasting time studying words in dictionaries and registries, all worked up worrying themselves trying to figure out what is better or worse than what someone else has, others like us are driving cars made up of any kind quality parts we want, driving them as much as we want, loving every minute of it.

Parts are parts.

Totally agree. I feel sorry for the guys with the "Carryover" 1965 1/2 Shelbys. I actually have always wanted one of the "tweeners."

I've lifted Mr. Kopec's latest comment(s) about "replicas":

"The whole Cobra “replica” thing is another of my beefs but the toothpaste has been out of that tube way too long to ever get it back in. Knowing the actual definition of “replica,” I cringed the first time I saw Cobra kit cars referred to by the word replica—because it was wrong wrong wrong. We specifically referred to these cars as “Cobra kit cars” when they began appearing in the Snakebite but with just about every other magazine and automotive writer referring to them as replicas, I knew we were a voice in the wilderness. It was a losing fight we tired of quickly.

I have a dictionary/thesaurus on my desktop which I refer to frequently. It says a replica is an “exact copy or model of something.” Obviously each individual characteristic on a kit car that differs from an original Cobra renders it one step farther away from the original and makes the description “replica” that much more inaccurate. A fiberglass body is a good starting point; a rectangular tubing frame or 351 CID engine continues in that direction, which is away from the original."

So for you guys with fiberglass cars, square tube frames, 351's, solid rear axles, and/or 5-pin KO's (or heaven forbid, bolt-ons) uh....oh, who cares. Let's drive em.

[VE4MM]

If Shelby continued to build the Cobra. There would be no need for a replica industry.

The more that are supplied to the public, the price would go down.

This problem was created by Shelby himself, and no one else.

He has no one to blame but himself.

Also, one should never take lightly their accomplishments in life. Shelby stopped his involvement in the car industry and went off to other ventures. He seemed to forget the significance of what had done, and threw it all away in a way.

That is one lesson everyone can learn from Shelby.

That is what I can take positively from him.