Joining the CCCA and telling his story on the Forum may not be be among his priorities these days Mike. Still you never know.

Rob Darnell
 

I would love Robs email address
Thanks Paul

I will write and copy you in Paul, with an intro from his Robnell colleague up here.

You can take it from there, if that is OK?

last I heard Rob was into sales retailing in a shop in the eastern burbs.

Yes neat cars.

The FFR Cobra on 105.com is similiar to many for sale in the States for $35 - 45,000.

Send me your email Paul. I gather Rob is now restoring Mustangs and recently won a concours event.

Afternoon/morning everyone, as you could've picked up by the username, i am Rob Darnell's son Bryce. Over my 18 years of being alive I've googled my dad and Robnell countless times and always had a good read on the net and there was that thread in 2001 for Robnell information but i was always to young to understand the concept of a forum and check it regularly enough. But, now with my own cars and regularly being on a computer checking forums and scouring ebay for fun bits and pieces, i have decided now knowing enough about the history of Robnell, i want to join cc and see whether I can get dad interested enough to join the forum. However with the new concours business he has ventured into, i doubt he will be a regular, so in the meantime and until i can get him to join the forum and contribute, I will be quite happy to answer any questions you may have on what he is currently doing, has been doing, and will be doing.

cheers,
Bryce

(moderators: feel free to move this if it should be in a "introduce yourself" thread somewhere..)

Hi Bryce, thanks for your time. I have a couple of questions for you.
Exactly how many Robnell's were built including the carbon fiber ones? I always thought the number was about 87.
At what number car did the suspension go from Jaguar to the custom made upper and lower arms.

Regards.

Thanks also for dropping in Bryce. I think that there are many of us who would like to hear the Robnell 'story' from your dad. It would be good to record for posterity. One of us could even do a telephone or face to face 'interview' with him if he has an hour or so. He could check the details before it was made available to Cobra Club members. Anyway, the offer is there ... Russ Barwick up here has one of his big block cars and would be happy to be involved too.

Thanks for the welcomes gents, Mando, from what dad has said to me just a second ago, there are 67 Robnells out there. that is cars to roll out of the factory and cars sold as kits. and I'm gonna bust out dads old floppy disks and have a look for you on what number exactly he stopped putting jag rear ends in and started using BTR's and custom 9" diffs. from what he can remember, its was mid nineties, so about car number 021-027.

and Merv, i think that would be a great idea, hes done the occasional appearance on tv shows with a car or two but never an actual documentary on just him and the story. I think it would be a really good watch and so many people would be interested. like i said, ill try as hard as i can to get him on the forums because i think he needs it and the resources would be useful.

thanks very much for your interest guys,
ill keep being the messenger till Robnell_SNR signs up haha.

cheers,
Bryce

Grew up reading a little about the Robnell story, apart from some of the very sparse stories in magazines. So it would be great to get a "behind the scenes" story!

PS: welcome Jnr!

Thanks Bryce. It would be great to chat with your Dad and take some notes and make an audio tape. From that we could draft the/a story for him to read through and check/correct. I suspect a video interview would be better for some but a good written story still counts and many would like to read it.

I am in Queensland but I am in Melb frequently for meetings or I could just chat on the phone for an hour or so when it suited. Anyway, no hassle and no hurry.

Cheers,

Welcome Bryce. I am in the latter stages of building my Robnell and am very keen to hear all the stories as well.
Cheers..

Robnell history
 

Thanks Merv

cheers everyone for teh keen interest in my dads story. im a little exited to get him lined up for an interview of some description.

and kyleb, a Robnell with an ls1 in it? you must have one of the very last kits then? pm me details, id love to hear more about the build.

cheers,
Bryce

I can't fill you in on the 'history' of Robnell, but can provide a little insight from a prospective customer. Back in '89 I made several enquiries and went to Melbourne to visit the factory. Rob was much the entrepenurial guy, going 20 to the dozen, pitching the sale and very passionate about his venture, all this without any arrogance.

He showed me around the workshop explaining the process and different options. He was just introducing the billet arms for the Jag rear and had a car in production with these fitted. He left me to wander around at my own pace and I marveled at all that was around me, Cobra heaven.
Then came the icing on the cake; a blast in the 429. Now mind you this was my first ride in a Cobra, in fact only the second ever I had even seen. The first being the RMC factory pace car at Wannaroo Raceway (Barbagello).
The Factory was at Bayswater North in an industrial/comercial estate. We wound our way out of there on to the main duel carrigeway to a set of traffic lights. The lights went green and my grin just widened exponentially. The roar of the side pipes and the accelleration just phenomenal.

Rob explained he was in the process of achieving low volume compliance on the two models and as such discouraged anyone purchasing kits varying from his specification, so there would not be any second rate Robnell's out there draging the name down. As part of this strategy, the sale of kits was to be ceased as they were primarily a means of financing the compliance process. As we all know the costly battle with constant changes in ADR's may have been one of the factors that that saw their demise. He had such a vision about the direction of of his company, that my visit was actually an interview in determining if I could build the car to his standard. At the time the future wife was hounding me about buying a house, and I figured it would be a too long build time for me to finance what I calculated at the time, to be a build cost in the region of $50k. A lot of money in '89 when our first house was just $110k. Still kicking myself for not getting at least the starter kit, as when I bought my G-Force I still didn't get a start on it for over 4 years.

Below is the glossy brochure and if it will fit, the price list from '89.

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...hure_cover.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...brochure_2.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...brochure_3.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...brochure_4.jpg

Here's the price list from '89. You will see a the 302 is fitted with a Clevo with Motec inj. and listed at $60k. The 429 came with sidepipes and Kevlar body and listed at $75K. By '91 these prices were $100k and $116k respectively.

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...ice_list_1.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...ice_list_2.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...ice_list_3.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...ice_list_4.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...ice_list_5.jpg

2 pages of 91 price list

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...ice_list_1.jpg

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...ice_list_2.jpg

I also have a price list from 95 but it doesn't list price of turn key cars. Basic kit was still in the $14k and a roller was $29,978

I phoned and got that brochure when I was in highschool in about 88'

Good to see I managed to fullfill one childhood fantasy, anyone know Madonas phone number?

sorry Gav, back in '99 I promised her I wouldn't give it out

Very good stuff David. I am sure that will start further discussion.

Bryce, I have an email from Russ Barwick for your dad, but would he be interested in a phone interview at some time? I was in Melbourne yesterday on business but it was a full-on day. Or would he rather a set of questions in an email?