Newbie with my first question.... many to follow :)

[400TT]

Now this is a hard question.

Both how long it will take and how much it will cost are both dependant on each other.

I can give 2 quick answers.

Cost:
Generally I advise people to look at budget of around $50-$60 as a minimum to build a nice Cobra. You can build them for less, but unless you have connections with God himself or have done everything yourself, it's hard to build a completed nice Cobra for less. We've built a registered Cobra from body/chassis for $35K, but it's not what most people would want.

Time:
Generally Cobra's are finished within a 2-5 year period. I've built two with my brother and first Cobra took 2 years to finish and 2nd Cobra took 15 months. The 2nd Cobra was a bare bones street/race car.


The answers above, may not be correct for your situation...

Factors that affect cost of the build:

Will you buy the kit new, will you buy an unfinished one 2nd hand.

Will you just buy body/chassis unit, or will you get manufacturer to complete
some of it.

Will you spend hours and hours of research find the cheapest best solution to problems and limiting re-work.

Will you spend hours and hours searching for best price on products.

Will you spend hours and hours searching every swap meet for next couple of years picking up the odd bargain part.

How much can you do yourself? Can you fabricate all required brackets etc?

Do you have ability to modify/adapt lower cost parts to fit your car. Can you do body work, the more body work you do, the more you save. Can you do some or all of the interior work.

Are you comfortable with time, hassle & risk of buying parts and shipping them from overseas, especially US and UK to save a few bucks.

Do you want all new parts and everything reconditioned first before is fitting? Cost difference between new drivetrain and 2nd hand drivetrain can be substantial.

Do you want the highest level of fit and finish? This takes money.


Factors that affect the time it takes for the build:

How much are you going to do yourself? Buying pre-fab brackets, getting interior, paint etc professionally done saves a lot of time.

How much time will you honestly put into the project? Can you and will you put aside a couple of nights every week to work on it. Can you put aside a day every weekend to work on it? Will you work on it on your holidays and public holidays.

How much research, shopping around, swap meets etc will you do. This stuff consumes a lot of time.

How much money you have available? Not having money available to buy required parts in timely fashion, certainly slows a build down.

After ordering your kit, will you start working on your project immediately even before your body/chassis arrives. On 2nd Cobra we bought engine out of a wreck and had it removed and all work done ready for it to bolted into the chassis before chassis arrived. Same with rear end etc etc. Had also bought a lot of parts required.

Do you want the highest level of fit and finish? It takes time.


In my opinion I don't think there is generally a great deal of difference in time it takes to build different replica brands available in Australia if you start at the same stage. The only places where there can be differences is choice of suspension/drivetrain and work required in body. I reckon the most time consuming part is the finish and fitting. The fidley stuff. The main mechanical stuff is easy and moves along pretty fast. It's all the fidley stuff that slows the build down and the more particular you are with the final finish and fit, the longer it takes. The same holds true with money, most current replica's here would cost approx. the same to build. The main price difference is in the quality of mechanicals and quality of fit out. Big items are paint, interior, body fittings(shiney stuff) & wheels.