New couple here at Club Cobra!

[DeLorean03]

Hello everyone,

My name is Jeremiah; I am introducing both myself and my fiancee', Jessica.

We are both avid car fans. We love and admire all sorts of unique automobiles - from classics to hotrods, and muscle cars to exotics. While we both have "favorites" that the other may not admire as much, the lil' Cobra has been one we both mutually love.

One of our dreams is to build or purchase a Cobra, but first, we have a lot of homework to do (read: months upon months). For example, there's Shelby versus AC - what's the difference? We don't even know, so we just call it "the Cobra". And that's just referencing the car itself, much the less how to build one, how things come together and work when building a Cobra, what jobs can we do versus what jobs are better left to "professionals".

A lil' background on her and myself, we actually met due to our passion for cars. We met in an engineering economy class (we both were pursuing and are EE majors), and she asked me if I happened to be the guy that drives the DeLorean on campus. Needless to say, I jumped and made it very clear - yes I was/am. From then on, we've been together for 3 years, and we plan on getting married later this year. She's about to graduate on May 4th with her BSEE, and she has put some good work into it and done a great job. As for the DeLorean, I have owned it for nearly 10 years and have enjoyed it very much. We are part of the DeLorean Club of Ohio, and we enjoy the community and the ownership of such a creative and beautiful automobile.

As unique as the DeLorean is, I want to have a Cobra parked next to it. We love the styling of the Cobra, along with its thorough heritage and respected reputation both for being a smoking fast lil' car and its legendary creator.

Anyways, we are excited to be welcomed into this group and learn from everyone. I currently work as active duty AF at Wright Pat AFB in Dayton, OH, so we are very fortunate to have some state clubs in the area as well as the upcoming London Cobra Show, which definitely plan on attending as of now.

I have scores of questions, and I want to ask so many because I learned the hard way with the DeLorean. I bought one sight unseen, jumped completely head deep into the shallow side of the pool, almost broke my neck (metaphorically speaking), and was hugely blessed to meet my best friend who mentored me through my first 8 years of ownership. I don't want to dive in headfirst like that again - I want to do this right and enjoy learning about the Cobra before building or buying one. I can't wait to go to the London Cobra Show and talked with lots of owners.

So.........


My first big question and probably for me - my most difficult one: where do I start to learn about these cars?

Is there a place for "wannabe owners" like us to start from "square one" and learn as we go (online outside of tech sessions/get togethers)?

What should we learn first?

How did everyone here "start the journey" so to speak?

What did you do to decide between "build" or "buy" ?

What are the pros and cons of each?

Did you fabricate your own frames, or did you let professionals handle it?

How many other jobs did you "let professionals handle" ?

How much "homework" did you do before you started saving up and realized "It's time to begin..." ?

Thank you all for your time and consideration. We appreciate any responses that are helpful, and we look forward to being in this community with everyone!

This is us before I joined the Air Force - just so everyone has faces with the names!