How many Cobra replicas meet safety standards?
 

Just curious, how many Cobra replicas were certified to have actually met the safety and emissions standards of their day in the U.S.?

I'm aware of the following ones:

• Aurora GRX - produced from 1981 to 1983 (??)
• Autokraft AC MkIV - produced from 1982 to 1996 (??)
• Excalibur Cobra - produced from 1993 to 1997 (??)

Have I missed anyone? Do I have the facts straight?

Do you know if these cars met Canadian and/or European standards too, or just U.S. regs?

Excalibur was sold as a kit car and did not meet the standards in 1993-1997.

The Aurora and the Autokraft were sold through new car dealerships and met the standards at that time.

Bill S.

The Excalibur Cobra might have been D.O.T .compliant, 50 certified cars were built I believe, check with them direct, they are still in bussiness, http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/make...r_History.aspx

I don't think the US safety and emissions legal version of the AC MkIV was available as early as 1982 and I think it was only sold for a few years.

The first U.S. certified AC MK IV was sold as a 1985 model...I have the certification paperwork in hand.

The last was circa 1996 and was shown at the Detroit International Auto Show (I have copies of the unpaid bills) but was never actually imported.

If I don't hit anything, mine does...

OK, I did just that. The answer wasn't 100% precise but did help clarify a little bit.

Apparently there are no records of the actual production run, but somewhere between 60 and 90 cars were built. These cars were DOT/EPA certified. Just before the production ended, the company sold about 18 cars as kits. Not sure if the 18 are in addition to, or included, in the 60-90 total.

UPDATE: Just heard back from them again. The 18 kits were in addition to the turnkey production run. Total production (turnkey + kits) was in the range of 100, but impossible to verify without records. With this info, I would think the Excalibur Cobra qualifies for the list of DOT/EPA compliant replicas (with footnote re: kits).

Mr Mustang, I own a Excalibur & it was NOT a Kit & I also have the sells lit that came with it & as most of the x owners have the sales cat with a list of colors, & options. I think as stated towards the end when they decided to not crash test two or so cars a year to comply they sold a few kits till inventory was depleted?
Cobra Duke is The Man on Excals & this is pretty much as he tells it.

Wendell

Mr Mustang,
FIRST time I have seen one of your posts that was wrong! At least partly. I was asked to leave CR'S when Excalibur was started. BUT they were not doing kits, exclusively Turnkeys. At that time they were DOT approved. When they did shut down or start to shut down they did sell the remaining cars as kits.

The post by flyboy is right on. When they DOT called/required extra cars for crash tests is when X decided to back out of the business.

DV

Guess I learn something new every day. Does anyone have a picture of the Federal DOT sticker off one of these cars?



Bill S.

I sold my Excalibur to a good friend of mine who later moved to California with the car. He is in a bind getting it registered there. Because it's not a SPCN he can't go with a SB100 registration. He has to bring the car back to full emissions standards like any other manufactured car on the road. The problem is the catalytic converters were removed some years ago. Originally the cats were mounted below the engine in a very complex and weak design that resulted in the original headers cracking and breaking, often! Currently the car is sitting while the owner tries to figure some way to put cats on it.

Anyone got any ideas?

Excalibur Cats
 

Earnie,
I bought mine out of the Santa Rosa area and it had passed smog the year before. It did not have the original cat system, but had some short high flow cats between shorty headers and the side pipe collectors (original). I have some photos and can provide them and take more if that will help. Have him email me at mduke8@gmail.com

Bill
Tom Hekkers (ohekk) estimates Excalibur made and sold about 135 complete DOT and EPA cobras. There are no known existing records, but Tom has two cars and made numerous vists to the old factory and knows several of the former employees who were there for the production run. I have collected VIN's from a variety of sources that span xxx123001 to xxx123167 and xxx123200 (a special project built in 2000). I have reports of a total of 78 cars with VIN's in that range. I have specific reports of other cars, but not the VIN's for an additional 20 plus cars with photos and/or locations and descriptions. These are either production cars with VIN's or "completion" cars (sold as incomplete cars after the factory stopped producing VIN numbered cars) or duplicates of one's I have VIN's for. I doubt there are many of the later as descriptions, locations and photos rule this out for most. I believe Tom's educated estimate is at least close to the actual number. The VIN's were not consecutive between or even during years. If you ask your insurance company to give you an estimate on an Excalibur JAC 427, 1997, VIN 1XACA2315VM123165, they will be able to insure it as any other 1997 DOT/EPA certified vehicle and will be able to check its value because they are listed in the insurance reference publications. That is not to say they will have any idea about this car until they look it up. Mine is insured on my basic auto policy and carries a regular vehicle registration and title for what it is. I can provide photos of the various certification decals that were affixed to the production cars. Send me an email as above.

Mike

Mike, email sent at ya!
Ernie