New Little Car

[ITSTOCK]

It's been a while since I've been on here, things seem to have slowed down a lot.

1965 Cobra Replica by Backdraft Racing. Dart block 351w stroked to 427, victor jr heads+intake/quick fuel 750 carb, xr294rf cam, 530hp/530tq in a car that weighs 2450#'s wet. 315 rears/255 front NT05's with Knock-off wheels, BMW IRS/ coil over suspension. And the color is ppg Ford Race Red.

It was completed about a month ago by Vintage Motorsports in CT (if you go to their webpage, it's Stephens 1109 in the customer gallery) and just delivered the other day. Their work is absolutely top notch, and the engine bay truly looks like a model car.

[blkZ06]

makes my peepee tingly

[mcperson2k]

Wooow nice. Cherish it now, it will never be this clean again lol

[lownslow95]

[1hightoy]

very nice...

[akley88]

nice car, one of my favorites

[Scapegoat]

dream car right here... not exactly what i'd get... but awesome. i'll have one some time in my 30's

[SHOdude]

****.. I didnt wear my boner pants lol. Beautiful car man.

[Nick 95 6sp]

I love it! The motor and the whole car looks fantastic. Good luck with it.

Whenever I see a nice Cobra it reminds me I would do one with a Chevy motor. I know that freaks out some but that would be my preference.

[tristatesentra]

sexy
i love it!!!

[ITSTOCK]

Originally Posted by Scapegoat

dream car right here... not exactly what i'd get... but awesome. i'll have one some time in my 30's

That's what's great about these cars, you can pick and choose what you want. Looking back on the build, there isn't much I would have done different other than a big brake upgrade kit, but I can do that once I find these are inadequate. The car manufacturer, engine, trans, options, everything is exactly how I pictured it. I did decide to add heated seats right before delivery though, which should prove to be a smart decision.

Originally Posted by Nick 95 6sp

I love it! The motor and the whole car looks fantastic. Good luck with it.

Whenever I see a nice Cobra it reminds me I would do one with a Chevy motor. I know that freaks out some but that would be my preference.

Thanks! I don't know why it would freak anyone out anymore, there are too many FFR's running around with LSX's to even blink.

[TNTramair]

ahhhhh....530hp in a go cart. enough power to weight that'll make you pucker your butt hole at the drop of the hammer. absolutely gorgous man...sweet pick up!

[Zdrummer15]

I'm so jealous of that car. I've yet to even ride in one of those let alone drive one, but I have to experience it someday.

[Supraholic]

Nicely done. She's a beaut!!! Congrats!

[Chefsp0t]

Man I'll bet that thing eats pavement for breakfast. Very nice!

[Scapegoat]

Originally Posted by ITSTOCK

That's what's great about these cars, you can pick and choose what you want. Looking back on the build, there isn't much I would have done different other than a big brake upgrade kit, but I can do that once I find these are inadequate. The car manufacturer, engine, trans, options, everything is exactly how I pictured it. I did decide to add heated seats right before delivery though, which should prove to be a smart decision.

definitely true and one of the joys of either building, or having one built.

if you don't mind me asking, how is their pricing all said and done? paid out right or sought a loan? how long is the wait from order to completion? are they good to work with when you don't really know what you want?

i always pictured building one... but i don't have the experience and don't want to learn on a car like this... so i'm leaning towards the have one built option within the next 5-10 years.

[itwillboost]

Dammmmmmmmmmmm lol. That car is beautiful. My girlfriend's aunt was just talking about how her first car was a 1964.5 mustang fastback. There is just a something special about cars like this.

[ITSTOCK]

Originally Posted by Scapegoat

definitely true and one of the joys of either building, or having one built.

if you don't mind me asking, how is their pricing all said and done? paid out right or sought a loan? how long is the wait from order to completion? are they good to work with when you don't really know what you want?

i always pictured building one... but i don't have the experience and don't want to learn on a car like this... so i'm leaning towards the have one built option within the next 5-10 years.

If you are looking in to them, I'm sure you're finding out that there are about 20 reputable replica/kit makers out there, and for this quality/price bracket for replica's, there are pretty much two, Backdraft Racing and Superformance. The backdraft doesn't have quite the original look as the Superformance retains, and the superformance is about $15k more. I thought that the overall quality of the backdraft was actually a bit nicer than the superformance, but the superformance did have more of a show ready paint job.

Here is the the backdraft pricing...
http://www.vintage-motorsports.com/configure/

You can get in to a very nice, basic one for about $50k, then the options start adding up. The options on mine ended up right around $62k. Also, the rolling chassis is do for a roughly $5k price increase in the coming months/year.

Loans are difficult to get on these cars, as they aren't "real" cars.

The time from order to completion is roughly 5 months, sometimes as quick as 3 month.

Vintage Motorsports is absolutely awesome to deal with. They have held conversations with some customers for literally hours, just discussing paint combination. I originally wanted silver with a single black stripe, then changed to red the next day. That was it, then at the end I decided I wanted heated seats, and there were no complaints from them. I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted before contacting them.

The replica cars like the Backdraft and Superformance aren't really "buildable" kit cars, they are complete rolling chassis minus the engine/drivetrain and options. There are a lot of kit car manufacturers, namely the FFR, that can either be built to the same quality for roughly the same amount of money, or turn out like ****. I've seen both ends of the spectrum, and everything inbetween. When it comes to resale though, the FFR's aren't very desirable do to the idea of a backyard build.

With your 5-10 year timeline, it's not even worth thinking about it unless you want something like a Kirkham that has a couple year waiting list, and is north of $100k.

[SHOdude]

So would it be more worth it to just buy a rolling chassis and build it?

Edit: just looked at the website... You may as well pay the extra ten grand and have some one else build it lol. Hows the resale value of these things?

[ITSTOCK]

Originally Posted by SHOdude

So would it be more worth it to just buy a rolling chassis and build it?

Edit: just looked at the website... You may as well pay the extra ten grand and have some one else build it lol. Hows the resale value of these things?

It's $36k for a bare bones rolling chassis, and I'm guessing the fixed dealer cost of that $36k is where the dealer makes money. I added up the receipts for the engine build alone, and there is around $12k in receipts, plus the trans/flywheel/clutch and other various accessories. They aren't making much on the engine deal, probably only a couple grand to install the drivetrain and tune it, plus alignment and fixing any other bugs the car might have. So you're paying $2k, maybe $3k in labor to get the car driving exactly as it should.

Resale is tricky, as the backdraft/superformance cars built 15 years ago are selling for more than what it cost back then, and the ones that were just built within the past couple years with x-xx thousand miles are retaining 90% plus of their original build price. And then figure in that the cost of the rolling chassis is going up another $5000 or so this year, so that only helps with the older car resale value. Resale is excellent, just how excellent is the question.

A finished kit car like a Factory Five unfortunately sucks in resale value though, and there are some excellent deals to be had.

This is a good place to check current prices
http://www.cobracountry.com/home2.html