I recently stopped to talk with a guy at a local gas station that drove up with a AC COBRA CLONE , that looked really nice, the conversation was limited in time as he was in a rush to get some where , but he had built the car from a kit car project he bought fairly cheaply, when the original kit car owner lost his job and was forced to move out of state, yet even art a huge discount in the original cost he said he still has an easy $30K, in the car as the engine,tires and wheels, trans and rear differential and interior, and paint he added to the original project cost him more than $22K.
now I complemented him on a job very well done and he said the project took him over 4 years to complete and he was looking to sell the completed project for $37K!
he had a 4 speed manual and a 460 ford with aftermarket aluminum heads and a dual quad intake, the car was supposed to have 500hp.
now I was rather curious, when he said that,he was looking to sell the car after just completing it!
and when I asked him why he was looking to sell the answer struck me as rather silly.....he had not realized that he had no way to park the car safely , anyplace he went other than at home, he stated that because the car was an open 2 seat convertible top car, it was obviously only a mater of seconds for some jerk to slash the top to get access, and because of that he was afraid to leave the top up, as he didn,t want it slashed, and if the car was left with the top stored he had constantly seen people standing next to the car examining it and occasionally complete strangers would jump into the car and like kids sit in the drivers seat!, he was sure some intended on stealing the car...others were just curious how it felt to sit in a cobra!
BUT in any case he said he was constantly afraid the car would get damaged, deliberately trashed,or stolen, so he felt the car was far more of a hassle than the cars ownership and the fun driving it was worth.
now I fully understand exactly what he was referring too, as i used too own a 1968 corvette with a full roll cage , and crower injectors sticking out of the hood, and Id caught jealous , idiots on several occasions trying to pour soft drinks in the injector stacks or similar stupid stuff! I also got rather annoyed at the fact that I frequently got followed, by the local cops, any time I drove it, when driving the corvette on the street, because they all seemed to assume, after seeing the injector stacks sticking out of the hood,that I was mere , seconds from driving the car down local streets at 200 MILE PER HOUR every time they saw the car.
now I complemented him on a job very well done and he said the project took him over 4 years to complete and he was looking to sell the completed project for $37K!
he had a 4 speed manual and a 460 ford with aftermarket aluminum heads and a dual quad intake, the car was supposed to have 500hp.
now I was rather curious, when he said that,he was looking to sell the car after just completing it!
and when I asked him why he was looking to sell the answer struck me as rather silly.....he had not realized that he had no way to park the car safely , anyplace he went other than at home, he stated that because the car was an open 2 seat convertible top car, it was obviously only a mater of seconds for some jerk to slash the top to get access, and because of that he was afraid to leave the top up, as he didn,t want it slashed, and if the car was left with the top stored he had constantly seen people standing next to the car examining it and occasionally complete strangers would jump into the car and like kids sit in the drivers seat!, he was sure some intended on stealing the car...others were just curious how it felt to sit in a cobra!
BUT in any case he said he was constantly afraid the car would get damaged, deliberately trashed,or stolen, so he felt the car was far more of a hassle than the cars ownership and the fun driving it was worth.
now I fully understand exactly what he was referring too, as i used too own a 1968 corvette with a full roll cage , and crower injectors sticking out of the hood, and Id caught jealous , idiots on several occasions trying to pour soft drinks in the injector stacks or similar stupid stuff! I also got rather annoyed at the fact that I frequently got followed, by the local cops, any time I drove it, when driving the corvette on the street, because they all seemed to assume, after seeing the injector stacks sticking out of the hood,that I was mere , seconds from driving the car down local streets at 200 MILE PER HOUR every time they saw the car.
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