Cobra Replica

[Breecher_7]

hehehe, i think there is enough said there. Wondering if I should start seaching Ebay or just buy a new one......

[Breecher_7]

Well i guess were going to be going with "the complete" from mid state classics. Seems like the logical choice unless i find somthing better in the mean time. Thanks Jeff, im sure im going to have a TON of questiosn in the near future.

[BOSS LX]

Imo, the factory five kit is the ONLY way to go.

[MurphysLaw88GT]

Imo, the factory five kit is the ONLY way to go.

i have heard this as well

[Breecher_7]

i will look into this as well, Thanks guys!

[SLOWC5]

If you want the best you will buy the Superformance kit! They were sued by carroll shelby some years back as their kit was too close to the original cobra design.

[Arigmaster]

I should have paid closer attention a few years ago when Excalibur shut down.

I was leasing the front portion of the building from Yenz Gutlinger (Owner at the time) while they were building the motorcycle trailers. In the rear area, he had a complete set of molds for building a Cobra replica and there were 3 or four bodys that were at various stages of completion. There was one that was completed. (prototype)

Anyway, I was told that the project was abandoned for the same reason that most of these companies stopped producing neo-classics and other such cars. It was because of government crash testing requirements. Each manufacturer had to surrender X amount of cars for safety testing each year before the cars could be produced and sold on the market. Well, when you are talking about hand built cars that have limited production capability it pretty much killed the entire market.

I moved my operation downtown when I merged with another company (Coakley) and a short time later I learned that Yenz had left the country leaving his family behind with a pile of judgements, and screwed his employees as well. Excalibur was gone.

Allied had bought the building and property from the bank but all the stuff inside the shop/plant area became the property of a woman who I believe used to work for Excalibur years ago. She told me that she had bought it all as a "LOT" from the bank or someone at auction. I think I remember saying that she was shipping everything to her place down near Racine and her plans were eventually either sell the molds, or have them produced overseas and sell the them as kit cars to avoid the crash testing requirements. I lost touch with her from there.

There were three old rail road cars along side the building and every mezanine space in the building was filled with production molds for every Excalibur car ever built, the Cobra project, some sort of car top carrier, and parts for the trailers they were building. I don't know what ever came of it all but if they are still in the lady's posession, I bet the kits could be built locally if someone really wanted to venture into it. The hard part would be finding the lady again...

[07ROUSHSTG3]

Imo, the factory five kit is the ONLY way to go.

i will second that. the only bad part is finding a good donor car. a good buddy put one together last year using factory fives kit. for the motor they put a 331 stroker in it. dynoed the motor at 453 horsepower, that car MOVES!! he was going to do another one this year but i bought his donor car from him,LOL. i might have some pics, i will post if i find it. i was thinking of doing one so i may even have the instruction booklet laying around somewhere.

[Moparjim]

I vote Factory Five as well. I have been tempted many times...

That Greg guy built one a few years back, that thing was AWESOME.

[BOSS LX]

I thought about it to, but they say they get real loose above 140 mph.