> From: "GERONIMO, SC9-32, 765-4903, PAGE 231-6478" <GENDIMEN@T12SYS.intel.com>
> Subject: V8 Healey (was sinister idea) and rkgs address
> To: british-cars@autox.team.net
>
>
>
>
> There were also a couple of Cobras that were very nice, but being ignorant
> about them I didn't know if they were the real thing or kit cars. How can you
> tell the difference between the two? Roland, I'm sure you can tell me.
Well, I can spot one from a fair distance being intimately familiar but
even if you've never seen one before there are lots of sure fire
give-aways. If it's a "427" then the odds are probably 50 to one that
it's a fake. Almost all of the replica builders make 427s exclusively.
But the easiest to spot give-away is a plastic body. Grab a fender. If
it's 1/4" or more thick, it's a fake. The wheels are another fairly
easy to spot give-away. Most 289s have wire wheels so a wire wheeled
Cobra is most likely the real thing. 427s all had alloy wheels with
pin-drive hubs and big winged knock-offs. These wheels are still
obtainable but are very expensive and require special hubs. A replica
with repro Halibrands will add about $5k to the cost. Most of these
cars have bolt-ons. And, of course, the interiors of replicas are
usually very different from the original and tend to be more elaborate
with built-in consoles with fancy glove boxes, often have radios and are
typically padded. And endless other more subtle differences.
There's one replica that gets shown a lot locally that's black, has
Halibrands and Carroll Shelby's signature scrawled across the dash. This
car belongs to Downs Racing. Lewis Downs builds replicas in Castro
Valley and is very active in the Nor-Cal chapter of SAAC. He also
has a replica Daytona Coupe he takes to different car shows.
|