Grab some popcorn or just click the Build Journal button. This can get a bit long.
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In 1997, my 88' Volkswagen GTI was getting long in the tooth so I started to look for a replacement vehicle. I was looking through a magazine rack on various cars and came across "Kit Car Magazine". I thumb through it a bit and only one type of car really caught my eye: Cobra replicas. After all, there were no less than 6 ads from various manufacturers: Lone Star, Unique, Everett-Morrisson, ERA, Contemporary, Midstates and Factory Five Racing.
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Alas, towards the end of the year, my 2nd daughter was born. Ironically, my oldest daughter chose the name: Shelby.
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I eventually bought a 1998 VW Passat as a sports car does not make a good kid hauler, but the lines of the car that Carroll Shelby brought to the US was forever imprinted in my mind. I was on a long mission towards owning such a car some day.
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By 2003, I had collected a lot of pamphlets from the companies listed, joined a few forums, went to a few cars and coffee's that were Cobra specific and it was getting hard to hold back. As fate had it, a gentleman from Nevada had trailered a Cobra replica, based off an old 1963 or 64' Corvette. He parked it along a busy street with a For Sale sign. I asked my wife if we could stop to take a look. This was her first time looking at a replica in person.
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While I was not impressed with the build (the Corvette was a raced car and caught fire as the owner did elaborate the reason the Corvette was rebodied), my wife 'finally' understood why I loved this body style so much. She actually liked it.
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That same year, we were helping her sister buy a new car, a Toyota Highlander. My wife came along with me in tow to look as well but were were not necessarily going to buy... that all changed when she saw the 'then' new Highlander and jokingly told the salesman : if you give us BOTH a good deal, we'll take one; we drove the poor salesman hard that it MUST be a both cars getting the best deal. If one fell short, he'd lose the sale of both. Eventually we got our new Highlander with a lot of jawing.
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She was ecstatic with her new car... so much so, that a month later, she finally agreed to allow me to start on the project that I've dubbed "Snake Venom". At the time, I was slightly caught off guard and had no real budget or timeline in mind but I told her initially, I think it would be about $25-30K and 5 years.
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In October of 2003, the project began. I truly love my wife!!!
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-Herman "289FIA_Cobra" Hong