Messages

Thank you for your reply, but the car has found a new home for the time being anyway. It will likely end up for sale again, but a couple well versed Cobra people ended up with the car for now. Thanks again!

I like he is already saying he has a supercharged 67 GT 350.

Is there any doubt that will be at auction?

Was there any way to corroborate that his '67 is the car he claims it to be? Will SAAC confirm that car to be what he claims when the only thing that indicates it may be is the transmission? Everything else on that car had been replaced, what makes them so sure that the transmission is original to the car?

I live in Missoula Montana and we have several warehouses around town that are filled with high end cars, I've been through a couple of these warehouses myself. I've seen Cobras, a Ferrari prototype, a Tucker and countless other very cool cars. My understanding is that these owners ship their cars to Montana, register them there and store them there for a year. Once they have been registered for a year they transfer the ownership from their Montana LLC address, which is typically a PO Box, to their address in their home state under the pretense that they are moving it from their "property" in Montana to their home address. This way the car is not running around with a Montana license plate in their hometown. You don't have access to your car while it's being stored in Montana unless you come to visit it, but I know this is how some people are getting around it.

I've been to several car shows in other states and seen cars that have never seen a street in Montana with Montana plates, including several SAAC meets. I have pictures of the Cannonball Run Cobra with Montana plates. I'm pretty sure that car has never seen a Montana road.

I've never liked this program, to me it's the State of Montana aiding and abetting tax evasion in other states, but it's been going on for years. Some people in Montana have made a very nice living over the years in this business. To me a simple solution would be for other states to change their registration rules. Have the percentage reduced as the sale price of the car escalates. Make it be too much hassle to register your cars out of state for the tax savings.

One thing they mention in the video which I don't understand is they say that the cars are registered for five years. Not sure what they are referring to as I have never seen cars registered for more than one year unless it is over ten years old, then you can register them permanently for what amounts to about three years of taxes. Most of my cars are permanently registered.

Here are the pictures of 1128 that I took in 1981, the first two taken in Deer Lodge Montana. The one that shows it with Cragars was taken after it moved to Missoula after being sold for $3800. That's the pic that shows the strange little square taillights that were added at some point.

Just completed a deal on this 69 GT500. Contracted with Reliable to bring from NoCal to Vegas. WHILE UNLOADING the car, as they unstrapped the wheels, they say the car "popped" out of park, (Emergency brake was not on) and the car rolled back into the truck causing the damage you see below. Needless to say, I was not happy. More heartbroken than mad, this is my childhood bucket list car. So we'll see how Reliable handles this, the damage isn't massive, the rear bumper is bent, fiberglass corner gouged, little spot on the rear quarter dented by the bumper. I had used Reliable before with zero problems. But, stuff happens, everybody makes mistakes, it was a bad day for everyone. The couple driving for Reliable were very nice and really bummed that this happened on their watch. Like I said, we'll see how Reliable handles it. I know plenty of places here in town that can do a proper repair job, so time will tell...I'll let you know!You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.

They still have a website, call them

I did the day I posted this question, but it's nice to get other people's opinions about companies rather than just accepting what they tell you. Very nice gentleman answered the phone and was able to answer a couple questions about the car. I called him back a couple days later and he was equally as helpful. I can see why other people on here have had very nice things to say about them.

If anyone knows of somebody looking for a very nice Cobra replica that is one of Unique Motorcar's kits there is one for sale in Las Vegas. According to the gentleman who rebuilt the engine it has a true Ford 427, not a side oiler. The car shows 7300 miles on it, the engine was rebuilt more recently than the build of the car. Priced in the high 50's.

I'm guessing even at the 300k "high bid" at Kissimmee... it was likely the popcorn machine in the back of the arena that was the high bidder.

    Yeah, probably! 

    And I'm not naive enough to not realize such as being often the case; as an old auctioneer friend said to me: "there's an a$$ for every seat, and we bring out the best!" 

    I've always wanted to be that guy, who stood up in auction gallery and yield out:  "Hold up, hold up!  Just out of curiosity, who here just put-in that last ridiculously astronomical bid, on this car, the one right there currently on the block?  . . . . . . . . . Anyone?"" 

    Scott.

I was the used car manager at a new car dealership back in the 90's. We often referred to it as bidding against the Coke machine. The auctioneers at the everyday auctions, not classic auctions would typically run you up to the reserve if you were the only person actually bidding on the car, and of course the consignor was usually there protecting his car as well. You just needed to have a number in mind you were willing to pay, sometimes you get what you feel is a good buy, but you have to be willing to just walk away if it goes beyond your number. At a no reserve auction I'm sure the auctioneers are very good at making it look like there's more bidders than there actually are.

It might just indicate how a lot of buyers are not so concerned about concourse correct cars. They want something that looks the part. Apparently, this car sold for $440,000 a couple years ago, that has to be close to a record price for a '67 GT500, right?

I posted this in the comments on the BAT site so I didn't post it here earlier, but I was looking at this car when it was for sale in Deer Lodge, Montana in 1981. At that time it had the 390 in it, the taillights had been replaced with some weird little square lights that I did not recognize from any other model of car. The interior was almost perfect, as it was a very low mileage car. It was kind of a flat black color, but you could see under the hood that it had been metal flake green at one time. It had huge tires sticking way out past the wheel wells, it was a nasty looking car. I have a few pictures of it from back then which I would post but I don't have access to them right now. I got back from my honeymoon and called about the car but it had been sold to a buddy of mine for $3800 while I was gone. I called him about it and he said he only bought it because he knew he could have it restored and sold in a year. Ten years later he sold it for $10,000, all he had done to it in those ten years was pull the 390 out, sell that and let the car sit. He never got around to restoring it. I was disappointed that the car got away from me, but I ended up with a much nicer a year and half later. There were actually 2 '67 GT500's in Deer Lodge at that time, the other one ended up at the Lemay museum in Tacoma Washington.

Thanks for the tip!

I'm helping an elderly neighbor try to figure out what her Cobra replica may be worth. Her husband recently passed away, it was his car, and she'd like to sell it. It's a Unique Motorcars vehicle which is out of Gadsden Alabama. Is anyone familiar with their cars?

It was advertised on an Idaho Craigslist page too.

Allen's GT350H is one of the first Shelbys I saw as a teenager in the 70's right here in Missoula, Montana. I had told the previous owner that I would love to own the car if he ever decided to sell it. Somewhere around 1978 he brought it to my parents' house so we could look it over as he had decided to part with it. Unfortunately, he had promised it to another acquaintance, so he had to contact him to see if he still wanted it. As luck would have it he did, so it slipped away. The sad thing is the guy who bought it was a car dealer, so it got sold again right away. Took me a few more years to find a Shelby, but in '82 my wife and I purchased '67 GT500 #589, we still own it. If I would have ended up with Allen's car I'm sure I'd still own it! It was good to see it again at SAAC 50! Saw it at an International Mustang Meet a few years ago too. Still looks as nice as it did back in the 70's!

I've owned one for close to 30 years. Very fun car. I tell people we have 20 year anniversary models, a '67, '87 and '07!

Thanks for the input, we are aware of the color being charcoal. It's interesting thst the car with the rollbar donut that JD posted a picture of appears to have the eyelet washer as well. We were wondering if some were added at SA after they removed the interior panel to install the rollbar and rear brake ducting. They were on mine when I bought it in '82 and they're on this one that hasn't been apart since the 70's when the previous owner put speakers in the interior panels. Hard to know at this point. It would be interesting to know if any if the low mile originals out there have them. At this point it's probably anyone's guess, but since regular Mustang fastbacks didn't have them it's probably safe to bet they aren't supposed to be there. Are points docked for them in concourse judging?