Messages

Sounds like the car has basically been built off what was originally just a display piece.  It never was originally a Cobra, and it was never assigned a VIN by AC or Shelby. 

In which case, my thought is you're buying the car for what it is a replica built on a correct frame.  You're not buying it for the history necessarily, which is where the value of original cobras separate from some of the most correct replicas.  It's fairly well listed about the history in the auction, but it's easy to get excited and overlook 1 detail (although I hope anyone spending $250k is detailed).

What I don't like, is that whoever created it into what it is now, has attempted to confuse and deceive an unknowing buyer by requesting and entering a VIN so close to an original Cobra.  Changing an O to a 0 is a common trick people use to bypass or cause confusion.  Now that it's been done though, it's tough to undo as the car has an established history under it's current VIN.

I didn't get the chance to read the full BaT auction but sounds like the owner was inflating his auction.  Just shows the owner doesn't have much integrity and is willing to go to extreme measures to inflate the value of his car versus selling it for what it is and how it is.

Interested in the distributor if you're willing to separate, sent you an email.

I hope Ned is getting some of the $100. Most of the info in the book comes from his years (I'd guess well over 50) of research, note and photo taking.

Not sure on how the $$ is being handled nor do I care as long as some is reinvested into keeping it all sustained, but Ned is definitely involved.  My father-in-laws car (CSX2410) was getting updated on the registry as I had provided the information to Ned.  At the time, he would have been the only one with the details as we were waiting to post anything public until we had the car into a restoration shop with fairly detailed ownership and history chain defined.

Who is managing or maintaining the online registry? 

I purchased subscription, and while the information is great it can be a bit cumbersome to navigate when trying to do mass research.  Works great if you want to look at one specific car, but so far I have not found an easy way to go car to car (think turning the page of the registry).  From what I can see every time I have to go back to the list and then select another car.  Was wanting to look at details of cars around mine, but then each time having to go back to list, search, and re-enter is quite slow.

Would be also nice if there was a way to just access all the pictures.  When selecting photo gallery, there's minimal pictures.  There's a massive database behind with pictures of every car.  So if I'm looking for a detailed picture of some component, would be good to utilize the pictures of all cars to maybe find few examples that exist.