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Originally Posted by Mr. Clean  I was unaware of his involvement in the replica market at all. I am of course a huge fan of what he has meant to the Ford Mustangs dating back to the 60s.
If the two of ya'll need supervising during the course of the project, give me a call. I'm pretty good at pointing and look all reflective.  |
Shelby hasn't really been involved with the replica market so to speak. My comment was more along the lines of he hasn't wanted anyone else to be involved either. Companies have been making fiberglass replicas for as long as I remember and he's sued most of them. This lawsuit is a pretty big deal in that he can no longer extort manufacturers or stop production of these kit cars. He's found a way to repackage his law suits and has held their feet over the coals several times. This judgment prohibits from suing again.
Shelby has his shop in Las Vegas. It's out by the race track. He uses inmates as a cheap labor source to build his vehicles. The ones that he builds aren't replicas. They are registered as an original Shelby Cobra all be it a current model year. His are much higher quality than most kit cars. They actually use a real aluminum body as opposed to fiberglass.
These bodies are manufactured by a company about 20 miles north of me. It's called TKO. The "K" stands for Kirkham but I don't know about the rest of it. They've contracted an air force contractor in Poland to build their aluminum bodies, Jaguar (clone) rear ends and a bunch of other parts. Apparently with the advent of Soviet Union break up this factory was just about ready to go under when TKO found them. They had been building MIG aircraft, a car body wasn't a big step for them. They've been in business together ever since. TKO has since purchased a part of this company and apparently it is doing well. They can build and import these cars much cheaper than doing it in the states.
TKO was one of the high end kit car companies about 15 years ago. Caroll Shelby approached them and they became an exclusive supplier to Shelby. His newly manufactured Cobras are in the 100K neighborhood give or take 20 grand depending on the options. They even make an all aluminum 427 FE Ford style block. Their work is beyond reproach but at the price it should be. I've seen these cars a bunch of times. Several owners in our area, one being TKO's owner. I've talked to him in the past. He's pretty confident in himself and his product. They don't paint the bodies, just a brushed aluminum finish. They're pretty cool. I think that Shelby will paint them once they get to Vegas.
I have a friend that has built one of the Factory Five kit car Cobra's. It is truly awesome. 514 CID with nitrous on top of it. The car weighs about 2500 lbs. and runs like a cut cat. It isn't very practical and is difficult to drive, just too light but it is extremely fast. His brother in law also a friend has an 05 Ford GT. He's run it to 215 m.p.h. He has paced the Cobra and it had to be shut down at about 185 mph. It started to float and not stable. It has much more in it but they don't know how to get it out of it.
To my knowledge the Daytona Coupe replica (the car I have pictured) is made by only two companies, Factory Five being one of them and a more expensive aluminum one made by a company out of South Africa (Superformance) and imported in to the states. I believe it also tops 100K. The Factory Five car is very nice and can be put together with all the bells and whistles for about 50K. This kit will even accommodate AC, something the original never had. Top Gear had one of the Superformance cars on their show and it was a 220 mph hour car. Anyway, I digress.
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