Having revisited the Cobra kit car market after many many moons have passed, it was both reassuring and somewhat worrying to see the state of the market.

When I last looked in the 1990's, there seemed to be new Cobra replicas arriving by the minute. Now, to be fair, many of these were absolute rubbish and I take my hat off to anyone who managed to build anything approaching a reliable vehicle from these kits. However, some of the stalwarts remain and some new names have joined the fray, such as XCS.

So my first task is and will be to get back up to speed with the current market. To that end, I have bought the mags and made the trip to Stoneleigh this weekend to spend some time on the JK Sports (Dax), XCS and AK stands. Oh, and to spend some time on the grass with the owners of actual builds.

I do know, having spent some quality thinking time on the subject, that I have some cornerstones in my project. Some I am sure will raise a few eyebrows (such as not having a Ford engine) and others may be no brainers, so here goes:

1. Chevy LS3 engine tuned to stage 2. Why? Because I want a relatively modern fuel injected engine that is sensible on emissions and fuel economy. Power wise I am looking for 500 bhp plus with plenty of torque. I would have gone with a Ford Coyote engine, but from the initial conversations I had with manufacturers, it is simply too wide an engine for the Cobra. It needs to be readily upgradable in the future (blower, throttle bodies, etc (not at the same time of course!)) and be pretty bullet proof. I don't want to reinvent the wheel, hence the Coyote was put on the no list, preferring a solution that won't take more time than I have to give.
2. Tremec T56 Magnum gearbox. Again, a well trodden path and with more meat than the TO600 box from what I can see. I love the sound of straight cut gears and would have dearly loved to fit a Quaife sequential gearbox, but at £10k plus for the 'box alone and no clear build path, I have put that on the no shelf too. Anyway, that's more for racing which is not currently on the agenda.
3. Oil Cooler - absolutely wanted, may not be needed but better safe that sorry.
4. Wiring / ECU etc - happy to go with a manufacturer loom, but it will need altering to include things such as radio / sat nav, tracker, alarm / immobiliser, USB ports etc. Not sure which ECU to use - needs some more thinking (not sure I have many options with the LS3 engine though?). 
5. Modern styling. What do I mean by this? Until a year or two ago I would have painted the car the classic blue with white stripes. I have a model on my bookshelf just like this that I have had for thirty plus years. My little pride and joy. But recently my mind has turned to something a little more "custom" in nature. The Cobra is a wonderful, nay stunning car to look at, but old school paint schemes seem to date the car. This was confirmed to me at the weekend at Stoneleigh. All the red, white, blue and red cars looked "dated" compared to the modern vibrant colours. And don't get me started on chrome. How to add 30 years to your cars age? Add chrome. Now, I DON'T want to have a full-on replica of an AC Cobra. They were awful things to drive with cart springs and such like. Rockets in a straight line but corners - they were for other folk. So, I want to build a car that has all the styling of a Cobra but the underpinnings of a modern sports car. For what it will cost to build a Cobra I could buy a good second hand Audi R8, which will never cause me a bit of trouble. But I can look out of my window and see plenty of these every day. I want something a little different, perhaps you could call it a "Restomod" in American parlance? So, the paintwork will be unsubtle - Blazing Orange, metal flake, something like that - and there will be no chrome. Well, there will be chrome but it will be black chrome. If it ever comes to re-sale, I fully understand that it will restrict my buyer audience, but I want to enjoy it between now and whenever that might be, and if I fancy a change I can always have it wrapped (even when it comes to sale time if buyers don't like my vision. Yes, the chrome will be a different kettle of fish, but I will cross that bridge when and if I come to it).
6. Exhausts - side pipes which will be ceramic coated for performance enhancement as well as looks. Needs the S/C look. 
7. Interior - most likely to be black with orange stitching. Diamond pattern. Seats will be the traditional Cobra shape, but I will fit heated seats and get a trimmer to do some shaping so that I can sit in them for more than half an hour before getting a bad back. I am a big chap, solid in the beam and liek a good set of bolsters on the back sides.
8. Lights - LED or HIG all the way. I cannot live with two candles lighting the road ahead. 
9. Wheels - 18" with big boots and deep dished. Black throughout. Halibrand style. Spinners.
10. Brakes - upgraded, vented, drilled and every other modern contrivance alongside high speed pads. If I can fit traction control / ABS I will - I don't fancy locking the wheels on this beast at 70+ mph if I can avoid it. 
11. Dash - jury is out, but the standard Cobra layout just doesn't yet do it for me. I need to be able to integrate a radio / sat nav with Apple CarPlay. The standard dash doesn't cater for that. I did see a car at Stoneleigh with a custom dash that looked great and had a big space under the centre which would take a single DIN unit. Not the usual layout either. Need to think on this one some more.
12. Future Proofing - I need to put some thought into how to add some future proofing to the build when I put the car together. Any thoughts and comments would be much appreciated here, but I am thinking of things such as return fuel lines to the fuel tank and such like, extra switched and always on power feeds from the fuse box (dash cam fitting perhaps), provision for parking sensors front and rear.