Draft order form

 

NOTE: If you are new to blogs, you need to know that posts are sorted with the newest post at the top. There is a post below this one that you might want to read first.

This is extremely tentative. Revisions will be provided by Grant, our Chief Mechanic, once we get a chance to review it with the team. Note that some of these items are esoteric and well beyond the scope of knowledge of the Marketing & Publicity Department.

These order form pages are in reverse order, and the price down at the very bottom is for the base kit with no options. The price at the top is just a starting point - there are many decisions yet to be made that may add or remove costs. 

There is also the matter of the engine and transmission selection. There are many, many options for engines with a wide spread of costs - all we know for sure right now is that it will be a V-8.

I have loaded up a sample order sheet - there are options upon options. 

Note: click on each page to open a larger version that will be much easier to read.

Also note that the sample selections are very likely to change. This was primarily an exercise in determining a budget. At the moment we're trying to keep it under $30,000, and that includes the shipping - that is likely to be relatively expensive, but it won't be known until we make the order.

We don't need to order everything all at once, but buying pieces/parts later will only serve to increase the overall shipping charges. 

Welcome to the Cabella Car Company

Welcome to the Cabella Car Company. For the sake of efficiency, by which we mean "to make typing easier," we will hereafter be referred to as the C³.

With that out of the way, let's get right down to it. The one and only purpose of C³ is the assembly of a Factory Five Cobra. For those who have not had the pleasure of Factory Five Cobras, we will take a little time to introduce Factory Five (F5 from here on out) as a whole before we dig into the subject of the Cobra. Before we can even begin that, we need to ensure that you have an understanding of the product produced by F5. F5 manufactures kit cars. 

As is probably obvious from the term "kit cars," F5 produces automobiles that are built by their purchasers. F5 is a well established company that started from a single type of kit, which is a replica of a Carrol Shelby designed race car. Over the years F5 added additional cars to their lineup. Rather than duplicate F5's website here, we will offer up a link to their website. Take a moment to peruse their lineup of vehicles, but make sure to click on the "Roadster" menu it. If you want to get right to the salient point, just click here. For the impatient few, this picture will replace a thousand words.

F5 is by no means the only manufacturer of Cobra kit cars, but they are by far the largest and most successful. Their Cobras are not, however, exact replicas. That matters to some people, but we prefer to have the stability of a long-term business with hundreds of loyal customers. The existence of literally hundreds, if not thousands, of successful builders out there to provide peer-level technical support is also a very important aspect. This is an exact parallel to the decision to build a Van's RV-12 kitplane rather than a more unique kit. 

We are also entering this project at a time when the Cobra kit has gone through decades of improvements in both the finished product and the kit itself. The precise name of the car we will be building is the Factory Five Mk4 Roadster. The "Mk4" stands for "Mark 4," which in turn means "the fourth level of improvement." We will again avoid copying and pasting a deeper description of the car on these pages and simply provide you with a link to the official source. 

A few notes: you will see a few variants within the Mk4 family; we aren't looking at the 289 variant, the hallmark of which is a far more accurate replica, or the Challenge car, which is more of a race car than street car. It is important to decide what nature of car you want from the get-go because it will influence the list of options that need to be selected at the time of ordering the kit. It will also have an strong influence on engine choice. In our case, we are looking for a light, nimble car that can be enjoyed in day-to-day driving rather than a drag race "straight but blistering fast" type. 

All of that having been said, this is very early days in the formation of C³ and pretty much everything is subject to change. There are quite a few logistical decisions to be made as well. The build site is obvious - one of the partners has a very well equipped shop including a car lift, welding equipment, and tools Harbor Freight and Craftsman have never even heard of. In our next post, we will navigate through the lengthy order form. We will just leave this here to whet your appetite: