[naw]

I drive a Marlin Kit - as much as I love my Marlin, I yearn for a Cobra. My Marlin isn't an authentic reproduction of the Alpha Romeo 6C, but it has elements of the 1930's Alpha styling. When people say "Nice Morgan" I love telling them it's just a Sierra in a pretty frock;-) (and it is a very pretty frock).

I would love to build a Kit, but I don't have the cash, the facilities, the time or (if I'm to be honest) the talent - so realistically I know that if I do buy a donor and a kit, it'll end up on eBay in a few years as another disappointing unfinished project with several thousand burnt away and all for nothing. Even if I did, would I trust my kids in a car that I've built form the ground up? Well, nope, probably not.

As far as I know all the Cobra self-builds are hardcore automotive projects that are beyond my reach. This Z3 Kobra, however, appears to be a potential *novice* project requiring some panel swaps and no IVA and which should retain the structural integrity and mechanical/electrical reliability benefits of the original (BMW Z3).

Why even bother to compete with the DAX/Sumo's/BRA/Gardener Douglas/RAM/ Cobras that mostly sit in a garage only to be driven on a perfect day? My Marlin is my only car, I drive it every day (about 12,000 miles per year) and in all weather: snow, ice, wind, rain and occasionally even on sunny days. It cost me £5K and I love it, but it does leak which is annoying and it is pure comedy watching me get in/out of it. If it were a £45K Morgan it would live in a garage (which I don't own) only to come out on beautiful sunny days.

So "Tribute Automotive", please, produce a Cobra body kit that I can just nail onto a Z3, please don't chop the windscreen so I can't drive it every day or replace the leaking hood with a standard Z3 soft top, please don't require me to make chassis mods so that I need to IVA it and then drive it nervously until my crappy welds finally fail and kill me while hurtling down the motorway on a wet Monday morning on the way to work.

I am *Madabout kitcars*, but I'm not hardcore and I am a mechanical moron. Woodwork, plastering, home electrics, plumbing, tiling - yes. Car mechanics, no. But I would love to *have a go* and while the Dax/Gardener Douglas owner/builder/drivers will no doubt look down on my Z3 Kobra with slightly unauthentic lines, I will be enjoying driving my Kobra most days while their dogmatic authentic copies fester in a garage only to be driven two or three times a year on sunny days and the wind blows in just the right direction.