Insanity is a gradual thing for some individuals. Occasionally, however, it sneaks up on you and without so much as a hello, you are stark raving mad. Thus my explanation for building my own 1965 AC Cobra replica. Like the early symptoms of a cancer, the "wanna build my own car" disease sneaks up on you, and it all seems so innocent. For me, it was like that.
First, I had a Dodge Coronet Station Wagon, that I used as part of the family transportation fleet (of one). One could not say that this represented a desirable and fashionable vehicle for the young man about town in the late 1970's. In fact, a large underpowered land boat with a temperamental carburetor that refused to work when the relative humidity exceeded 25%, which was almost every day in Newfoundland, where I lived at that time.
My second vehicle (of sorts since I bought it with my wife) was a Mazda GLC four dour sedan. I truly believe that the salesman saw us coming from miles away. It was the first vehicle we outright bought, and the experience left me with a sinking feeling that I had just been taken advantage of by some smooth operators. Once again, not vehicle that instilled testosterone in the young male psyche. But, it was practical (read not fun to drive).
Onward, and within a few years, a wife, a daughter and one car.... time to remedy this. What next? A sporty little two door, with lots of power and pizzazz. Of course, the first choice would be a 1972 Volvo 142 bought second, or third hand. The most that could be said was that it was safe and it had great "pound for dollar" value. I recall it was $500 and about 4000 pounds. Can't beat that math. I didn't have a guru back then who would have said, "uh Rick, maybe that equation is wrong... it should be horsepower to dollar value dude."
More to come...
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