First UK Cobra Replica

[Robin427]

Excuse my ignorance, but which company made the first Cobra replica in the UK? There's probably a history around somewhere but I'm too drunk to search properly...

[tonym]

Originally Posted by Robin427

Excuse my ignorance, but which company made the first Cobra replica in the UK? There's probably a history around somewhere but I'm too drunk to search properly...

Guess you've just got in then Robin

[Robin427]

Originally Posted by tonym

Guess you've just got in then Robin

Yes, but I'm in Brazil so it's not actually as late as you think

[robinj66]

Thank goodness - i thought you'd just taken off

[ramcobra123]

Some say Pete & Mart's Python, although DJ sports cars (DAX) were very early starters based on the Arntz body shell from the States, via Germany I think ....... ? Don't quote me on this as there is bound to be someone more knowledgeable than me on the forum, they can spell better as well I suspect.

Happy flying.

[stevee8]

Possibly a Beribo (ie B.R.A.) circa 1981 ?

[dingocooke]

http://cobraclub.specialistcommuniti...=cobra+history this extract from the above thread answers i think

'In the UK there’s long been arguments over who was the first company to produce a Cobra replica. In 1978 DJ Sportscars who were making GRP spoiler kits for the ‘go-faster’ brigade were making a two-piece Cobra body for a German customer but there was no chassis, as the body was bashed about to fit BMW’s and the like. One day the guy never came to collect a consignment and the company’s sales manager of the time Adrian Cocking (later of Ram) kept nagging MD Brian Johns to do something with the bodies because he could see a good market in the UK for them. These cars became known as the ‘Exchange & Mart’ cars because that is where the company placed anonymous adverts for them. Soon they were so swamped with enquiries that the postman used to bring vanloads of mail each day. Incidentally it was Cocking who coined the ‘DAX’ name after reading a Harold Robbins novel with a hero called Dax. By early 1981 Brian Johns could see the potential for ‘proper’ kits with a chassis and some involvement with a guy called Dave Perry who had gained access to an American body produced by Steve Arntz that had been available since 1976 in California. This body has spawned the majority of the other Cobra replicas both past and present and also began the legend that became known as the Dax Tojeiro after later chassis input from John Tojeiro a man with history steeped in AC Ace history. Initially DJ were getting basic frames from Hanson Engineering run by a mad Kiwi called Pat Hanson. Indeed the ‘Toj’ goes from strength to strength and the latest derivative has de Dion suspension no less.'