[tom406]

I'll weigh into these murky waters. I will speak with the experience of someone who always wanted a Shelby and always found them just out of reach. And as someone who bought a mostly cloned '66 GT350H and put my own finishing touches on it.

Turns out I'm not a clone guy. I understand the frustration you had with the whole its-not-really-yours '55 gasser deal. Trouble is, I doubt you will enjoy the constant buzzkill of "Is it real" any more than you enjoyed the references to the previous owner of the already-restored gasser. It's basically a similar deal, people's perception lessening your pride of ownership in a car you are proud of.

And while I'm in the camp that thinks real parts belong on real cars (Shelby clones are pretty easy with repop stuff), I'm not going to verbally beat you up for your choices. HOWEVER, I will say that real parts on a clone are a foolish investment. I have a friend who bought a painstakingly sourced and replicated (all NOS, all the time) GT500 for little more than what the parts on it were worth. And that's why he got it, a parts car to restore his REAL GT500.

I understand that you will be able to do this work yourself, but how many of us have seen the receipts for these "correct" clones exceed the market value of a real car? I know of another GT500 clone that sold for $50K, it had total receipts for something like $125K. Hey, that's what a good (not great) real-deal car goes for now.

If you have everything you need to accurately clone a '69 Yenko, then by gosh, you have everything you need to RESTORE a '69 COPO, don't you? That's a much better investment of your time and resources IMO.

Good luck with whatever you do,
TOM