I don't have a Cobra yet, still saving. I spend a lot of time on the FFR board because it is so busy. I learn a lot from there, but this forum is a lot slower! I know the reason is they have sold many more Cobras, but still. The price difference is making me lean towards a Hurricane, but I'm not 100% sure yet.
The public area of this forum sees activity in spurts. It does often go a few days at a time with little activity.
Before you drop Hurricane from consideration based on forum activity, consider a few things:
1. You're only seeing the public side of this forum. The private side, restricted to Hurricane owners, has much greater activity and many thousands of posts covering all aspects of the build. This forum is run by the Hurricane company, so they're obligated to exercise some discretion and control over what appears here. The FFCobra forum, while sponsored by FFR, isn't owned by them. Anyone can join, read and post there, on any topic. Also, as you pointed out, FFR has delivered 5,000+ kits, vs. Hurricane's ~125 -- that means a lot more forum activity for FFR.
2. Considering the amount of money you're contemplating spending on this project, you owe it to yourself to investigate fully before you decide on a kit. Visit the factories, talk to the owners, and get all of your questions answered. Ignore the companies' marketing B.S. and make up your own mind. Judge the cars on their merits, considering what you want from the experience of building and driving a Cobra, and what you plan to use the car for.
3. Talk to owners of the cars you're considering and if possible, visit them in person for a look at their cars. I've so far visited with three Hurricane owners, and I highly recommend you do the same. To a man, they're a great bunch of people and are very happy to show off their cars and answer your questions.
Do all that, and I think you'll agree that the Hurricane compares quite favorably to the FFR, especially in accuracy to the original Cobras, quality of engineering and included parts, and value for money.
Cheers,
-Eric
P.S. No, I don't work for Hurricane and I don't own one of their cars (yet...).
jtart2,
I can't add anything to what Eric said. He's is giving you very good advice. I know he has been researching Cobras for quite awhile and has come to the Northwest and inspected every square inch of my Hurricane.
There are a few Hurricane owner/builders that have built other brands of Cobras as well. Talk to them if you want an "informed" opinion vs. a biased one.
Good luck in your search.
Jim
Jtart2,
I suggest you take a look on the Cobra Club site and look under HurricaneMotorsports. You'll find additional information there regarding Hurricane cobras.
Another reason for the lack of available infornmation is, you can't get to the "dark side" of the HMS form until you buy a car..sorry, thats were all the good stuff lives. ;D
My advice, take some time and research all the replicas to determind which one is the best fit for you.
Have fun, Bill ;) I think you'll find that Hurricane is one of the best.
I haven't decided on who I will buy from yet (when I do). I was just wondering why the traffic is so slow here. I like what I see from Hurricane, but I've never seen a real one. I live in Raleigh, NC, but don't know anyone who has one around here to look at.
Anyone nearby?
jtart2,
I agree with all the owners comments above but the dark side is anything but slow, alot of good car conversation going on there.
Ron
Also keep in mind that there are only 281 registered users.
Jtart2
Quotejtart2,
I agree with all the owners comments above but the dark side is anything but slow,
QuoteFirst of all, I appreciate the interest in this topic. For those of you that do not know, I would like to explain that this is a private forum run entirely by Hurricane Motorsports. We host it, we moderate it and we allow no advertisers here. We run it entirely for the benefit of our customers (past, present and future). We have two main areas in our forum: A public area open to everyone that contains questions about Hurricane's cars from prospective customers as well as posts by our existing customers wanting to show off their cars to the public and answer questions. We also have a private side dedicated exclusively to the use of our existing customers. Now, I understand the desire of our potential customers wanting to have access to the private side of the forum. But, as a company, we have decided that it is important to give our existing customers an area that is exclusively for their private use. They are free to post and discuss topics without regard as to who might be reading it. It is a constructive and collaborative environment that most of our customers find extremely helpful during their build. Of course, all of our customers are free to discuss their build on the public side of the forum as they want. Many have even set up their own websites that document their build.
We currently have roughly a 3-to-1 ratio of posts on the private side to the public side. As our customers will attest, there is a wealth of information on the private side of the forum. However, none of it is secret or intentionally hidden. There are no hidden gotcha's on the private side - just real world solutions, tips, and discussions. As most of you know who have done your research, our company's product and service is very highly regarded by our current and past customers.
The private side is a forum dedicated solely to our customers and offers them a carefree environment that our they can use to help ensure that they have as productive and enjoyable build as is possible. Marketing and sales are very important to us (as it is for any company), but we weigh that against the fact that, in this business, the most critical time for new kit owners is the time between the delivery of the kit and the completion of the kit. If not handled properly, this is the time when folks will abandon their build if they don't feel they have the resources needed to complete it. We have an extremely high completion rate of our builds. Yes, we know that it might help with sales to open the private side of the forum, but we are not willing to compromise the primary purpose of that part of the forum: helping current customers be successful in their builds. In the end, we want to help our customers to complete their build in the most positive and enjoyable way possible so that when asked, they can recommend Hurricane Motorsports without hesitation.
Not sure if you got to read my reply before it was deleted or not.
Must have offended someone.
Too bad, in reality it was, IMHO, pretty supportive of HM in general, just not in relation to this Dark Side issue.
Dugly :(
Doug,
I don't think any posts of yours (or anyone else) were deleted. Maybe it moved to the next page? I see your post right before D_Cook's. Send me a PM if something still seems out of wack.
QuoteDoug,
I don't think any posts of yours (or anyone else) were deleted. Maybe it moved to the next page? I see your post right before D_Cook's. Send me a PM if something still seems out of wack.
Not sure what happened, then, Rich.
I checked with everyone and no one "moderated" it. I have had a similar experience though. I think it is some kind of timeout issue in the forum software. I have taken to creating my large posts in a text editor and pasting them in. I have lost large posts and I know it is frustrating. Sorry about that.
How do you even get access to the owners forum? do I have to have actually taken delivery of my kit before I get access?
I was given access once I made the deposit on the car.
Jim
I have recently started researching Cobra companies. I also wondered about the lack of activity on this board. Obviously now I know that I only have access to the non owner section. But until I found that out, the lack of apparent activity concerned me. As one poster suggested, having read only access would be great for us non owners.
Thanks
Bill M.
Josh,
Sorry about that.