I never have owned a kit car but I know several people who built/own a Cobra replica. These cars are a blast to drive and can be reliable, but that really depends on who is the manufacturer of the kit car. You can spend days surfing the net trying to determine who builds a quality kit/replica. If you are looking for a Cobra, check out this site (
http://www.clubcobra.com/). I have been tempted several different times to build a Cobra, but I have the same excuse as most guys (spending quality time with the family and sending most of my play money to my son at Auburn). I do know one guy that built a Factory Five car and he drives it several times a month. He didn’t go with a wild motor because he uses it as a semi-daily driver AND he wanted a motor that didn’t require a lot of maintenance. If I was going to buy a kit car, I would stay with the FE style motors because (statistically/historically speaking) they will hold their value much better than the small block Fords. The only exceptions to that “rule-of-thumb” are the FIA cars; the FIA cars ran small block Fords. Don’t even think about using a Chevy motor….....it’s just not right to stick a Chevy motor in a car that Carroll Shelby built around the Ford engines.
DISCLAIMER - I am not forgetting the fact that the Cobras were originally AC Bristol cars with 4 or 6 cylinders motors before Shelby put his magic in them. The Bristol were nice, but I'd like mine with a V-8!