[inferno]

I usually don't listen to too much that magazines have to say about cars in general, including performance specs. A lot of times, magazines have 1/4 mile times and 0-60 times that are off, some faster and some slower, but I figure if you take the average of the mags, you will end up with a pretty close estimate. In terms of comparing the Lotus and the Cobra R, I see that as a fair comparison for these reasons: You are not going to see very many REAL Cobra R's because their weren't many produced and also, if you don't live in Southern California or Florida, you probably will never see a Lotus either. The Lotus is faster in all tests, but it isn't like it was an unfair competition. The Cobra R performs similarly, but is a step behind the Lotus. The Z06 and Viper are also in this "semi-exotic" sport car area although the Viper is very far off in terms of pricing. I don't know if you ever look at the Dupont Registry, but Lotus vehicles DO NOT lose their value, and if their aren't that many brought into the states, the value of the car will go up slightly. The 00 Cobra R isn't going to drop in value, but it isn't going to be the same situation as with older "classic" American cars regardless of what people think. Given a choice between the ITR powered Lotus, and a Cobra R for a streetable track car, I would take the Lotus based on performance and price....not very many Cobra R's sold for anywhere near the 55k sticker price. Add the Z06 to that list however and I'm taking the car with air conditioning and a radio with similar performance to the other two that don't have those standard for a similar price.