Backdraft cars for sale

Overview

Backdraft Racing builds Cobra-style roadsters — 1960s proportions over modern suspension, brakes and powertrains. The cars are hand-built in Durban, South Africa and sold through the company’s United States arm, and unlike the aluminium-bodied originals every Backdraft Roadster has a fibreglass body.

This is a purpose-built modern car in a period shape rather than a restoration or a garage kit, which is the distinction that matters most when you are comparing one against the many other Cobra-style cars on the market.

History

Backdraft Racing was founded in 2001 by the racing drivers Tony Martin and Reg Dodd, with development of the Mark I Roadster starting in Durban in December 2000 and the first cars shown publicly in October 2001. Manufacturing runs through the partner firm TR-Tec, established in January 2002 to build hand-made niche vehicles, and consolidated in 2003 into a 5,000 square metre plant south of Durban.

Buying one in Australia

A Cobra-style car in Australia is registered as an individually constructed vehicle in most states and territories, assessed against the national code of practice for light vehicle construction and modification and signed off by an approved engineer. Ask to see that approval and the compliance plate before you buy — a car without them can be difficult and expensive to register in your name.

Check what the car actually is underneath, too. Backdraft supplies a complete vehicle with its own chassis, so the paperwork should describe a coherent car rather than a collection of donor parts.