The Mk. IV is the refined evolution of the wide bodied 427 style Cobra of the 60's and the spiritual successor of the AC 289 Sports as it is set up as a "street" Cobra with rear exhaust and typically not fitted with a roll bar nor hood scoop, with small block Ford V8 power. Definitely does not have the "wild" look of a 427 S/C Cobra which most fiberglass replicas duplicate. I belong to the Bay Area Cobra Club and my Mk. IV is generally deemed by the other guys as the only other "real" Cobra in this large club, with the other "real" Cobra being a 427 S/C owned by one of the guys. All the other cars are various makes such a Superformance, Factory Five, Shell Valley, etc. The fact that my car is an aluminum bodied car made by AC, the original manufacturer of these cars (along with Mr. Shelby's huge role of course!), carries a lot of water in terms of how the Mk IV is viewed, at least in my group of Cobra friends. I think when most people think of Cobras, they picture the wilder, hairier, 427 S/C style car, which is visually and auditorially considered to be the Cobra most people choose to have. Thus the milder "street" Mk. IV is perhaps less to people's tastes. Frankly, I love the look of the Mk. IV and greatly prefer it and it's more refined and more of a typical sports car look to that of the S/C variant of the Cobra, but that is just my taste. On this side of the pond, most people equate the Cobra to Shelby vs. AC, and there are many who do not completely understand the huge role of AC in the making of the Cobra and in Cobra history. So many are not well educated in this regard. But there are those who do "get it", and understand how special the Mk. IV is and how it fits in In Cobra history.