Today was the 1st day of public school for local kiddos and I saw this guy taking his kid to school in style...

Man, that's one lucky kid!
I always thought one of the replicas would almost be more fun than the real thing. At least you wouldn't be worrying about scratching the paint or something when you drove it.

I bet it's a replica. Not many originals on the street. A original runs between $250,000 and a cool $1,000,000. would not want to wreck it or have it stolen. A replica can be bought for $20,000 or so. Anyway thats what they were trying to sell them for at a local car show. Still nice!

Arnold -

I haven't researched the prices of replicas lately, but good ones a far in excess of $20K.  To build a kit replica from the best couple of manufacturers, and equip it with the proper powertrain will cost at least $50K, assuming that you want it to really replicate a Cobra, and not just look like one.  And that doesn't account for the value of your own time spent building it, and how you finish it with what paint and interior.

I saw the best replica I've ever seen at a roadside rest just a couple of months ago - chassis was steel tube, like a race car is built, with a composite body.  The guy even had an old, side oiler 427 engine in it.  It was so authentic that it didn't even have any sort of top, just like the race Cobras were built.

I guess you could find a "sorta" replica for $20K, probably just a body that you put on a stock chassis and powertrain.  At one time, when they were plentiful, people used Pinto chassis for the bottom end "replicas".  But they weren't replicas, just something that looked a little built like something else.

Factory Five shows their kit starting at 13k.  
http://www.factoryfive.com/rdsterhome.html
So if you did your best to stay low buck and got a good deal on a wrecked Mustang donor you should be able to build one yourself in the 20k range.  You could build a really nice one for 30K and it would probably be worth more than you put into it when you finished.  I think that's fairly unusual for a project car.  They seem to go for 40-50k at auction.  
The frames are actually improved over the original.  Put the right drive train in it and it will outperform an original.  
I saw their 33 Hot Rod kit at a cruise night last year.  Very cool.