I wouldn't pay over either, however, instead of taking my 3V to the next level, I got the Shelby and sold it the 3V.
I was all ready to buy a white 2009 GT500 just like yours in late 2008 (if I remember correctly) for $1000 under retail. I took a look at de-modding my 3v or selling it as is and getting the GT500 decided not too. I was pretty far into modding the 3v already (blower, forged motor, built rear end, good suspension, big brakes, expensive seats, etc) and decided not to. My second "not getting a GT500 mistake". I won't be doing that again.
The wife will be getting a S550 GT Coupe as a DD and I'm waiting on the SVT/GT350 S550.
I'm going to keep the 07 (can't sell it now) and keep the 2012 Vert with a few choice mods (blower, wheels, some suspension, roll bar, etc) and drive the crap out of it on nice days.
I regret selling my Terminator and a few of my motorcycles every day. I'm starting to treat cars like guns. You never sell them, you just buy more.
I'd better be in my new house with the bigger shop/garage by then.
Knowingly building a car you know is going to be useless and or blows up?
You must be balling out of control.
what do you do for a living and are they hiring?
I've been in motorsports of some sort for 17yrs now. I've made pretty good money at points, then blew it all on racing or bad business choices. Right now I'm working on getting another motorsports based biz up and running to where it makes money. It's not as easy as it was 10yrs ago. I fly under the radar pretty good though. I have really low overhead, I still do really good paying suspension work when I need a few extra bucks. I don't live high on the hog. My house is pretty modest. No kids. The wife has a good career. I don't have any debt.
I spend money on stuff I really enjoy (going fast). I live pretty cheap aside from that though. No big TV's, no expensive clothes, no big dollar watches, don't eat out much, don't travel much, don't shoot as much as I should be, don't go to the movies, etc.
I'm certainly no baller, wish I was. I'm always "broke". And keep in mind where my 2007 would take $80-100K to re-create (labor is hard to factor, that's not all parts) I did that over 7.5yrs (I had a blower on the car August 2006). It's really not that much money per year.