Though Craig Corbell said he got to within a year of putting prototypes for his Cord revival project on the road, he’s decided to drop the project altogether and put the rights for the Cord name back up for sale, citing in part the lack of guidelines from the federal government regarding low-volume replica cars.

“I’m the type of guy who’ll get distracted by shiny things I see on the corner,” he said. “And this has just been a long time waiting.”

Corbell bought the rights to the Cord name for $242,000 in late 2014 from the family of the late Glenn Pray, who had previously secured the rights to build the Buehrig-designed, Corvair-powered Royalite-bodied Cord 8/10 in the 1960s. Over the last five years, Corbell said he “was hot to trot busy flying all over the place” laying the groundwork for two separate vehicles that would wear the Cord name.

Maybe some brands are meant to to stay dead?