230k Mustang Cobra

Opti wrote: About the fbody, owning one, it may be faster but I consider the mustang in general a better car. I love my fbody but it has many an issue, and is a pain in the ass to work on.

I'll agree with that. The LS1 is a great engine, and the suspension on the 4th-gen is surprisingly good, but the rest of the car is awful.

Alan Cesar wrote: The '99s and some '00s had that horsepower rating recall, but I imagine that's been taken care of by now.

Not to pick nits, but the '99 horsepower rating fiasco was such a big deal that Ford didn't even make a Cobra in 2000.

bigbens6 wrote: Great risk reward IMO, aluminum block wont hold a ton of boost IIRC

Incorrect.

The block and crank have been demonstrated to take over 600hp. (seen reports of 850hp on aluminium blocks)

The problem with them is hypereutectic pistons, which are generally considered only to be good to about 450hp.

Rebuilds are pricey. Yes the heads are complicated.

Many people like to slam the 4.6's, especially the 2v's. The real "problem" is that they aren't a 302 with aftermarket support dating back to the 1960's. Yes the power potential for the 2v (especially the early one) sucks. Another side to it is that the 4.6's have proven to be much more reliable in series like Lemons than the 302.

Don't get it thinking that you can build the motor cheaply to make oodles of NA horsepower. The easiest path is to put a blower on one. If you want more than 450hp, rods and pistons as well. (of course, then you need to do lots of fuel system stuff, probably clutch, trans, and maybe even rear end). Just not sure about supercharging one with that many miles...

Don't rebuild the motor, find one from a junkyard. Generally a motor will run $2200 and up. So it will take an investment to do it and you might be better off buying a better one to start with.

As for aluminum block strength: 93-98 DOHC cars got the Teksid block, which is stronger (but a little heavier) than the 99-up aluminum blocks. Parts will interchange from one to the other. My 4.6 DOHC is a hybrid, a Teksid block with 01 heads/cams/intake.

regular 4 link < regular cobra IRS < 4 link with panhard+tq. arm < cobra IRS with aftermarket bushings.

There's a company called Full Tilt Boogie Racing that makes all the parts necessary to make that IRS handle well.

looks like a rallycross candidate to me

Around here the IRS setup is going for about 900, and the 4V cores (if it breaks) are still worth a pretty penny, so I bet worse case scenario you could part it for more than you pay for it,

Buy it, go through it very well, catch up all the maintenance, and daily drive it

Back when I was a bit younger, I owned a 99 Cobra vert for about 3 years. It was a fun car but it had it's issues. I had 4.30s in it and it revved like a monster. I broke the c-clips in the differential twice and grenaded the differential once (separate occasions). Mine had the "fix" for the overrated power numbers. It handled very well but I couldn't launch that thing at all. It suffered catastrophic wheelhop. It also developed a very nasty tick in the drivers side head.But, I was kinda poor back then and between the car payment and the +30% "Cobra" tax on parts, I didn't have any money to improve the shortcomings.

Would I buy a 320K Cobra? No, I wouldn't unless I had a pile of cash to throw at the 4v when things break. I'd also have Maximum Motorsports on speed dial. Mine only had 62k miles on it when I traded it in.

Now a Termi on the other hand...

I'd rather a high miles stock Cobra than a doofus owned low miles one.

They're nice cars, although I'm partial to the '96-98 models myself. They drive like they have an electric motor underhood, just seamless powerband and smoooooth. It's like a 2v that can get out of its own way!

Will wrote: Not to pick nits, but the '99 horsepower rating fiasco was such a big deal that Ford didn't even make a Cobra in 2000.

Incorrect, they did make one in 2000, it was a 385hp 5.4L 32v for homologation purposes........2002 was the year that lacked a cobra.

yamaha wrote:

Will wrote: Not to pick nits, but the '99 horsepower rating fiasco was such a big deal that Ford didn't even make a Cobra in 2000.

Incorrect, they did make one in 2000, it was a 385hp 5.4L 32v for homologation purposes........2002 was the year that lacked a cobra.

Okay, now I will pick nits. That's a Cobra R, not a Cobra.

I like that generation of Cobra, didn't realize the non-R models had IRS

The fiberglass Mustang at the Challenge had a Cobra IRS IIRC and it didn't have problems putting down the power on the strip.

I think that is a good deal.

Really it all depends on your goals with it. Street, drag, road race, autoX ... Are all different conversations.

The 4.6L wasn't a bad motor. Look at how many we're used in police cars and taxis. They just aren't torque monsters. Power is in the upper rpm range.

They respond best to forced induction. Tough to build a high hp one N/A.

The 4v ones make hp easier than the2v in the GT. but go price a set of cams for the 4v. My 2v cams were either $6-700 (my memory is fading).

But with enough money and determination, you can do anything. I squeezed 615rwhp out of my 2000 2v with an s-trim Vortech. :). But it cost me $$. And ultimately was the wrong engine for my road course dreams. Which is how I ended up with a turbo 1.6L Miata haha.

In reply to Will:

It very much was a cobra, but yes it was the cobra r and not road legal. From 93-04, the only year without a "Cobra" of any kind was 2002.

In reply to the OP, go buy the dang thing already.

Um, the R's were road legal...

The 93, 95, and 00

I'd see if I could get it lower, but $2900 is a pretty good deal if there aren't major issues. The Cobras offer good power stock, but it really depends what you plan to do with the car. Any Mustang can be made to handle if you're willing to throw some time and parts at it. To me, the Cobras in that year range don't really have a huge advantage over any of the 1999 GTs. Sure, people go nuts over the 4 valve, but the PI 2 valve is a very good motor. Throw a Whipple or KB supercharger on it and you'll have more power than you need, along with a boat-load of torque. I'm in a local Mustang club where a bunch of guys own various FI modulars, and they generally like the boosted two valves better than the boosted 4 valves.

I recently picked up an '01 GT with 270k on it, and my plan is to daily drive it in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. I'm parking it in the winter because it's been garaged all its life and I don't want to ruin the no-rust undercarriage. Not to mention it would be pretty worthless in the snow/ice.

So to answer the original question, I think you could use this as a daily/auto-x machine and be happy.

In reply to Apexcarver:

I thought they were all sold only on a bill of sale...... I must watch for these now.

In reply to yamaha:

See, we're just going to have to disagree on this. To me, a Cobra R is not a Cobra. And as already pointed out, the Rs are definitely road legal. A friend of mine had a 93.

yamaha wrote: In reply to Apexcarver: I thought they were all sold only on a bill of sale...... I must watch for these now.

Hold on to your checkbook, its gonna be a bumpy ride!

(They have serious collector value)

<<<<<Knows this, drove Lingenfelters '00 through Mecum.