F-Body Europe

I have raced countless brand new mustang GTs and honest to god truth I have never had 1 beat me ...... some came terrifyingly close but none have ever beat me.... is there a big difference from GT to Cobra?

If its a 03 they are supposed to be NASTY. Most mustangs avoid redlight encounters with me so you are doing better than me in that department.

At the drag meets I've been to, I've only ever seen one Cobra, I think it was a 99. The owner had a K&N on it and said he just wanted to get out of the 15's and into the 14's and he'd be happy. He didn't. But then I've seen a 97 M6 Firehawk stuck in the 15's too so it's difficult to judge as you know with an auto that it'll be fairly consistent and it may have something to do with the Brits not being used to changing gear with their right hand. I wish there were more here to get a better idea.
The standard GT puts out about 265hp I believe and the Cobra is supposed to put out 305. My Brooklands road test book (which I don't have to hand)I recall put the 0-60 on the Cobra at about 5.8 but the quarter was mid 14's and the Z28 was more often the faster car. The Brooklands road test book should answer your questions on this point.

I believe that in '01-'02 Cobras had about the same HP rating as the LS1s. Now, though, they are badass, and are rated at 390 from the factory. They have a factory supercharger, and with just a chip and a lightning pulley you are looking at just over 400HP. They have forged engine components and are nothing to take lightly. It's too bad you can't order them from Aafes. I would probably consider it.

The 35th anniversary Camaro and the new Mustang Cobra are both 35k sterling to buy as imports here in the UK. On balance I'd have the Cobra but at 35k, I won't have either of them when a stock new Z28 (last one I guess)retails at 23k.

errrmmmm (let me clear my throat )
GT Cobra
machine built motor hand built motor
2v SOHC 16valve 4v DOHC 32valve
iron block aluminum block
live axle independant rear
260hp 320hp
real world performance a newer 01 up GT is a handful for a stock LT1, the cars are that equal. The '01 Cobra is the first mustang that can run with the LS1 stock on stock. Real world times range from 13.6-13.2@103-105mph.

A '03 is identical to a '01 (couple appearance diffs) except it has a 4bolt main ironblock vs. the 6bolt main alum block. forged rods and pistons, 8.7:1or8cr vs 9.7:1or8cr, T56 vs 3650 5spd among other things. Strangely enough, a '01 with a 8psi vortech (only) will smoke a '03, albeit with no factory warrenty, but the future failures.

The differances between a 99 and a 01 are huge. Differant heads design/31 spline halfshafts vs 28, Tremac 3650 vs T45, better exhaust system, improved pcm (remember the 99 fiasco of the underpowered cobras?)

Right now the brick wall the '03's are facing is around 470rwhp. some of the better slips floating around are 11.44 @ 122.71 1.71 60ft on BFG's, typical mods are 2.80 Pulley,JohnnyLightning air kit and Chip, BBK longtubes and H-pipe,3" Flowmaster Cat back. The above time was ran with those mods.

Wow, and those mods probably aren't more than $1500 total.. :O