“So how much horsepower does it have?” he asked, eyes wide and eager. “Three hundred and ninety,” we replied. “Wow! And that Michigan tag. Are you from Michigan? I just got here from Ohio.”
“No, we live here. The car’s straight out of SVT—it belongs to Ford,” we grimaced, as his face slowly jelled with incomprehension. Thus it went with the young salesperson at a large Ford retail store.
Reaction was pretty much the same all over. This Sonic Blue king of Cobras got barely a glance from anyone on the road. To them, it was just another Mustang with big tires, the millionth in a sea of Mustangs. And that’s not a bad thing, either. An edgy car like this needs anonymity for obvious reasons. Even the cop we whizzed past at 15 over the limit made like it wasn’t there. Well, fie on them and chalk one up for the stealth club. A few minutes later we were wailing the wee out of the Cobra, taking 30-mph turns on the snake-like Ortega Highway at nearly twice that speed.
Ergonomics
Like all Mustangs since the first one, the Cobra does not attempt to dazzle you on the inside. It’s composed, straightforward, and the controls are easy to access and operate. Everything is right where it should be, a patented arrangement that can be accessed in utter darkness with complete accuracy.
Besides the usual engine monitors, the Cobra supplies you with a half-dollar-sized boost gauge for the first time since the turbo four-cylinders of the ’80s, but it’s so like the other meters that it basically goes unnoticed, especially when you’re whipping the engine good. The blower spools up so fast you haven’t the time or the inclination to see where the needle’s going because you’re too busy watching the one on the tachometer bend ferociously to the right.
The Cobra’s articulated seats feature an extra-firm bottom, lumbar support, and grippy, adjustable thigh bolsters. These seats are leagues better than, say, the GTs’ of the late ’90s, and we see no reason you wouldn’t be comfortable in them for days at a time. Adjust the tilt steering column to fit, crank up the Mach 460 audio to suit your mood, and go trolling for mincemeat.
Aside from the black-on-white instrument faces, the only flash in the cockpit is the perforated brushed-metal finish plates that accent the foot pedals and the shift-pattern marker on the end of the stick. The Cobra’s cozy cockpit is honest and understated, fits the driver well, and works to potential without a frill or geegaw to compromise its mission.
Ride & Handling
The closest thing to the Cobra in Ford terms is the limited-production 2000 Cobra R, which is not something you’d want as your main source of transportation. While the R handles like the race car that it is and is a cool operator on a smooth-track surface, it does a pretty good job of beating you up on public roads. It’s noted for a distinct lack of ride compliance and will shake your guts and make the shoulder harness bite. The Cobra makes a tad more power than the R but is dialed for the street rather than the racetrack so its Bilstein ride is a bit gentler (a relative term here) than say the Hotchkis/Tokico suspension in the HOT ROD ’97 Mustang.
In short, the chassis is tuned for high-rate handling as well as straight line bashing, and this largess is due in large part to the independent rear suspension. Changes to the IRS include revised rates for the bushings, mounts, and springs. A new tubular crossbrace is attached to the differential housing and is designed to stabilize the assembly under hard acceleration (high-rpm clutch dumping, flat shifts, other fun), and revised suspension geometry improves roll steer. Though the 600-lb-in springs all around sound hellish for the street, the car rides like it has half that rate going on beneath, due mainly to its relatively high mass. The Cobra Coupe weighs nearly 3,700 pounds, and the heavier, more complex rear suspension and the iron cylinder block account for at least 200 of them.
All that bulk evaporates when you thread the Mustang into a blind curve. Body roll is minimal, and those big, expensive, and exceptional Goodyear F1s don’t even whimper. The transitions, in turn, are very smooth and very linear. You just gun the snot out of the engine on the straight parts, apply the big Brembos in the last few seconds, and steer the car through without drama. To keep the lawyers happy, that neutral attitude ultimately descends to mild understeer.
The steering maintains just the right amount of resistance and is weighted nicely to the dynamics of the chassis. To obtain this sensation, the SVT team put in a low-lash intermediate shaft and a higher rate steering-gear bushing that improves feel by reducing the play in the system. On the highway, those F1s are extremely quiet and all you really hear is the whine of the supercharger. The ride quality is very acceptable for the moment with no harsh inputs, and it tempers our favorite head-bumping freeway humps well within reason. In all, the chassis lends amazing control over smooth surfaces, and it won’t disturb your kidneys over rough ones.
Braking
To complement the 70hp-stronger engine and heavier curb weight of the new Cobra, SVT employed vented discs in the rear as well. The 11.65-inch rears and calipers incorporating a revised pad material balance the Brembo rotors and PBR dual-piston calipers up front. The pedal is easily modulated, and the pressure required is minimal. Pedal feel is excellent and its height is relative to that of the throttle, thus enabling easy and fluid heel-and-toe action, which returns the smoothness necessary for consistency. We couldn’t make them fade after repeated haul downs from 60 mph or on the constant short-straights and switchbacks of the fabled Ortega. The Goodyears have grown by a bunch of millimeters, too, with the 275-section tires in place of the previous 245s. To accommodate them, the 17-inch wheels are wider by an inch.
Performance
The throttle is what gives us goose bumps—always has, always will. Before we get into the wheelspin stuff, let’s look at the way the supercharged engine performs its daily duties. A couple of times we spaced it and left the stop sign while the tranny was still in Third gear. With minimal throttle and an 8.5:1 compression ratio, the engine simply grunted off with barely a protest from the clutch or transmission. It will lug around at 1,500 rpm in Sixth if need be and the tranny won’t snatch or clank. Though probably the result of a too many hard, missed shifts (our car had 4,000 “journalist” miles on it), the shifter often had a time finding Third gear, especially when it was downshifted.
From the very beginning, the lack of low-end torque has hampered the four-valve engine. Put it in perspective then. It’s working with 280 ci, not 350, and four small valves instead of two large ones, so it takes a little time for the power to ramp up. And that’s one solid reason why people put superchargers on them, especially the Roots-type that develops maximum boost way down in the rpm range. This combo on the Cobra motor is pure dynamite. The low-end response is enhanced thusly, and by the time you’re on the far side of Third, be ready for a rush so real that you’ll soon be finding out just how efficient those Brembo brakes really are.
The power comes on more like a missile launch than a prison break. It’s smooth, linear, sophisticated, and quite unlike that of the naturally aspirated Chevrolet LS6, and it represents a successful combination of low-end blower torque and high-end four-valve breathing. As such, the upper and lower halves of the intake manifold are opened up for increased airflow to the heads and the cams were ground with torque in mind. Even the heads are modified to move more air and increase the low-end without sacrificing peak horsepower. Adjunct to this, the Cobra’s 2.25-inch tailpipes help to keep it within the noise regulation bogey and provide some backpressure necessary to produce that needed low-end torque. But you can lay odds that the aftermarket exhaust companies will spasm to be the first out with 2.50-inch after-cat pipes and claim 20 extra horsepower or so.
As for hard data, we proved the Cobra’s rear-wheel power on Superior Automotive’s chassis dynamometer and found 369.5 hp at 6,200 rpm and 362.2 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. With the G-Tech, we clocked 0-60 in 4.8 seconds and 60-0 in rather disappointing 134 feet. On the long course, the Cobra pounded out a best of 12.93 at 114.50 mph! In this, the most refined Mustang chassis in history, 80 mph feels like 60, the car will reach nearly 100 in Third gear, and the blower whine is something that you hear in your dreams.
What It Is
Take a good long look at this Mustang for it is the last and strongest of its breed. The next generation, due as an ’04½ model, will adopt a shortened Lincoln LS platform and incorporate variations (variable cam timing and so on) of the current powerplants. Perhaps the performance-oriented Mustang will then move from its present niche to inhabit one more sophisticated and thus more expensive to produce and to own. Among its salient points, a solid rear axle (the IRS will appears a couple of years later) and (gulp) an engine controller that will be extremely difficult to crack.
For the time being, the current Cobra is a lot more fun than you should be allowed to have sitting down. And when the BS begins, you lift that fresh-air-inducted hood and watch the troops go snap, crackle, and pop.