as some of my close friends know, and if you cant tell. every one has hobbies. i have several. but the biggest would be my car. i bought my 2002 red gt in monroe nc back in 2006. it came with a carbon fiber dash trim installed and 17inch cobra r wheels and steeda sport springs. after the purchase the car recived a few mods like exhaust and rear end 3.73 gears along with a steeda wing and cobra r style front air splitter. since this being a daiily driver and short on money most of the time, it stayed the same for a while.
after going from the national guard into the active duty army, i noticed all the compitition around ft. hood texas, and their mustang clubs. most these clubs are big, but there drivers cars are lightly modded and are not the best shape and/or fashion. natually, anybody who knows me , knows i like unique things. especially cars. i decide to mock the 2003 style steeda Q400 in the looks of my car. and i did it very well. the car recived a steeda hood, mach 1 delete grill and a level 1-3 steeda power package. after the painting was done, brandon, chris and myself put in some egine time, thanks guys, and a custome dyno tune at the car shop in killeen. the car pulled to somewhere around 270 rwhp and about 275-290 rwtq. not bad for a 281ci v8 with minor mods like, underdrive pulleys, steeda cat back and intake and some other bolt ons. car was fast enough to beat a stock 2007+ mustang gt. and needless to say, this settled my apitite for a while.
soon after being currently deployed to iraq again, i started to feel a little more hungry for octane. and after always loving the steeda Q cars and svt cobras, i decided, why not have both. i fought with the idea about a 850hp rated 305 strocker shortblock, fully forged for a while, but decide against this due to this being a budget build. and this being a daily driver and will see little track time, i thought it for the best to go another route. while my car sat at home with brandon in his garage and after hours of research on the web, i was ready to start the build.
ebay can be your best friend for saving money, especially when you find a 2003 cobra superchargerd full motor swap, wiring, tranny, driveshaft and gas tank with 21k miles on it, well maintained for 8,000 and a little bit more for shipping. talk about money well saved and spent.
soon after the purchase, brandon drove the hungry animal to sunshine performance, in killeen texas, to prep for a total make over. we start with a level 5+ stiegemier port on the stock eaton supercharger, along with a smaller pully and lower crank pulley to dump about 16-17ibs of boost into this starving baseline 390hp 4valve v8. but will defiatly need to keep the beast cool aswell, and so was orderd, a lfp heat exchanger and new radiator. and to help feed the motor, on goes dual gt pumps, 60ibs injectores and etc. to keep constant boost under wot, on goes an idler pully to give more belt wrap. and a few more bolt ons to be acomplished my long tub headers and a jlt air intake.
all said and done in about 3 weeks, we should see about 550 to the wheels. not bad for a daily driver. should be plenty enough to turn some heads at wot under 16ibs of boost from an angry screaming eaton. but none of this will be of any use if it wont stick to the ground. so i find myself deciding on a built IRS suspention and built solid axle. built solids are great and do well for drag and some cornering, but comfort goes out the window. especially when you start concidering panhard bars and torque arms. however, it has not been ruled out yet. but the better way to go would be a built IRS for aggressive street use and corner carving fun, not to mention great quality and feel. but either way i go, it will be accompanied with full length subframe connectors and tokico shocks and struts along with polyurethane bushings all around the car. sportier springs wont be needed since i had them on already. and to top it off, k-member braces, sway bars, the works. and a good set of nitto 555r's will wrap the steeda ultra light wheels, once they are on.
tranny performance is key aswell. so in goes a spec stage 3+ clutch and a steeda triax shifter to set off the powerful t-56, 6 speed transmission. and and to slow it all down. why not go with a proven 13inch cobra brake package. stylish and great braking performance.
interior work is still under thought but will include a rear seat delete to shave some extra weight and custom guages to decorate the dash and monitor performance.
i will keep this blog going while work is being done. look for updates in a couple weeks.
That is a very nice project you're doing. You've got some great options to consider (ie. SRA vs. IRS) but in the end you're going to have one nice street/strip monster. Best of luck with it. :-)
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2003 DSG Modded Cobra (504rwhp) - Sold
Click On The Banner For Gasket Set Info Or To Order
I would stick with the SRA and go with either a Griggs setup or Maximum Motorsports. I did the Maximum Motorsports on my old GT (panhard bar, subframe connectors, upper control arms, adjustable lower control arms, H&R springs, new struts and shocks, ect) and it still rode great. Definitely make sure you get a torque arm. I heard this does wonders for the handling. That's cool you are doing a terminator swap, but I would have put in a forged aluminum block with ported 2 valve heads, blower cams, and a vortech T-Trim. Either way you are going to have one hell of a car.
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2003 Ford Mustang Cobra Convertible
99 Honda Civic (mods - 1 infant car seat and 1 toddler seat)
Horsepower - 106
Last edited by Silverboost; 09-05-2008 at 09:54 AM.
cool, i'll look into that. as far as a current update on my project. we decided to keep the live axle. motor is installed and should have dyno numbers here in a week to a week and a half or so. i will put some more pics on here tonight or you can go to this link below. http://steeda.com/photos/main.php?g2_itemId=17135&
i have a set of ultralights im going to put on. these are all pictures before the car went into the shop. the body will be the same, but will have the steeda wheels and cobra brakes. the goal is to completly mock a 2002 gt steeda body, but all cobra performance under the hood, minus the live axle. i have looked into the 5 link some, but still havnt read enough to push me toward mm's torque arm and panhard bar or the 5 link. new pics coming soon as soon as the shop (sunshine performance in killeen, tx) sends them. they are hard at work on build and are very good people.
I would stick with the SRA and go with either a Griggs setup or Maximum Motorsports. I did the Maximum Motorsports on my old GT (panhard bar, subframe connectors, upper control arms, adjustable lower control arms, H&R springs, new struts and shocks, ect) and it still rode great. Definitely make sure you get a torque arm. I heard this does wonders for the handling. That's cool you are doing a terminator swap, but I would have put in a forged aluminum block with ported 2 valve heads, blower cams, and a vortech T-Trim. Either way you are going to have one hell of a car.
i almost did that swap, was gunna do a built 302 stroker and a kenne bell, and t-56, but decide this was actually gunna be cheaper buy a couple thousand. cobra motors have tons of potential.
my mustang project build
this was before
and now
Linear Mode
