Is the 03-04 Cobra the Beast it was 7-10+ Years Ago?
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Is the '03/'04 Cobra still the beast it was, 15/16 years ago? Yes. Today, tomorrow, and forever. Something about the old girl, no other car I've driven has equaled. I've been in late model Corvettes; yeah, they're a blast. Then I take their owners for a ride in the Cobra, rated at only 395hp, and when the blower kicks in, they can't stop grinning, and their statements always come up to the same thing: "Oh my God! It's so violent!" You can argue that's an artifact from a wobbly chassis pushed to the limits of her designer's worst nightmare, and you may well be right. Don't know, don't care. The Cobra is an absolute blast to drive, even with the arthritis-inducing cable actuated clutch. When I go to local car shows, she always draws a crowd, no matter what is parked next to her.
Had mine at the track last night. Several people gawking at her who were driving never and some, faster. Had a 19 year old tell me he wants a Terminator.
I like all view points brought up, but one thing still stands, this car still appeals to a ton of people...and is responsible for one of the most viewed car videos on YouTube. You know! The Black Kenne Bell Cobra screaming up and down the road and ripping donuts?! You guys ever seen it? Yea, I bet you have.
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I like all view points brought up, but one thing still stands, this car still appeals to a ton of people...and is responsible for one of the most viewed car videos on YouTube. You know! The Black Kenne Bell Cobra screaming up and down the road and ripping donuts?! You guys ever seen it? Yea, I bet you have.
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LS1 with more than 300 "claimed" naturally aspirated horsepower. A few simple modifications opened this monster up. My wife and I owned one until she found out she was pregnant with our first child.
I truly miss that car.
Regardless, the Pontiac Trans Am WS6 still takes nothing away from the Cobra. Ford got that car right, and it upped the performance game. The Cobra is still an amazing car to own and drive.
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I was thrilled when the '03 Cobra came out and put to shame all of the "motor touched by god" GM guys.
To get a sense of the impact a car has, its importance, you have to look at its contemporaries and its legacy. What American V8 came with forced induction before the Cobra? Who was even thinking about it? No one! GM had given up the pony car. Look at the legacy. Now, how many forced induction V8s are running around? Charger, challenger, Camaro, Mustang, Corvette, and those are just the obvious ones.
Cars today are SO fast, but when did that take anything away from older models? It doesn't matter that a Boss 429 can't compete with today's specialty cars. It's still a beast! So why not a Cobra?
To get a sense of the impact a car has, its importance, you have to look at its contemporaries and its legacy. What American V8 came with forced induction before the Cobra? Who was even thinking about it? No one! GM had given up the pony car. Look at the legacy. Now, how many forced induction V8s are running around? Charger, challenger, Camaro, Mustang, Corvette, and those are just the obvious ones.
Cars today are SO fast, but when did that take anything away from older models? It doesn't matter that a Boss 429 can't compete with today's specialty cars. It's still a beast! So why not a Cobra?
Well it's all in the "eye of the beholder." I couldn't care less how a car I buy performs on the track because I've never taken any of my cars to a road course and never will. Only a small few take their cars to road courses anyways and if that is what you pick as your fun button then the 03/04 Cobra wasn't the car for you. However, Ford was thinking about those folks and released the 2000 Cobra R. It is 385 HP of NA fun on a road course and was built for the road course. The Terminators were not.
Also, the first car I bought in high school was a 94 GT that I instantly loved. The optional 17 inch rims that came on it to the sound it made with the MAC exhaust that I put on made me extremely happy with the car alone. Not to mention I loved (and still do to this very day) that body style. So I don't mind the interior of the Cobra, especially since mine is a 10th Anniversary.
The GT was slow as anything but I had a TON of fun in it. I put 3.73's in it and the fun factor doubled. I'm easy to please and don't need anything super fast to thoroughly enjoy. The Cobra is on a whole another level and I still enjoy it to this very day.
I don't know about your experiences but I've never gotten so much attention in a car before and thumbs up. As a matter of fact, just yesterday I got a thumbs up from a kid that looked to be in high school and another young guy 2 days ago that knew what Terminators are. And I don't spend much time on the road in my Cobra. No more than 10 minutes at a time for the most part. That is pretty impressive that after all this time the younger generation recognizes such an old car. Most of the time it's just the 1st generation the car impacted that appreciates a car like a Cobra.
And yeah, there are a lot of fun cars out there but not all are as memorable or iconic. Anything can be made fast and upgraded but it's the "soul" of the car is what makes it for me with the Cobras. It's why Mustangs of old are sold for so much and sought after til this very day.
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People complain about the terminators interior and here I am one of the few that like it. Guess what? I even like the foxbody interior, lol.
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I believe there is a possibility for this in the future. When us guys who got the Cobra in its young days and love the car/has a big attachment to it, will be in the market for an expensive toy in the future, Ford could bring back the old name plates to get our money. People are not hard to figure out and trust me, corporations have spent big bucks diving into the psychology of people and what makes them shell out a lot of money. There is a calculated reason why Ford brought back the GT500. They did this for the Baby Boomer generation because, years ago at least, they were the biggest target audience with disposable income. By offering the up the Shelby name again, Ford tapped back into that market and let them relive some of their found memories of Shelby. Same reason you see all these companies bringing back old cars and producing them identical of how they were many years ago. Then of course you have the cars that are updated versions of the old cars.
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1957 Chrysler 300 straight 8 arguably kicked off muscle cars.
The 1964 gto arguably fine tuned the idea and really got the ball rolling.
The 1996 300hp cobra and trans ams started the real late model muscle scene, but nobody can deny the 03 cobra really dialed in the right ingredients for late model muscle.
I’d say the 03 cobra is the 1964 gto of this current hp war. The cool thing is that while the 60’s and 70’s hp war was over by 73, ours is raging on into 2020.
Take the social lunacy out of the picture, and appreciate the cars, and ease of sharing cool car culture with fellow gear heads and you find that the 03 cobra has brought more people together and led to more positive good times than just about anything in any culture over the last 15 years. Now that to me makes it something special.
It’s in an instantly recognizable league of cars like the model T, 32 ford, rocket 88, the 57 Chevy, the 64 gto, the 78 trans am, the 87 5.0, the 1992 viper, the mk4 Supra, the fd rx7, etc.
The 1964 gto arguably fine tuned the idea and really got the ball rolling.
The 1996 300hp cobra and trans ams started the real late model muscle scene, but nobody can deny the 03 cobra really dialed in the right ingredients for late model muscle.
I’d say the 03 cobra is the 1964 gto of this current hp war. The cool thing is that while the 60’s and 70’s hp war was over by 73, ours is raging on into 2020.
Take the social lunacy out of the picture, and appreciate the cars, and ease of sharing cool car culture with fellow gear heads and you find that the 03 cobra has brought more people together and led to more positive good times than just about anything in any culture over the last 15 years. Now that to me makes it something special.
It’s in an instantly recognizable league of cars like the model T, 32 ford, rocket 88, the 57 Chevy, the 64 gto, the 78 trans am, the 87 5.0, the 1992 viper, the mk4 Supra, the fd rx7, etc.
Also, it’s a LEGO car in that there are so many easy ways to turn it into an absolute missile, or even a handler ala 2000 cobra r levels of fun/grip. I’ve built mine in many ways from basically stock, to bolt on, bolt on mild suspension brakes and nos, 5.4 with moderate suspension better brakes trans work and turbos with nos to my current full grippy suspension light aluminum mill big cam/turbo lightened and pretty balanced very parnelli Jones esc put it where it needs to go 4 wheel drift at 80 with one hand and smile all the time.
What I’ve seen with all the builds is the fun factor remains high because of the quirks of a modified pinto floor pan holding you inches from certain death. It’s not as scary or visceral as a Shelby roadster or original muscle but it’s at most 2 steps removed.
0-150 in these cars feels exciting and eurphoic. 0-150 in a c7 stingray feels easy and safe.
What I’ve seen with all the builds is the fun factor remains high because of the quirks of a modified pinto floor pan holding you inches from certain death. It’s not as scary or visceral as a Shelby roadster or original muscle but it’s at most 2 steps removed.
0-150 in these cars feels exciting and eurphoic. 0-150 in a c7 stingray feels easy and safe.
The 57 Chrysler 300 C never had a straight 8 that I know for a fact.
And I say the 1948 Olds Rocket V8 started the whole one upmanship of the HP wars.
I’d argue that bang for the buck as in fun and capable, mustangs from 87-2004 are the best way to start. Get a v6 or 4 banger, gut it entirely, buy the decent and largely used but good condition stuff in the order of drivetrain, suspension, brakes, engine, fuel/spark, power adder, and for $20k all in, you can have a very rewarding very fun 12 second corner carver, 11 second bullet, 10 second puller or 9 second wheelie car.
And best of all, it’s very fun. You can mostly do all of this with a c4 corvette as well, but it pales in comparison when you factor that raw I might die feel into it.
The 03 cobra was the 12 second corner carver mix. And it worked beautifully. Yes they wanted $32k when a civic type r was $19k, and yes you could buy a nice home in rural America for $32k back then, but, it was still blue collar affordable (albeit at the top end) and it was $1500 in mods and tuning away from 11’s. Throw in a clutch, flywheel, 100shot and a porter blower or a pd blower with a diff cover, bushings, short throw, slicks and skinnies and you had a 10 second 130mph car for under $40k all in. Sell the blower, go turbo and cooling mods, and under $50k you had a nice new 9 second street car that had ac, full interior, quiet enough exhaust and on and on.
In 2005/2006, a 9 second sub $50k all in domestic newish car was basically unheard of save the terminator. Corvettes started at $50k.
Alright I’ve put my mark on this 14 page thread, and said what I want to. I’ll dip out and let everybody else say their peace as well.
And best of all, it’s very fun. You can mostly do all of this with a c4 corvette as well, but it pales in comparison when you factor that raw I might die feel into it.
The 03 cobra was the 12 second corner carver mix. And it worked beautifully. Yes they wanted $32k when a civic type r was $19k, and yes you could buy a nice home in rural America for $32k back then, but, it was still blue collar affordable (albeit at the top end) and it was $1500 in mods and tuning away from 11’s. Throw in a clutch, flywheel, 100shot and a porter blower or a pd blower with a diff cover, bushings, short throw, slicks and skinnies and you had a 10 second 130mph car for under $40k all in. Sell the blower, go turbo and cooling mods, and under $50k you had a nice new 9 second street car that had ac, full interior, quiet enough exhaust and on and on.
In 2005/2006, a 9 second sub $50k all in domestic newish car was basically unheard of save the terminator. Corvettes started at $50k.
Alright I’ve put my mark on this 14 page thread, and said what I want to. I’ll dip out and let everybody else say their peace as well.
You are probably correct, it looks like I’m thinking of the Chrysler imperial with the straight 8. I saw one in person a few years ago when a customer brought it by.
Later in a post, I listed the rocket 88, the model t, 32 ford and a bunch of other iconic rides.
Cheers.
Nice. Wasn't this car the same mechanically as the SS Camaro of the time?
I like the way Pontiac did the front end on that car.
In truth all the LS1 Camaros, trans am, formula variants were the same mechanically, motor wise, only the aesthetics and some suspension parts were different.
Yeah, I love those cars. I saw an 01 SS the other day in pretty rough shape, but still looked really good for the age. And of course the WS6's looked great too. I've not seen one of those on the road in many years though.
By the way, what is the story with the WS6 moniker anyways? I never understood the history with the name.
By the way, what is the story with the WS6 moniker anyways? I never understood the history with the name.
GM really got carried away with their RPO codes and to this day they still do. WS6 was basically suspension, struts/shocks, springs, thicker swaybars, wider wheels, exterior trim....FWIW heard WS6 was originally quick reference for Wide Suspension, 6 pieces.
Oh, I was thinking there was some history to the name like the ZR1 or Z06, ha. But that makes sense for sure given the names of ZR1 and Z06.
The WS6 is only special in their owners heads
I kid...I kidWhen the 4th gens were still LT motor’d cars you could pick up an LT4 optioned WS6, Camaro SS, though they were really expensive for the day.
Ford has definitely beat GM in the naming dept, creating mystic around their cars. The cobra and Shelby monikers are a helluva cooler than rattling of some rpo code.
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