All this talk about weight....

[Robert M]

From what I've seen/heard several of those press cars were wearing an exhaust setup that didn't make it to production, I believe the cars also recieved a snorkel on the intake,which the press cars again didn't have. I remember because in both the MT and MM&FF tests, the 00R put down something like 372rwhp and 385Tq. The 01 385hp Z06 only managed mid 340's. Also some insiders were saying the R had about 425 crank (comparisons to the then new 415hp Fr500). From what I've seen most production R's put down 340-360rwhp... however with the popular Bassani upgrades most cars put out the 370+, and I believe one of the guys on the board is sitting at 398rwhp with exhaust and tune!!! Either way, 427 SOHC aside, the 00R 5.4, is my vote for the baddest production motor they've produced :rockon:

Pumped-up magazine/media cars are quite common, and could very easily include the "media" GT500(s). The manufacturers always like the magazines to post "bigger than life" peformance, that is the sales edge over the competition. It does not even have to be exhaust, it can be an un-seen/non-production, we could even call it a "designer" computer chip. I have seen it time and time again when my friends at Mustang Monthly were here in Lakeland. Chassis dyno tests were run on magazine/media cars and "like" production cars and for some reason, the magazine cars, almost always seem to produce better numbers, sometimes significantly better. That is what gets people out to their dealer to plunk down the cash.

As for the "baddest production Mustang" there are many bad mustangs that have been produced from Dearborn. The 00R has set a few marks that will be a little harder to beat, 1.02g in lateral acceleration (Handling), and SVT's 170mph top speed, 177 (Top Speed) was acheived by Car and Driver in 2000, and then braking distance, etc. I believe a lighter weight version of the GT500, a GT500R? could take the 00R out in most if not all aspects of testing.

1/4 mile is only one piece of the "total" performance puzzle.

R

 

[HISSMAN]

170 mph top speed. I ran past that a long time ago.

 

[Robert M]

170 mph top speed. I ran past that a long time ago.

Your car is "as it came from Ford"?

It would be somewhat hard to compare modded cars vs. assembly line/stock production cars. With modded cars the sky, or I should say the wallet is the limit.

HISSMAN - I'll bet your car is a blast!! 600h.p. is not a "little wallet" car.

R

 

[BLUE OVAL NUT]

I love the 03/04 Cobra and the 00 Cobra R ,but i will say this much the R model took on the Z06 and the Viper in many mag. articles plus the cry babes from Chevy couldn't say look you got a supercharger. oke: :lol: :thumbsup:

 

[Formula51]

I love the 03/04 Cobra and the 00 Cobra R ,but i will say this much the R model took on the Z06 and the Viper in many mag. articles plus the cry babes from Chevy couldn't say look you got a supercharger. oke: :lol: :thumbsup:

At the same time, a 300 car production run Cobra R that you need an SCCA license to buy vs. two cars that they made thousands of and any Joe Schmo could walk off the street and buy is a bit of a weird comparison. Not to mention all of the amenities that a Corvette and Viper come with (less on the Viper) compared to the Cobra R that doesn't even have a radio.

 

[Captain Beyond]

At the same time, a 300 car production run Cobra R that you need an SCCA license to buy vs. two cars that they made thousands of and any Joe Schmo could walk off the street and buy is a bit of a weird comparison. Not to mention all of the amenities that a Corvette and Viper come with (less on the Viper) compared to the Cobra R that doesn't even have a radio.

True, but it just goes to show the potential of a n/a 5.4 in a factory production Mustang. Ford could have easily dropped that engine in a regular production Cobra if they wanted it to. :coolman:

 

[Captain Beyond]

As for the "baddest production Mustang" there are many bad mustangs that have been produced from Dearborn. The 00R has set a few marks that will be a little harder to beat, 1.02g in lateral acceleration (Handling), and SVT's 170mph top speed, 177 (Top Speed) was acheived by Car and Driver in 2000, and then braking distance, etc. I believe a lighter weight version of the GT500, a GT500R? could take the 00R out in most if not all aspects of testing.
R

177 mph top speed? :rockon: Wow, I didn't think it was that fast. :thumbsup:

 

[Formula51]

True, but it just goes to show the potential of a n/a 5.4 in a factory production Mustang. Ford could have easily dropped that engine in a regular production Cobra if they wanted it to. :coolman:

But it would certainly weigh more than the Cobra R.

 

[Captain Beyond]

But it would certainly weigh more than the Cobra R.

Certainly not much more than a Terminator. ;-)

 

[Robert M]

At the same time, a 300 car production run Cobra R that you need an SCCA license to buy vs. two cars that they made thousands of and any Joe Schmo could walk off the street and buy is a bit of a weird comparison. Not to mention all of the amenities that a Corvette and Viper come with (less on the Viper) compared to the Cobra R that doesn't even have a radio.

This is another myth about the 2000 Cobra R...................the racing credential requirement(s) for purchase. The 1995 Cobra R was the R-Model which required the potential buyer to provide proof of racing intent. The 2000 Cobra R was available to anyone willing to pay $54.995+ for the car. The info. provided by the original owner of my car showed the original window sticker, plus an additional "dealer" sticker that was next to the window sticker in the passenger window with an "adjusted market value" of $10K bringing the total to $64,995. The original buyer of my 00R payed $58K and sold it to me 3 years later with 21.6 miles on it for $40K. So much for hype! The same "hype" happened with the Ford GT and is now happening with the GT500. People can quickly be buried in these cars when they get caught up in the hype. There is no magic, they are late model cars, specialty cars yes, but still late model, they depreciate. The main difference is, the more special/limited, the quicker the resale market "could possibly" turn around.

R

 

[Robert M]

177 mph top speed? :rockon: Wow, I didn't think it was that fast. :thumbsup:

Car and Driver was the only magazine test that I have, posting that big 177mph number, maybe the wind was behind them and the 00R was going down hill?!?! There are a couple in the low 170's in other magazine tests "from the day" but most are in the very high 160's. The Z06, in that same 2000 test, posted a 168 top speed.


R

 

[Robert M]

True, but it just goes to show the potential of a n/a 5.4 in a factory production Mustang. Ford could have easily dropped that engine in a regular production Cobra if they wanted it to. :coolman:

This is true, but the weight of the 00R was already getting heavy. If a 5.4 DOHC would have been carried over, it would have first of all required the engine lowering as in the 00R, and then the additional hood clearance if an upper intake like the 00R were to be used. If the deletes were added back to the production Cobra, A/C, stereo, rear seat and all other items, it would get to be real heavy in weight. If they chose to use a different intake for hood clearance, then the performance numbers would change.

R

 

[Robert M]

At the same time, a 300 car production run Cobra R that you need an SCCA license to buy vs. two cars that they made thousands of and any Joe Schmo could walk off the street and buy is a bit of a weird comparison. Not to mention all of the amenities that a Corvette and Viper come with (less on the Viper) compared to the Cobra R that doesn't even have a radio.

Other items of interest......................

A factory Dearborn assembly line Mustang going head to head with the likes of Vipers and Corvettes??? Especially a purpose built Corvette like the Z06? That was unheard of before the 2000 Cobra R. Mustangs are pony cars and designed with "like competition" in mind, Camaro's, Firebird's etc. In 2000 there was still an F-body production at GM. The 2000 Cobra R jumped completely past the F-body and SVT said "let's play with the real cars". For a Mustang to even be competitive with these brand x top performers is an important milestone. When the F-body was discontinued in 2002, the only cometition for the 390h.p. Cobra was the above mention cars, the Z06 had moved from 385h.p.to 405h.p. The 03/04 Cobra, with its supercharger also did well. Remember, these were Mustangs, not hi-tech/current chassis technology like the Z06 Corvette and maybe the Viper in most ways, but it (the Viper) seems to be more of a cubic inch brute.

A thought about the "SCCA" racing. As I had mentioned previously, the 1995 Cobra R required racing intent to purchase. The 1995 Cobra R had much race backing both factory and private. The cars could compete, and when something was needed, it was available, thus many 1995 Cobra R's have extensive race history both professional, and privateer . Not so with the 2000 Cobra R. There was no race program, the few cars that are raced are in private hands. Nothing, for the most part was available to support the 2000 Cobra R race effort. It was like SVT threw this car out there, proved they could compete in every way with the big boys and said, we did it!!

The biggest complaint by the magazine editors during the tests was the db level at wide open throttle. They thought it was excessive. Many of them were partial toward the Corvette and Viper, you can tell by their comments. They were wondering how a Mustang ever got to the point of competing in the "big arena". In the end most were inpressed, but made sure they pointed out the low-tech "dated" Fox platform under the 00R.

R

 

[Captain Beyond]

As always, thanks for the great info. :beer:

 

[Formula51]

Absolutely, thanks!

And I would venture to guess the db level of a Viper at WOT is darn close to the Cobra R. Such a stupid thing for a mag to even mention when talking about the performance of these cars. Besides, isn't the noise why we love them!

 

[Robert M]

Absolutely, thanks!

And I would venture to guess the db level of a Viper at WOT is darn close to the Cobra R. Such a stupid thing for a mag to even mention when talking about the performance of these cars. Besides, isn't the noise why we love them!

They appeared to interested in picking on the 00R where ever possible. They were not used to a factory produced/assembly line Mustang competing at that performance level. One magazine feature mentioned how the 1/4 mile time of the 00R was 2/10 slower than the Z06 in their final evaluation, however when you read the drag race details, the editor down shifter the 00R from 4th to 3rd, 3/4 of the way down the track because he had shifted too early and needed to regain some rpm's. A 12.7 time was posted for that run as the official magazine test time. Hummmm??

R

 

[Formula51]

I really wish there was such thing as objective reporting out there. But that just will never happen.

On a side note, the 2001 Z06 was crap compared to the 2002-2004 Z06 and had numerous problems which were fixed quickly, thankfully.