20k miles Cobra. Body work before and after!

dbrennancobra · Post by **dbrennancobra** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:07 am

You mention the slightly different (but not tougher) engine, but then you say that you may want to build a monster 800HP car. There is nothing, other than the timing cover, that you can use from the stock engine on an engine making that kind of power. Everything will have to be serious aftermarket, and the trans and rear end will also have to be upgraded, as well as the body, (roll cage and subframe connectors, at a minimum) and now you have a cut-up car that can't really be put back stock, and you are at least 50K lighter in the pocketbook for a modded car that will be worth the same or less than it is now. We've seen it here too many times before, and you have to be 100% sure that you want to go down that road with such a nice survivor as your car - and not a high mile car instead that's worth far less and would be a better choice for a wild build.

Think it over, a clean '93 Cobra is a very unique looking car on today's roads, even stock. They get all the right kind of attention, and speak to the taste of the owners. Plan your mods well, and plan them reversible too, because you never know.

-MJS[/quote]

I agree with the above 100%.

Pokerninja · Post by **Pokerninja** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 12:53 pm

Thanks for the all the feedback everyone, I really do appreciate it. Although i do have my own opinions, please realize that I am no expert when it comes to cars. I'm here to learn and I value the input of everyone here, even if it doesn't agree with my own.

As for the outside appearance, I will not be changing anything else except maybe the lights. I do like the HID lights (especially cause people move out of my way in the fast lane at night lol) but i was worried how they might look on the car. If anyone knows how I can get HID with a more stock look that would be great,maybe a kit?

@ mike s. If you took that cowl hood off and reduced the size of the tires some, Id like that car, sorry

As for the under the hood mods, I'm really only interested in increasing the power of the car.I really don't want to cut up the frame or add a roll cage. I just want to have more power so that its competitive with a lot of the more modern cars on the road these days that come stock with 300+hp but I'm also aware that i will need to change out more parts on the car the more power I add. Maybe 500/650 would be more balanced. Not having been down that road yet, I'd hard to say. My mechanic (who offered to the buy the car the 1st day i brought it to his shop) was trying to talk me into a twin turbo but I definitely will be doing a ton of research before changing anything under the hood. Any ideas on that would be great.

If I was going to increase the hp, what kind of exhaust would be best?

aaronlstiles · Post by **aaronlstiles** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 1:30 pm

Maybe your Mechanic knew you wold rice it up, LOL. Jk man. If you want to make that kind of power you will need a good Forged Piston Motor, these stock motors can only handle about 8lbs of Boost before the ring lanyard shit the bed.

Sounds like you should put this one back stock, and buy you a nice 80K miles 100K miles driver, as it sounds like you will be swapping out all the mechanical, and that was the reason you bought a low mile car, so you didn't have to do that.

93 Venom · Post by **93 Venom** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 1:57 pm

I wanted to have power too, so I pulled the motor (kept it ) then put a dart 347 motor with all the good stuff to handle a supercharger with lots of boost. Also I had to replace the transmission because I knew the stock one was not going to be able to handle all that TQ ( Kept it). Put a T56 and beef up the rear end and more $$$$$$$$. See a pattern here, my girl has 70,000 miles on her and the person I bought the car from dogged it all the time on the strip. Yours was a beauty queen from the start, go find you a 4 banger or a 5.0 lx and make that your weekend beast, and restore your beauty queen back to her original condition.

cityboy21 · Post by **cityboy21** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:10 pm

Can some of the cars Mike S. posted be considered "wrecked" in the Registry? just curious.

buddha · Post by **buddha** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:15 pm

Pokerninja wrote: If I was going to increase the hp, what kind of exhaust would be best?

Wow, walked into this thread late. Anyway, I actually like the Stalker front end. Can't say I'm a fan of the hood, but whaterver.

Anyway, if you go with a power adder, you can shove a ton of power through a 2.5" setup with no issues.

dbrennancobra · Post by **dbrennancobra** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:44 pm

just put NOS....... MONICA. NOOOOOOO

GTJay99 · Post by **GTJay99** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 5:11 pm

Pokerninja wrote:
@ mike s. If you took that cowl hood off and reduced the size of the tires some, Id like that car, sorry

So what your saying is it looks better stock. LOL. You must have owned six cylinder mustangs all your life and this is your first Big Boy. Cause the mods you talk of and did are all in a sixxers dream... LMFAO

drkhrse · Post by **drkhrse** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 8:28 pm

pokerninja, ignore these guys, they only like to look at stock cars. I say mod the hell out of it! Make it how you like it, life is too short to let others tell you what to do. I have always liked the stalker front bumper, had one on a 92 GT many year ago. They look better in person than in pics. I wish I kept it for my cobra.

vuzikis · Post by **vuzikis** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 10:00 pm

Ok Poker, its your car and you can do what you want. Many here are just saying why didn't you just buy a 93 GT and save your money for mods. Don't get your logic for spending twice the cash for a Cobra. As far as your argument about the Cobra having better internals than a GT this is completely untrue. The cam is the only difference as far as the bottom end. All of the mods are top end which is why the car is more powerful than a GT. If you are trying to make 600+ HP with your car, the only thing you can use is the upper and lower intake, which will need to be extrude honed for more flow. All the other parts are useless to make that kind of power. Just my 2 cents. Oh one more item, these cars were very underrated by Ford when they hit the showroom. 235hp and 280ft torque isn't correct but that is what was put out by Ford. I have a dyno numbers of my car with only full exhaust of 245hp 298ft torque to the rear wheels. The previous owner dyno'ed the car stock with 239hp 292ft tq. If you calculate 15% loss from the flywheel that puts the car at 281hp/342ft tq (using the full exhaust set-up numbers).These numbers could be increased with a tune bump in timing (mine currently set at 10). Anyway my point is that these cars are not dogs even by todays standards.

red95gts · Post by **red95gts** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 12:03 am

Holy Christ that's ugly! I'm all for modding the drivetrain (let's face it, stock Foxes are sloooow) but the hood and bumper are horrific.

SCJScott · Post by **SCJScott** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 11:26 am

To each is own. It is his car he bought with his money. With that said, I would've kept it original since I'm a purist. As long as he keeps the original parts that can be swapped back, there is no harm here.