Rare Mustang Cobra R - Ultra Venom

The result was, and is, happily over-powered. In fact, Randy says the car had so much snort that, "Even in Third gear it would slide all over the road... You couldn't do anything with it. It had so much power, it wasn't even fun." Furthermore, Randy subsequently moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, where the lack of air conditioning was telling. The pumped-up R didn't like the 115-degree Arizona summer weather either. Even fed a diet of 100-octane fuel, the beast would ping and occasionally shut off. After only a year of ownership and around 300 miles of driving, a new business opportunity beckoned and Randy put the R back on eBay along with all of his other "toy" cars.

Stepping up to the plate was Seminole, Florida, Ford enthusiast Larry Garuti. Larry's garage was already stocked with another '95 R that he races in the Silver State Classic, along with a 2000 R, a brace of Panteras, and some other cars just for good measure. As such, we'll admit some empathy for Larry's wife, who opined the classic "What are you going to do with that?" when Larry announced his latest acquisition.

It's a question he doesn't have a ready answer for. The car had arrived just a month before we interviewed Larry, and while he had driven it long enough to discover and confirm the car's easy Third-gear wheel-spinning power, that was about it. The short term plan is to take the car by Outlaw racer Dennis Ramsey's place for some final tuning-the car has never been on a chassis dyno-followed by some "let's see" action at the Bradenton dragstrip. Larry is hoping for a high 10 given enough traction. Obviously, low 11s are all but assured. Beyond that, we'll let Larry answer to his wife himself!