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Headers are much modified...
Headers are much modified MACs, feeding a 3-inch Dr. Gas X-pipe and DynoMax Bullet mufflers. Under the safety blanket is one of Lentech's bulletproof AOD Strip Terminator Lockup automatics, with a 6,800-stall converter.
All possible weight was shed wherever possible during construction. The result is a Cobra R that weighs in at a svelte 2,900 pounds, including Mr. Svinicki's considerable heft. The problem is, the NMRA's Hot Street rules permit a mod motor/AOD combination to run as light as 2,450 pounds with driver, so that, in effect, Paul's now running low-10-second e.t.'s with a 450-pound weight penalty. Now you can see why he really didn't want the extra 100 pounds a cast-iron 5.4 block would have cost. With the chassis about as light as it can safely be, one possible recourse to get the car to run the mid to high 9s to be competitive is to increase displacement. Since he can't really mess with the spray-bore's bores, this means stroking-still a fairly pricey proposition in the modular world. But we have no doubt Paul will do whatever it takes to get the R up to speed.
In a final sad footnote to this story, Paul's agreement with Ford provides that, once he's done racing it, his R prototype cannot be sold (even to another racer) and must be returned to the company for-you guessed it-crushing, meaning its stay of execution was really only a delay of execution. So if that microwave you buy in a couple years seems to cook particularly fast, better have it checked it for prototype Cobra R DNA.
 No more IRS. The FAB 9 housing...  No more IRS. The FAB 9 housing sports 5.13 gears and Strange internals, and it's kept under control by ladder bars and Penske coilovers. |  Most of the project was built...  Most of the project was built in-house at PHP, with much appreciated help from Scott Baumgartner, Karl Roekle, Mike Sears, Ronda Svinicki, Pat and Steve Svinicki, Al Enbody, Mark Motsinger, John Eccleton, and Superior Custom Classics. |  From K-member to A-arms to...  From K-member to A-arms to coilovers, the front is suspended entirely by Anthony Jones Engineering. This shot was taken before the massive Wilwood binders went on. |