Horse Sense: Finding an '00 Cobra R to track test was easy in 2000, but not anymore. Ford has its '00 Cobra Rs locked away, and who do you know who would turn their ultimate collectible-and expensive-Cobra R over to magazine guys for track testing? Well, here's a huge thanks to Jeff Childers for trotting out his personal hobby horse-at 5:30 a.m. no less! It turned out to be the perfect car-broken-in with just 1,900 track miles on the odometer, and even the original tires!
So why do we do these things-putting up a posh street machine such as the '03 Cobra against the Spartan homologation-special '00 Cobra R? Well, because we can-and besides, the '03 Cobra has proven such a bench-mark Mustang, it only seems proper we should test it against the paragon of late-model performance Mustangs, the '00 Cobra R. And, they both have nearly the same factory horsepower rating.
On top of that, it's been three years since the '00 R came to dominate the Mustang world. Just as the then-improved '99 Mustang Cobra made significant inroads on the supremacy of the '95 Mustang Cobra R, could we expect the addition of a supercharger to give the '03 Cobra an edge over the vaunted '00 R? Only testing could tell.
Granted, you really can't choose a winner-or a loser-between an apple and an orange. But you can gauge how close the real street cars are coming to the near race cars, and that's always exciting.
Of course, these Cobras are two completely different Mustangs, but just for a moment, let's recall their similarities. Both cars share a common chassis platform and strut-front/IRS rear-suspension layout yielding the standard Mustang 101.3-inch wheelbase. Both are powered by modular-engine V-8s, and both use T56 six-speed manual transmissions and 8.8-inch differentials. And-for the record-both cars are emissions- and crash-legal in all 50 states. After that, they are two different cars.
The '03 Cobra is optimized for the street with a supple-gaited suspension, leather seats, traction control, air conditioning, a big sound system-the works. As a near-10,000-units-per-year flagship for SVT, the '03 most clearly shoulders the SVT street-car burden of sophistication and refinement. This means it carries plenty of sound deadening and speaker magnets wherever it goes, and subtle things such as the steering system T-bar stiffness must take into account the depth of New York City potholes. In short, the '03 Cobra is a tank of a sports/touring car, naturally blessed with torque-happy, Eaton-supercharged and intercooled 4.6 twin-cam V-8 muscle.
Not so the Cobra R. Designed to make the Mustang competitive in road racing, as well as to halo the entire Mustang line with the press-magnet sex appeal only 300-ever-built, limited-edition, factory race-car specials can muster, the '00 R is the '03 Cobra's hard-core uncle. As a concession to legitimacy, it is street-legal, but it has no sound deadening material, the radio was deleted-and don't even think about air conditioning.
In fact, the more you poke around the '00 Cobra R, the more different you realize it is. You might even conclude that, while it obviously looks like a Mustang, the '00 R is so modified from the street-car Mustang norm that it approaches establishing its own identity.
In support of that thinking, consider the following. The '00 R is still the only Mustang to mount a 5.4 short-block. It boasts Carrillo rods, unique pistons, a Canton oil pan, and a windage tray. It has its own version of the DOHC Four-Valve cylinder heads, its own camshafts, its own intake manifold, and its own magnesium throttle body. It uses custom engine mounts, a lowered crossmember, custom hoses, fluid reservoirs, and numerous other small underhood parts. It was the first Mustang to offer a six-speed manual transmission and thus had to use a reinforced '98 Cobra transmission crossmember, not the '99 version. It's nasty enough to require 31-spline halfshafts, a way-trick limited-slip differential, and 3.55 gears. It needs heavier Brembo brake rotors, four-piston Brembo brake calipers, custom brake ducts in the fog light openings, and a differential cooler. It features Recaro seats, it justi-fiably earned a 180-mph speedometer, it requires a unique hood, and it puts a functional wing and splitter to good use.