2003 Ford Mustang Cobra - Sleeper Hit - Xtreme Street 'Stangs

Cervini's Auto Designs is a name synonymous with aftermarket body panels, including hoods, wings, bumper covers, and so on. Owner Danny Cervini started out as a young kid working in his dad's body shop. Later, he had a Fox GT and a vision to make the car look a lot better than stock. His first design was a cowl hood. Yes, he borrowed a look made famous by Chevrolet Camaros and Chevelles and put it on a Fox Mustang. That first hood, still tucked away at Cervini's Vineland, New Jersey, headquarters, weighs more than a stock, steel Fox-body hood.

Danny has obviously made great strides ever since that first hood, and his '03 Cobra is a good sign he's not slowing down anytime soon. "It's hard to choose which is the most impressive feature of the car," he says, "because it is so well balanced between its looks and power." Fortunately for Danny, the looks aspect of the car was the easiest part to work on, but he says it was also the most rewarding part as well. "It's just a great feeling when you get a stock Mustang, strip it of its panels, and bolt on a Stalker 10-piece kit," he says. "To witness the transformation is amazing."

The power equation wasn't that much more difficult to solve. His Cobra made 370 hp mostly stock, and 100 more were available by simply dropping off the car at JDM Engineering and letting the crew do its thing. JDM/Kooks headers, a JDM H-pipe with cats, and a MagnaFlow after-cat make up the exhaust, while upper and lower blower pulleys allow the stock Eaton supercharger to force 18 pounds of boost into the stock Four-Valve heads. JDM tuned the car using a Superchips performance chip to arrive at 470 hp and 497 lb-ft of torque. "All that for under $4,000 parts and labor," Danny says. "That's the cheapest 100 hp I've ever bought."

Danny's investment made the best return-against a Corvette-just after having the work done by JDM. "Assuming the Corvette was stock, I figured it would be an easy kill," he says. "However, after shifting into Second gear, I noticed he was still on my bumper. Shifting into Third, I was now serious about it and was able to widen the distance between us, going into Fourth. Afterward, we pulled over to talk, which was difficult to do over the sound of his cammed-up 427 stroker engine. He proceeded to tell me the car dyno'd at 490 hp at the rear wheels. He couldn't believe his Corvette was unable to catch me."