1993 Ford Mustang Cobra Driver Side Front

1993 Ford Mustang Cobra - Just For Fun

Because Matt was building a fun car for quick thrills on occasion, the chassis received modest-compared to the power-upgrading. House of Boost installed most of what Maximum Motorsports offers for the Fox Mustang, including a K-member, control arms, coilovers, bumpsteer kit, and so on. Braking, on the other hand, is still essentially stock, but augmented by a home-grown water cooling system Matt custom built from his water injection parts. It uses the usual Snow Performance reservoir and pump, but instead of misting water into the intake manifold, the nozzles shoot at the inside of the front brake discs. The system is energized via the brake-light switch circuit.

In the cockpit, House of Boost did a nice job of integrating the water-methanol injection system in custom enclosures, including the electronic controller, which gets its own showy, backlit Snow logo on the center console.

Matt enthusiastically put us behind the wheel of his new beast at the also new and entertaining High Plains road course east of Denver, Colorado. This was the car's shakedown session, and as expected, there were the usual teething issues, but in our short time behind the wheel-wow! There's nothing like nuclear power for a good time. Even better, this car makes power in a racy way, with quick-revving grunt down low and a, shall we say, "crisp" top end. It's the sort of thrust that makes bending around turns just anticipation of the real thrill-pulling the trigger on the straights.

Accentuating the stellar power is the vintage Fox Mustang chassis feel. Since the first Fox, the power steering is over-boosted, plus the center of gravity feels high, with sailing-ship bodyroll for a car of this performance potential. Nose dive was decently tamed for a Fox (and we weren't tempting fate on corner entry anyway), but there was plenty enough body movement to really squat the car on the outside rear tire during corner exit for maximum traction.

Really helping were the excellent NT01 Nitto tires. They offered great traction-when the engine would allow it!

Trail-braking into the turns made the rear end a little over-active; later with Matt, we noted more brake dust on the rear wheels than the fronts, so checking the brake bias was also scribbled on Matt's post-shakedown to-do list. Speaking of brakes, in our short, easy-on-the-brakes driving we didn't feel a hint of fade, and the water level in the brake cooler went down some, so we'll call the water cooling a success.

Ultimately, however, we were quite thankful all that power was easy to dial in and out. Simply matting the throttle would smoke the tires out of any turn, of course, but thanks to the big camming and ramping-up boost, we had a great time dialing in more and more throttle coming onto the straights. It was addictive!And so, with the shakedown complete and photos taken, we were off to the airport and Matt headed back to his shop. And yeah, it was fun-just like it was built to be.

5.0 Tech Specs
'93 Cobra

Engine And Drivetrain