Damn I got a surprise today...

I met up with one of my favorite cars to pick on today, the '03 Cobra but this one bit back.

I'm not the best at telling race stories but suffice to say he pulled up next to me and gunned it up at a light. We both hit it hard and *normally* the other Cobras that I have done this to I have more or less obliterated them by 3rd gear. They start off strong and then they just continually fall back.

Not this guy. We were even out through the near the end of 2nd for me, by the time I hit 3rd he had basically started walking away. I was ing shocked to be honest.

Anyhow, so I pull up at the next light, and we started talking. The guy was very cool he said his friend had a Yellow Z06 too and he thought I was his friend at first. I said right off the bat "you are not stock" and he laughed. I said how much HP you getting out of that thing and he said 470 at the crank. I asked him what mods he had and this is where I want to get some opinions from some mustang people.

He claims that he just did a pulley swap, and a basic exhaust/CAI type setup to gain 80 horses. Can that much HP be gotten out of an '03 cobra for those mods?

There was no question his car was modded because I was simply falling behind from halfway through 2nd on, it was somewhat embarassing getting spanked by a 'Stang but these things happen....

 

Not sure how accurate this is but a friend of a friend has an '03 Cobra with, supposedly, a pulley swap, intake, exhaust, and ECU which, from what I was told, is putting out something like 500 hp to the wheels. This guy has somewhere around $55K invested in his '03. Again, I don't know how accurate this is since I've never personally met the guy. My friend tells me it's the scariest car he's ever ridden in.

 

That's actually somewhat believable. Those cars are ridiculously easy to fix up. They dyno normally at around 360-375 whp off the lot (even though they are underrated at 390 by Ford). With a simple ECU, pulley, CAI & exhaust I can definately see 475 whp range. A simple Kenne Bell SC swap gets them 600+ whp. On the brighter side you now have many options with your car. Several SC's that will put out about 550 hp for cheap.

 

Yes, I can see it happening. I hear the average "real" crank HP is about 425. He must've also gotten a good launch since they are supposed to be harder to launch than the Z and it just gets worse with more HP. Have you updated your LS6 to '02-03 specs yet? That'd probably keep you even with his current mods.

I haven't found any snakes to play with yet (electric cut-outs should get installed next week and then the noise will scare 'em off).

 

dude one of my friends was pulling 500rwhp on his 03 Cobra with about $3k in mods. It was a good race when I was cam and bolt-ons.

 

Wicked fast cars with wickedly low amounts of money invested!! 80 hp off a pulley alone is more than believable! Catback exhaust yielded 30hp in the MM&FF magazine i used to read!!

 

I dynoed at almost 400 RWHP with just a chip... I was over 500 RWHP with chip, 2.80 pulley, full exhaust, and intake. They often dyno around 420-430 RWHP with just cat back and/or x-pipe. Third gear on the 03 Cobra is very strong... so are first and second but traction is difficult to maintain until 3rd gear. Something about 400+ lb/ft of torque on tap at 2000 RPM's that makes the tires want to spin... especially the crappy stock F1 tires. I beat every Z06 I ever raced in addition to Vipers, Porsches, a Modena and many other modded cars. Most dyno in the 360-380 RWHP range BONE STOCK which obviously indicates that Ford fudged the numbers on the low side.

 

Thats been teh complaint since day 1: ford messed up dyno #'s on 03 cobra's and they make much more power than they are said to. Saves ya a bit on insurance though, maybe?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Penforhire
[B]Have you updated your LS6 to '02-03 specs yet?

 

The simplest comparison is power to weight. Figure an '02 spec Z06 is 3300 lbs with driver and 405 crank HP. Figure his Cobra is 4000 lbs with driver and 470 crank HP (may easily be more).

So that Z06 carries 8.15 lbs / HP. That Cobra lugs around 8.51 lbs / HP. Both should have similar driveline losses.

Power to weight is not the be-all of racing (e.g tire width, AWD, gearing) but I think it is a reasonable 1st-order estimate for drag racing. Are you sure you shifted at redline?

Anyone have another basis for comparing these cars in a straight line?

I have nothing against the '03 Cobra as a serious muscle car. I nearly bought one before deciding on the vette.