Well, let me start off by saying it has been a dream of mine to own a Cobra for quite some time. Unfortunately, the 2003 Cobra's were quite plagued with several problems.
First of all, no offense to anyone who owns a Mustang (hell, I've owned two), but the 03-04 Cobra is basically nothing more than a $20,000 motor in a $10,000 rental car chassis, designed to handle the 190 some horsepower V6 of the base Mustang, which constitutes the vast majority of the Mustang's sales.
Now, don't get me wrong...that car was STOUT. It was probably putting down anywhere from 430-450 horsepower to the ground, although I had about $1500 in performance mods done to it. The problem with that much power in that car is wheel hop. The Cobra has an IRS setup out back, and it is basically haphazardly thrown in there (bolts up to the existing mounts for the live axle of the base and GT models). You just could NOT use the car to its potential for fear of breaking something due to the embarrassing wheel hop. It was running 116 mph traps (BEFORE the pulley swap) at 13.0. Those kind of traps are good for mid to low 12s, but not with those tires and IRS setup.
If it were my money, and I just HAD to have a Mustang, I'd either wait for the new Mustang that's coming out very shortly, or get a black Mach 1, which basically has the 03-04 Cobra motor, minus the blower, but has the live axle setup out back. You could always throw your centrifugal blower of choice on there and have a hell of a fun car that would probably humble most new Cobras quite easily at the strip.
The main reason I got rid of it, though, was the reliability issues I had with the coolant system. I bought the car in September 2002, and by then the temperatures were cooling down. It wasn't until the summer of 2003 that I started having problems with it over heating. Repeated trips to the Ford dealership solved nothing, and there was no known fix for the problem at the time. The straw that broke the camel's back was the time it left me stranded out on the highway. I finally got tired of messing with it and traded it for a 2003 Infiniti G35 Coupe. I also added a 2004 Z06 to the stable to cure the need for speed.
So anyways, there's my story, and I'm stickin to it.
By the way, I'm from Garden City, KS, but am currently residing in Lawrence.
My favorite color + a mustang = :shocked
