Heading For A Showdown

Everyone has a car they wish they hadn't let go. We had our list, but that was quickly erased by our 1993 Cobra Team Mustang project car.

It made not have run all that well when we first got it, but with a little love, this car began to blossom. The first order of business was to find a suitable exhaust system for our turbo car, which concerned us as this proved a bit difficult to find. It didn't take long, however, before we came across a used stainless steel ATR exhaust which had come off a Mustang SVO. It fit just fine and gave a great exhaust note. We knew we were on our way.

We worked next on collecting as many brake and suspension parts as we could find. We went for the much larger 13-inch front brake rotors which came on later model Cobras. This required changing over from the stock 4-lug spindles to a 5-lug arrangement. Discount Tire had some used 2003 Cobra wheels and gave us a lead on some great Falken tires.

Kenny Brown Performance did the install for us and also lent their expertise on the suspension set up. Tokico 5-way adjustable shocks were installed with matching springs and a set of caster/camber plates along with a competition front end alignment. The car already had a full set of frame connectors to stiffen the chassis. A fully adjustable panhard bar was installed to help locate the rear end. When we drove the car, we found that the car could handle anything the road could throw at it while giving a surprisingly good ride.

Precision Turbo & Big Stuff 3 combined their resources to give us an engine management system which helped the drivability of the car tremendously. The result was a really smooth running car that ran low 13's on just 6-lbs of boost with pump gas. We have to admit the temptation was certainly there to turn up the boost, but we figured the stock bottom end of the engine was only good for roughly 450-hp. The turbo was rated for more than that, so we decided not to push it.

The finishing touch was provided by a set of Sparco Murano seats, which were probably the nicest we've ever settled into. Adding a rear seat delete kit along with some decals really set the car off. We could have been a lot bolder with the graphics, but we felt that less was more. There's plenty of room for someone else to jazz it up later down the road.

Driver the car was nothing but pure pleasure, but what will no doubt be even more fun is how envious the other teams are going to be about our very collectible, low mileage car that is set up to hold its own on both the strip and track. eBay gave us all the parts we needed—and then some. The result was a car we will never forget.