Mustang Cobra SVT 'Terminator'
Discussion
It seems that one American V8 in my life is not enough! Time to add one with a supercharger.
Whilst rare over here, I'm aware of the legendary status the '03 and '04 Cobra's have. Last week I noticed a silver one for sale in the PH auction. It's a one owner car, with 55,000 miles, in a sort of Clubsport spec. It has a full roll cage, no rear seats, but almost a full interior, including carpets, non-original Recaros, heater and AC, plus stereo. I know they change hands for north of $30,000 in the States, but over here I had a hunch it wouldn't get anything close to that figure.
With my wife's support I was hunched over the laptop on Wednesday night, nervously placing bids. I won it for £11,631, including the PH auction fee, which I think was a good price. I did feel slightly sick though, had I done the right thing? Especially as I bought it unseen! I must say that the auction experience was a good one. The advert was well written, photo quality and quantity helped give me some confidence. Although the PH fee is high, I put that out of my mind and was ultimately happy with the total figure paid.
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/auction/17485907
Comms followed with the owner. I hopped on a train (well, four of them) with my 4 year old son last Friday and we headed to Mildenhall to collect it, met by Dad, who picked us up from the train station. This was many thousands of miles closer to home than the Corvette!
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
First impressions were good, it was as described, clearly had been stored for some time (tyres at 50+ psi) and the cage install was of a good quality, although not (yet) MSUK compliant due to curved rear legs.
The Goodyear tyres were dated between 2002 (originals) and 2008, rock hard, but not cracked.
They will be top of the list for replacement, although 275/40/17 all round are a difficult size to source, so may go slightly narrower on the factory 9" rims.
Where the car had sat at the garage for a number of weeks since MOT, the battery had gone completely flat. The car was fitted with a Thatcham alarm and immobilisor when it landed here in about 2006. It's back-up battery also seems to be dead, as a result when we hooked up a jump pack the immobilisor was asking for a 5 digit code, to type into the keypad.
I called the seller (who lives overseas), he described the booklet where the code was printed and referenced a PH auction photo that shows what the booklet looked like. I emptied the entire contents of the car (there was a lot of tools, spares and rubbish) but no sign of any of the booklets, so somewhere between photography, transportation and MOT the paperwork has been lost.
Thankfully the service receipts and handbook were still present.
Sometime later, I'd used the tools to take off interior panels and found the immobiliser box. A label had a teeny 5 digit code printed on it, thankfully this worked and it fired up. What a noise, just the perfect V8 cold start rumble. It was on fumes, which was a good thing, as I didn't know how old the fuel was.
This is Dad, in support with his Panamera, which is incidentally much bigger than both the Mustang and Corvette.
I re-packed the car and 4 hours after arrival in Norfolk, little Austin and I headed back to Wiltshire.
It's very different from the Corvette, a heavier car and it does needs some work here and there. The noise is epic though, the V8 roar, overlaid by the supercharger whine is intoxicating, especially with an encouraging little voice from the passenger seat.
Full throttle resulted in the fuel presure gauge dropping and stuttering, so a fuel tank drop and new filters is planned. Even on half throttle it is rapid and turns those hard tyres to smoke rather too easily. It was a careful drive back, with precious cargo onboard. The clutch is heavy (normal), the throttle pedal was way too low for heel and toe (something I have already fixed), tracking is way off and after the third hour my head was beginning to hurt with drone, but considering it has spent most of the last 18 years in storage it drove well. I'd already checked that these have a camchain btw.
First little mods, to free up some supercharger noise. Removed the tatty hood liner, opened the functional hood extractor vents, removed the protective (ugly) supercharger pulley shield and the lid to the K&N induction (yes, it will allow more hot air in).
At the weekend I emptied out more than 100kg of spares, tools, new and old brake discs and so much more. I filled two wheelie bins, but have salvaged some good stuff too (8 new, boxed K&N oil filters!).
I'm not sure if it will be a keeper, or something to enjoy, experience and move on, once I have made various improvements. I will make some videos and document the work as I go. I may enter 'Milly The Mustang' into the Pomeroy Trophy event at Silverstone in February, which should be a giggle.
For those not sure what a 'Terminator' (Ford's nickname for the car) is, in brief:
The mid 90's Mustang V8 underdelivered on its claimed power. Therefore production was stopped and Fords Special Vehicle Team set to work on making this Mustang rather special. They changed to rear independant suspension, whilst the alloy engine was swapped for a stronger, iron block, with forged crank, stronger rods and an Eaton supercharger. The resulting 390hp was actually pessimistic, with many 2003 and 2004 cars rolling roaded in the 430+ range. Mine has a smaller supercharger pulley, Bassani exhaust and remap, delivering an advertised 500bhp (I will be checking this).
The engines seem capable of tolerating more than double the original power and still being reliable.
Cheers, Dave
Whilst rare over here, I'm aware of the legendary status the '03 and '04 Cobra's have. Last week I noticed a silver one for sale in the PH auction. It's a one owner car, with 55,000 miles, in a sort of Clubsport spec. It has a full roll cage, no rear seats, but almost a full interior, including carpets, non-original Recaros, heater and AC, plus stereo. I know they change hands for north of $30,000 in the States, but over here I had a hunch it wouldn't get anything close to that figure.
With my wife's support I was hunched over the laptop on Wednesday night, nervously placing bids. I won it for £11,631, including the PH auction fee, which I think was a good price. I did feel slightly sick though, had I done the right thing? Especially as I bought it unseen! I must say that the auction experience was a good one. The advert was well written, photo quality and quantity helped give me some confidence. Although the PH fee is high, I put that out of my mind and was ultimately happy with the total figure paid.
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/auction/17485907
Comms followed with the owner. I hopped on a train (well, four of them) with my 4 year old son last Friday and we headed to Mildenhall to collect it, met by Dad, who picked us up from the train station. This was many thousands of miles closer to home than the Corvette!
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
First impressions were good, it was as described, clearly had been stored for some time (tyres at 50+ psi) and the cage install was of a good quality, although not (yet) MSUK compliant due to curved rear legs.
The Goodyear tyres were dated between 2002 (originals) and 2008, rock hard, but not cracked.
They will be top of the list for replacement, although 275/40/17 all round are a difficult size to source, so may go slightly narrower on the factory 9" rims.
Where the car had sat at the garage for a number of weeks since MOT, the battery had gone completely flat. The car was fitted with a Thatcham alarm and immobilisor when it landed here in about 2006. It's back-up battery also seems to be dead, as a result when we hooked up a jump pack the immobilisor was asking for a 5 digit code, to type into the keypad.
I called the seller (who lives overseas), he described the booklet where the code was printed and referenced a PH auction photo that shows what the booklet looked like. I emptied the entire contents of the car (there was a lot of tools, spares and rubbish) but no sign of any of the booklets, so somewhere between photography, transportation and MOT the paperwork has been lost.
Thankfully the service receipts and handbook were still present.
Sometime later, I'd used the tools to take off interior panels and found the immobiliser box. A label had a teeny 5 digit code printed on it, thankfully this worked and it fired up. What a noise, just the perfect V8 cold start rumble. It was on fumes, which was a good thing, as I didn't know how old the fuel was.
This is Dad, in support with his Panamera, which is incidentally much bigger than both the Mustang and Corvette.
I re-packed the car and 4 hours after arrival in Norfolk, little Austin and I headed back to Wiltshire.
It's very different from the Corvette, a heavier car and it does needs some work here and there. The noise is epic though, the V8 roar, overlaid by the supercharger whine is intoxicating, especially with an encouraging little voice from the passenger seat.
Full throttle resulted in the fuel presure gauge dropping and stuttering, so a fuel tank drop and new filters is planned. Even on half throttle it is rapid and turns those hard tyres to smoke rather too easily. It was a careful drive back, with precious cargo onboard. The clutch is heavy (normal), the throttle pedal was way too low for heel and toe (something I have already fixed), tracking is way off and after the third hour my head was beginning to hurt with drone, but considering it has spent most of the last 18 years in storage it drove well. I'd already checked that these have a camchain btw.First little mods, to free up some supercharger noise. Removed the tatty hood liner, opened the functional hood extractor vents, removed the protective (ugly) supercharger pulley shield and the lid to the K&N induction (yes, it will allow more hot air in).
At the weekend I emptied out more than 100kg of spares, tools, new and old brake discs and so much more. I filled two wheelie bins, but have salvaged some good stuff too (8 new, boxed K&N oil filters!).
I'm not sure if it will be a keeper, or something to enjoy, experience and move on, once I have made various improvements. I will make some videos and document the work as I go. I may enter 'Milly The Mustang' into the Pomeroy Trophy event at Silverstone in February, which should be a giggle.
For those not sure what a 'Terminator' (Ford's nickname for the car) is, in brief:
The mid 90's Mustang V8 underdelivered on its claimed power. Therefore production was stopped and Fords Special Vehicle Team set to work on making this Mustang rather special. They changed to rear independant suspension, whilst the alloy engine was swapped for a stronger, iron block, with forged crank, stronger rods and an Eaton supercharger. The resulting 390hp was actually pessimistic, with many 2003 and 2004 cars rolling roaded in the 430+ range. Mine has a smaller supercharger pulley, Bassani exhaust and remap, delivering an advertised 500bhp (I will be checking this).
The engines seem capable of tolerating more than double the original power and still being reliable.
Cheers, Dave
I saw that and smiled; when I read the auction listing I remember thinking that at >~£15k it would be a steal.
Even with a bit of money in mild recomissioning and tweaking I imagine it could be re-sold at money back. Get it back stateside and you might even manage a small profit. Surely that's going to be 25k+ at Barret Jackson or similar?
Even with a bit of money in mild recomissioning and tweaking I imagine it could be re-sold at money back. Get it back stateside and you might even manage a small profit. Surely that's going to be 25k+ at Barret Jackson or similar?
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