Rumours about the new (if any) Cobra

The bean counters at Ford think the IRS will cost too much to develop, those are the rumors anyway. Too bad the new Mustang platform was designed with an IRS in mind but Ford is going to cheap out and stick with a solid axle leaving those of us eagerly awaiting something that can actually handle out in the cold. The Terminator Cobras were the fastest and 2nd best handling Mustangs released by ford, the Cobra R being the best handler and 2nd fastest. Some of us were hoping for something from the factory that could finally keep up with other sport coupes in the twisties, Hau Thai-Tang even mentioned an "M fighter". I say the "bean counters" are ruining this country. The Cobra, or what is near final design will be unveiled at the NY Auto Show at the end of this month.

I think the real reason is that if they put IRS on the Mustang it would cheapen the other DEW platform cars, the Lincoln LS and the Jaguar S-type.

It's not really bean counters. I think that's the wrong term. It's the mentality of MBAs and such that run US corporations. They simply think they can cheat on things like the suspension and nobody will notice. And for the most part, the moron majority that buys cars in the USA won't. That's why we get crap in this market compared to what Ford sells overseas. Nobody can tell me that the Ford 500 is a better car than the Falcon sold down under. Ford tried to sell the Taurus head to head with the Falcon and the Taurus was clearly the hunk of crap it is when compared with a real car.

Ford made a best-they-could IRS for the SN95, a platform that was evolved from one that never had IRS as a consideration. So that IRS had some issues for drag racers. Now Ford is going to use that as their excuse to cheapen the cobra. If the likes of drag racers is really such a big deal, there's this thing called an option sheet to deal with that. Make one standard and the other an option. Make the IRS standard and the solid a no-cost option, charge an extra $500 for the IRS, something. This isn't rocket science.

I want a car that handles. I don't want to have to buy an aftermarket rear suspension. I've never gotten around to redoing the rear suspension on my '97 GT. I want to buy it out of the box, at least to some decent degree. Between their cheapening of the products and their instant collectable marketing Ford is sending me a message that they don't want my business. I'd love it if the new cobra met my standards for my next new car, but it's just doesn't seem likely that it will. I'll just have to pony up extra money for a used 911 or a BMW or something. I am not opposed to 6 cylinders if I can get the performance I want out of the car. I actually like inline 6s. The cobra is going to boil down to it's V8, the rest of the car being more-or-less run-of-the-mill mustang the way things are shaping up.

Again, just marketing BS not to deliver a quality car to the US market. Even the base falcon family sedan in Austrailia has IRS.

maybe it's because it has so much horsepower that it can only stay in one piece with a strong solid axle ? Hey, the Mustang GT has the best implementation of a solid axle ever made. They might go one step further with that. who knows. Just stop the speculation and wait until it's officially released.

Remove NO-SPAM from email address when replying

Rein wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

LOL! If Ford doesn't know how to design a decent IRS, maybe they should copy the Corvette's. GM's works pretty damn well.

Actually, this just might be true. The '05 GT's rear is simply wonderful for what it is.

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

Bah. unless we're talking 2000 hp or something here...

Basis for this statement? I assume you mean an '05, because the SN95 certainly doesn't in stock form.

uhm, yeah. We're talking about the new cobra in this thread. We can be pretty certain that it will be based on the DEW platform and not the SN95. :-)

/smart-ass mode off.

Remove NO-SPAM from email address when replying

And yet, no basis for the statement.

Please...a dummy question: What are 'SN95' and 'DEW'?

Thanks.

"John H" wrote

The different platforms that Mustang has been, and are currently, based on. Such as "FOX", "FOX4", "SN95", "DEW".

Thanks for the reply. Where could I go to see what the different platforms, or years, are?

With Mustangs they are; Fox = '79 - '93 Fox4 or SN95 = '94 - '04 Dew = '05+

Thanks!