svt cobra

I just bought a 96 cobra with 31000km . The car is great. The car is 100% stock. What would be the first mod to make it goes a little faster? because it doesn,t feel any stronger than my old 5.0

Reply to
frank
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I just bought a 96 cobra with 31000km . The car is great. The car is 100% stock. What would be the first mod to make it goes a little faster? because it doesn,t feel any stronger than my old 5.0

Reply to
frank

Hint: you only have to post it once....

Reply to
Iggy

Did ya just buy the computer too?........:-p

Dave

Reply to
Dave Sibbett

from what i've read the DOHC's really respond well to deep gears, like 4.10 and lower

Reply to
Christopher Shea

If you don't mind crappy fuel mileage on the interstate & have big rear tires.. I'd say 4.10's if you really want a major increase in "slam your ass into your seat" feel. I recently put in 3.73 gears & have pretty big rear tires.. and I still have plenty of gear. I get decent gas mileage on the interstate & great gas mileage in city. 4.10's will make you hafta shift a lot around town too.

-Mike

Reply to
<memset

I have a '97 Cobra... I haven't really done anything to it, but I guarantee that it's quicker stock-for-stock than your 5.0, unless you happened to have a no-option '87-88 notchback 5-speed. By no option, I mean nothing.

The problem you're having is that the '96-98 Cobras really had almost no bottom end torque to speak of. The car doesn't make any power until around

4k RPM.

Deeper gears (4.10's or something) will get you up into the powerband much faster, causing the car to feel (and be, for that matter) faster in the 1/4 mile. The nice thing about the DOHC cars (and the reason I replied to Mike's post) is that you don't have to shift quite as much because these are revving lil engines. They pull to and past the 6800 RPM redline, and I can personally vouch for that...

I've heard good things about a particular brand of cold air intake, but I'm not sure what.

You also have to realize that, if you had an '87-93 5.0, you're pulling around a bit more car now.

Still, my stock-as-a-rock '97 Cobra managed 13.8 @ 100.7 in 90 degree heat with nothing more than a set of 15" Nitto drag radials.

Get some good subframe connectors too... not faster, but a better feel..

JS

Reply to
JS

I meant you hafta shift quite a bit around town.. normal driving. Hell, 3.73 gears & I don't hafta shift what I consider "a lot" when racing. I don't think 4.10's would be that bad even... but I meant around town.. to maintain civil gas mileage & RPM.

-Mike

Reply to
<memset

But the first time you knock it on it's knees by hitting the rev limiter, you will shit yourself thinking you have blown the engine.

I can personally vouch for that LOL

The sub frame connectors and a strut tower brace are great mods. It makes an amazing difference in the handling of the car and more torque goes to the rear end instead of getting lost in body flex.

Kate

98 Cobra Dro Top

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Reply to
SVTKate

Depending on the vintage of your 5L and the car that it was in, the SVT 4 cammer doesn't feel that much different off the line. Look at the torque ratings -- 300 lb/ft for the 96 cammer and 290 - 295 for the 5L. But tromp on the loud pedal once you're moving -- particularly above 80 mph and the added 80 hp or so certainly becomes evident, as does the absence of the motor running out of breath.

Shorter gears are a cheap way to get quicker (better changes of speed) but will reduce top-end, increase droning noise at highway speeds and reduce fuel mileage. There are a number of cool-air intake kits with larger MAFs that achieve results, WMS-Racing among them, and computer upgrades can give you small gains. But frankly the very first thing I'd do is fix the handling. Stock the car sits too high, the front is sprung too soft and the rear too stiff, and the control arms allow lateral movement of the rear axle in a turn, which aggravates snap oversteer.

Put a FRP '95 Cobra-R spring set in. If you want to really tune it, put just the fronts in and find even lower rate for the rear -- 180 lb/in linear back there. Put Bilstein struts and shocks in. Add Global West/FRP rear lower control arms or one of the alternatives from Max Motorsports or Steeda that have a bearing in one end instead of a bushing. Also replace the front sway bar with a tubular unit from Saleen or Steeda or MM. Consider a bump-steer kit. And definitely install good camber/caster plates. Set up front alignment for -1degree camber, 0 toe and all the caster you can get.

Do one more thing -- put a Torsen diff in the back. While the pumpkin is open, change gears if you want. Stock gear is 3.27. 3.73 is a good compromise if you do lots of highway driving. Be sure your shop installs the right speedo drive gear.

Now, you will have a new car. You will barely recognie it as the Mustang-based Cobra you bought and with grippy tires (Firestone Firehawk

50EPs for example), you'll have handling that is commensurate with that outstanding engine.

Guess what? You'll be faster because you'll drive faster with more confidence and the car will hook up better off the line, and you'll chase Porsches in the twisties.

Go a step further and install tube latter or tube matrix sub-frame connectors with jacking rails. You're gonna have a car that outcorners the seats so plan on a pair of Cobras, Corbeaus, FloFit or Recaros up front.

Then you can consider adding power....which is another discussion entirely.

Phil '96 SVT Cobra '96 Corvette LT4 '04 Mercury Marauder

Reply to
Red Rocket

Nicely written :)

100% | > stock. What would be the first mod to make it goes a little faster? | because | > it doesn,t feel any stronger than my old 5.0 | >

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Reply to
SVTKate

Me too, dear, me too. I was running some kid on a desolate stretch of highway and not paying any attention to the tach... next thing I know, the car fell flat on its face... 85 MPH in 2nd gear... whoops. :-)

I looked at my friend, who was wondering why I didn't shift earlier, said "whoops" and then proceeded to 3rd. :-)

Have a factory strut tower brace... have GW subs ready to go on... just have to find a shop I trust to do them.

JS

Reply to
JS

I hit the rev limiter (6050rpm i believe) when in 1st gear............ that wasn't fun :(. I should pay more attention.

-Mike

Reply to
<memset

I vaguely remember my tach recoiling from somewhere around 7400 RPM, even though the factory rev limiter was supposed to kick in around 7k.

The car kept pulling, so I stayed in it. I (mistakenly) thought it would kinda fade off like my 5.0s always did... valves floated, and that was the end of the game. Not so with the cammers...

JS

Reply to
JS

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