04 Mach 1 or 04 Cobra

[YALE]

Do you own a house?

[LaserSVT]

lol, if it has all that shit on it, it has been beaten on. People don't spend that kind of coin so they can merge more effectively onto the freeway.

Thats not always true. I know a couple people on here that made well over 600rwhp on their 04 Cobras and the cars never went to the track and usually just played a little bit... in Mexico of course. Big Whipples, E85, the works. My 03 Cobra was doing 570+rwhp and never saw the track or got beat on.

Granted most do though.

Cobra is the better car though vs the Mach. Larger pistons on the brakes, forged internals and the IRS. Sure it has an iron block but I know a few making well north of 1000rwhp and the blocks are taking it with better pistons and rods.
As for price..... shows which holds its value. The Mach is a nice car but the Terminator is an icon. They were and always will be special cars that really showed the world what Ford can make a Mustang do.
Back in the day at any get together some F-body nut job would hear any Mustang talk and instantly wanna race untill they found out it was a modded Cobra. They would look at the car with the hood popped and shut the hell up and pick a fight with a GT owner instead. LOL

Never really knew what that car could do cause only ricers would race it and it would destroy them. Only once got to race an 03 Z06 with the standard bolt ons. Of course he said I won cause he missed a shift (first run), lost traction (second run and I spun to 90mph) and on the third run said he had a missfire. Gawd I miss that car.

I am sure if I lived in DFW I would have had more fun with it.

[SC457A]

If two cars, with same miles, in the same condition. Cobra. I am kind of biased though.

I probably have one of the most babied '03s around. Its my daily driver and can't afford to fix a big boom now.

I did have over 70k on stock clutch when I upgraded to a 26-spline and it still looked nice.

[YALE]

Which scenario would you presume a car you were shopping for to have been through?

Thats not always true. I know a couple people on here that made well over 600rwhp on their 04 Cobras and the cars never went to the track and usually just played a little bit... in Mexico of course. Big Whipples, E85, the works. My 03 Cobra was doing 570+rwhp and never saw the track or got beat on.

Granted most do though.

Cobra is the better car though vs the Mach. Larger pistons on the brakes, forged internals and the IRS. Sure it has an iron block but I know a few making well north of 1000rwhp and the blocks are taking it with better pistons and rods.
As for price..... shows which holds its value. The Mach is a nice car but the Terminator is an icon. They were and always will be special cars that really showed the world what Ford can make a Mustang do.
Back in the day at any get together some F-body nut job would hear any Mustang talk and instantly wanna race untill they found out it was a modded Cobra. They would look at the car with the hood popped and shut the hell up and pick a fight with a GT owner instead. LOL

Never really knew what that car could do cause only ricers would race it and it would destroy them. Only once got to race an 03 Z06 with the standard bolt ons. Of course he said I won cause he missed a shift (first run), lost traction (second run and I spun to 90mph) and on the third run said he had a missfire. Gawd I miss that car.

I am sure if I lived in DFW I would have had more fun with it.

[Baba Ganoush]

By now, most decent Cobras are beat to shit or built up after a few lifetimes of being beat to shit. You can still find low mile ones, and IMHO they're worth the coin, but I'm sentimental.

The only reason I'd ever consider a C5 zo6 is for originality/less abuse. Fun car, but completely inferior to the '03-04 Cobra. Those cars were the culmination of genius.

Blown 32v, IRS, 6 speed w/cable clutch. I loved my Cobra, those cars were hard to beat. Nowadays, they're definitely dated.

[LaserSVT]

Trust no one.

Like any specialty car you need to look at the small things. Make sure the oil is clean, the coolant green, the intercooler coolant gold, look for dirt UNDER the seats, look for an oil seperator, check the air filter, make sure you start it when its cold, look at the pumpkin and see if it has stress cracks, make sure the pinch welds are not bent under the car, look for pad slapped rotors and if it has mods see what mods.

A well taken care of car will tell you how its been treated. A car with a Whipple and longtubes tells me the owner had money instead of just porting the Eaton and removing the cats. New pads with rotors that have a lip tell me the owner was a cheap ass. Old french frys under the seat tells me the car was cleaned for sale but not normally taken care of.

I dont mind buying a modded car as long as it was done right and if you properly inspect it the car will tell you a story of its life.

Also the cars were built well. Takes a bit to hurt a Cobra but they can be hurt.

For instance I would walk away from one with drag radials and delrin bushings in the rear just because that tells me the car was beatup on the track quite a bit. At least enough for someone to spend $1000+ to eliminate wheel hop.


A 4.6 is an easy motor to see what shape its in without ever driving the car. Start it from cold and listen for chain slap. Let it sit there and idle for 10 minutes. Just listen to it, smell the exahust, listen for ticking, watch the surge tank for bubbles. If the car starts with no noise, idles smooth and does not try and overheat during that 10 minute idle then chances are the car is in overall good shape. Push in the clutch and try and go into reverse quickly. If it fights you then the trans was prolly shifted hard too many times and has bent forks.
I could go on and on about what to look for with the 4.6 cars but I am pretty good at spotting a good one and one that looks good but is really a turd.

[LaserSVT]

That being said I would pick a 2011+ GT over an 03/04 Cobra any day of the week.

Worse yet if i were looking to buy a $16000-$20000 toy I would get an 03-06 CL600 with the twin turbo V12. Those cars are pretty much bulletproof with the exception of the suspension pump. $1500 in mods nets you well over 600hp and over 750TQ plus the seats massage you as you pass the 2010 Z06 you are racing with your three buddies packed in the car.

[YALE]

How are used CL600's that cheap? The US market only gets something like 1500 per model year.

[LaserSVT]

Dunno but I want one bad. They were almost 180k new and now are under 20k in primo condition. 30k will get you the CL65 with the bigger engine, nicer seats and huge brakes.
Tune only and you get low 11's to high 10's and 0-60 in under 4 seconds. Not bad for a 5000lb car.

As for production, about 2500 CL600s were made for the world from 2000-2005 (production dates, not model years) and only the 03-06 is turbo. Only 194 (I think) CL65s made it to America. So yeah, they are pretty rare.

[ls1e8r]

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/3604287818.html

Now you can have best of both!

[kirbster]

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/3604287818.html

Now you can have best of both!

Wow! That is a nice car minus the headlight covers.