I purchased my black on black 1996 Cobra in April 1999. When I picked it up it had only 2450 original miles on it. It was owned by an older retired gentleman who rarely drove it because it was too fast for his wife. If she could only see it now!! I bought the Cobra because I took a ride in one and was hooked on the 4.6 so I sold my 500 hp 1991 GT and became a modular Mustang owner. To this point I have absolutely no regrets. I have had more fun racing my Cobra than any other car that I have owned and the camaraderie among Modular owners is amazing.

  When I purchased the car my goal was a low 13/high 12 sec street car. Once I started working on the car I was surprised at how quickly it responded to the changes I made. It just kept getting faster to the point that it would run consistent 12.9s on 17" Drag Radials. I also ran the car at an open track event at Pocono Raceway and had a blast. Soon after, I went the first Modular Shootout at Cecil Co. MD in Nov 1999. I ended up with a 3rd place finish behind Lon Hill and Bob Gibson. Although Gibsons car was impressive it was not a street car. What impressed me was Lon’s car. He ran consistent mid 12’s with no major work done to the car. Lon was equally impressed with the times I was turning with my basic combo. This is when I decided that I wanted to turn my attention to drag racing my Cobra and I vowed to come back to the Modular Shootout the following year and be competitive. I did some suspension work and picked up a set of Weld Wheels from Jimmy Vacarro and got the car down to the 12.70s which was good enough for 2nd place behind Barry Shepard. Since then I have tried some parts that worked and some that did not. The car is currently in the 12.50s but the only thing stopping me from running 12.3-12.4 has been traction and bad luck. At this point I am getting the car ready for the 2001 season and an all-out assault on the 11 sec zone with fellow SSOTNers Andy Cluck, Jason Meiers, and “Krimpet” Bauer.

  The following is a list of all the mods done to my car to date and Et and Dyno numbers to back it up whenever possible. Hopefully be next year this will be a recipe for an 11 sec NA cobra. I also listed the parts that I am adding over the winter:

Bone Stock – 13.85@102 with a high 1.9 60 ft. This took a decent amount of practice. Most runs were in the low 14’s until I figured out the launch.

Added Flowmaster mufflers – 13.84@102 with a 2.0 60 ft. Pretty much useless from a performance standpoint but the car did sound better.

Added 4:10 gears  and Dr Gas X pipe – 13.60@104 with a 2.0 60 ft. The gears woke this car up and the X pipe gave it a mean raspy sound . I was new to modular motors and felt that the 4:10s were fairly extreme for a street car….I later learned that 4:30s are the minimum for an NA cobra.

Added BFG 17" Drag Radials and a Superchip – 13.44@105 with a 1.9 60 ft. The BFG's made the car very consistent and the Superchip seemed to make power. Against what some have said it is in the car to this day. At this time I was still doing a first gear soft burnout with the BFG's. I also had made my first Dyno runs at this time. With the above mods it made 284.0 RWHP which I thought was pretty good for the mods listed.

Added Steeda Timing Adjuster – 13.31@106 with a 1.9 60 ft. With the timing set at 12.5 (with 2 additional degrees coming from the chip) the car picked up for sure. My 60 ft did not change so the adjuster was a worthwhile part.

Added Pro-M 77mm Mass air meter, ASP Pullies – 12.98@107 with a 1.9 60 ft. Finally in the 12s!!!   The car made several 13.0 passes before finally becoming a 12 sec street car. Took the car to LaRocca's Performance for a dyno day and got 295.7 RWHP out of it. I really wanted 300 RWHP but the car ran great so no complaints.

Added UPR Power Pipe – 12.89@108 with a 1.9 60 ft. This is another mod people seem to dismiss as useless but I got a tenth and 1 mph out of it. This part showed no improvement at all on the Dyno but the drag strip is where the benefits were found. The car had a harder top end charge and pulled away from friends with equal cars on the highway from a 3rd gear roll.

Added Weld Pro-Stars, Tokico Shocks/Struts, BBK TB, and B Springs – 12.74@109 with a 1.8 60 ft time. I used BFG Drag Radials on the Welds and the car launched much harder and was much more consistent. I also was doing good 2nd gear burnouts and getting the tires hot. Still have work to do on launches but the car was beginning to get respect for being a true 12 sec street car.

Added Tremec 6 speed, MeLeod Kevlar clutch, Eaton diff with 4:56s, MT ET Streets and Superior 31 spline axles – 12.80@107 this group of mods was designed to make the car stronger while hopefully going quicker. The 6 speed in my opinion is a bad choice for an NA car. The car felt sluggish off the line due to the gear ratios. I also blew the Eaton to pieces. This is NOT a good choice for drag racing diff. There have been so many problems that Eaton has recalled the carrier. LaRocca's set me up with a Motorsport 31 spline truck carrier that has been rock solid up to this point.

Re-installed stock T-45 – 12.5@110 with a 1.7 60 ft time. The car feels like an animal now.  The T-45 ratios and the 4:56s are a perfect match although I would not rule out 4:88s for a street car. With a good 1.6 60 ft time the car will surely be in the 12.30s.

Took car to Atco with borrowed ET drags and ran a new best – 12.30@111 with a ripping 1.6 60 ft time. This pass was done with no pass seat, no back seat, and no rear wing. Not sure of race weight but it is light for a heavy SN95 car I hope my new mods put the car in the 11’s!!!!

What next??
Like I said I am shooting for 11’s next year. The car has had quite a bit of work done to it over the winter months. First of all I damaged the T-45 (repeatedly!) so it has been replaced with a low mileage unit I picked up from Rick at Amazon Racing. I also added BBK longtube headers, BBK H-pipe, Hooker straight through mufflers, turndowns, an Anthony Jones Engineering K member, IMRC Delete plates, and am working on putting the battery in the trunk. I am also installing a custom intake from Lon Hill at P and J Speed Shop in NY. I sold the Brembo brake kit and installed GT brakes so I could make use of Weld Pro Star skinnies. Hopefully these parts will be enough to get me into the 11’s at the SSOTN Spring Nats!! Currently the car is making 300.8 horsepower and 304.3 ft lbs of torque at the wheels. I am hoping to be over 310 in a couple of weeks!!  Stay tuned for more updates!!

K-Member Install Pictures - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

I need to thank several people for helping me get the car where it is now. First my wife Tanya for her amazing understanding and patience, Krimpet, Brian, Chris and the rest of the guys from Track Toys, all my friends from Superstallions, especially Jimmy Vacarro, Jimmy Chahalis from LaRocca's performance, and anyone who lines up next to me and pushes me to go faster!!!

Thanks
Bill