I bought my 98 Cobra in 2000 with 20,000 miles on the clock. It is build #4558 of 5174, so it was built towards the end of the 98 production run.
For the first two years that I owned this Cobra, it remained essentially stock, doing duty only as a daily driver. As well as commuting, it has done many long road trips - as far away from Dallas as Florida and Wisconsin, so it's no garage queen! But when I started to open track the car in 2002, bone stock was not going to cut it. Since the this Cobra still had to be streetable as a daily driver, the goal from the beginning was to attempt to attain the ideal compromise between the limo ride on bumpy Dallas roads, and a fast road course car. It quickly became apparent that this was not going to be easy with a live axle stang, and started looking for a good used 99 or 01 Cobra as a replacement, but when a fellow club member offered to swap the IRS from his 2001 Cobra for my live axle, I jumped at the opportunity.
Since then, it has gradually been improved, and it is very close to my original goal of being very fast on the track, but comfortable on the street. The setup can easily be changed from one to the other in under 30 minutes.
I am currently adding some final improvement to the rear end, and it is about to go on a weightloss program to reduce it's 3440lb bulk down to under 3300lbs. Now that the chassis and handling are all but done, future plans include some minor engine and drivetrain upgrades to increase the power and torque to around 325 at the wheels - easily attainable, but not enough to adversely effect the reliability.
"I do not believe that the time will ever come when an intelligent designer would consider the use of a live axle in a new design - for either a racing car or a passenger vehicle... From the engineering, passenger comfort, road holding and vehicle dynamics viewpoints, the live axle ceased to exist long ago."
From the book "Tune To Win" in 1978 by renowned race driver, engineer and team owner Carroll Smith.
Ranked ya! Nice car by the way!! I have been looking at going to TWS is it as fun as it looks? Got to get a pic of my Mustang with a P-51 mustang also that would be sweet!
was there anything special that you needed when you were puttin in the IRS? or was it just take out the old one in bolt in IRS in the place of the upper and lower control arms?
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