Yeah, basically Shelby sues anyone who even thinks about using a name related to something he worked on. Regardless of whether or not he was just designing something for somebody else, like a Shelby tuned Mustang designed for Ford, or a Cobra, or anything else. Most of the projects were funded by Ford, but Shelby IMHO got a big head about it.
Anyway, the Cobra is a early to late 60's race car. Two seat in Daytona, or S/C roadster design. The Shelby modified Mustang's were the GT-350, and the GT-500. They were built as autocross cars, and are very rare and valuable today.
The Mustang Cobra II was the first Mustang to actually be named Cobra I believe, however, the Cobra Jet, and Super Cobra Jets, were engine's that were placed in some Mustang's in the late 60's and early 70's, which is earlier than the Cobra II's debut in 1976. Quickly following the Cobra II came the King Cobra of 1978. Neither the Cobra II nor the King Cobra's consisted of any performance modifications, they were just appearance packages.
Then, as mentioned before, the GT-350 appeared again in 1983 with a 5.0 HO replacing the sick 4.2 V-8 of earlier years.
With the debut of 1987 the Mustang Cobra name was once again present, but only in Canada, as USA bound 'Stangs were named GT, and Canadian models were called Cobra.
Saleen came onto the scene a little later, his first tuner Mustangs were in '88 or '89 I believe. More or less he took over the Mclaren tuned Mustang's spots. The motors remained stock, but with some performance suspension going onto the vehicles, and appearance packages being used.
Then in 1993 the real Mustang Cobra returned to the USA as well, in the form of a high performance 5.0 with GT-40 performance parts bolted on. Also the Mustang Cobra R debuted, a race version of the Mustang Cobra. It was even more aggressive in the suspension than a standard Cobra. The Mustang Cobra ran continuously as the most high performance Ford Mustang availible from 1993-1999. The Cobra R was availible in 1993, 1995, and now currently, but they are very limited production race only versions. The Cobra's and Cobra R's all had different motors than the GT's and offered more performance.
Later on, after the Fox body, Saleen began making serious performance modifications and with the the new SN95 series Mustangs being released did such extensive modification to the car that Saleen ceased to be considered a tuner, and an actual manufacturer, his cars were availible through Ford SVT dealers at a significantly elevated price over the Ford models. They did in many cases offer extreme performance enhancements over the Ford versions wuch as supercharged 351's.
Also worth noting is just a few years ago, ol Carrol Shelby happend upon a few old S/C Cobra roadsters VIN numbers and began producing authentic 1960's S/C Cobras to compliment his line of of "new" S/C Cobras. He also designed the new Series 1 exotic car.
The early Shelby Mustang's are very expensive today. They were designed to autocross so they featured suspesion enhancements, but for the most part the engines remained stock, or mildly warmed over.
The Mustang Cobra II and the King Cobra were basically just Mustang II's with an appearance package, their top engine choice was the 139hp 302. The King Cobra was the first Mustang to be badged 5.0.
The GT 350 in 1983 could be mated with the T-5 manual, when it was it was rated at 175hp and featured a Holly 4bbl carb. Nothing special really, that motor carried over in the Mustang GT in 1984, and was improved in 1985 significantly.
The 1987-1992 Canadian Cobra's were just Mustang GT's rebaged as Mustang Cobra's by Ford. No performance difference is noted. They were all rated at 225hp, and 300lb/ft torque.
In 1993 the Mustang Cobra truely returned. With it's GT-40 heads, 24lb injectors, Cobra intake, cobra cam, and roller rockers, it was rated at 235hp and 280lb/ft of torque. That stands over the 205hp, 285lb/ft rating on the 5.0 HO's which were re-rated for the first time since 1987, dispite many performance changes. It was crippled with the worst computer on earth. Today these cars are quite coveted, expect to pay over 10k for them. They are also very easy to "wake up" and get some really great performance out of them. They also had better brakes,better suspension, special wheels, and some appearance items. A very nice car really. The Cobra R of that year is a race version, stripped down, and ready to rock. They command huge prices, not worth it unless you're collecting IMHO.
The 1994-1995 Cobra's were heavier than the GT's, but they were rated at 245hp, above the manual GT's 225hp, and the auto's 215hp. Again they had other performance enhancements, and some minor styling cues.
In 1996 the Mustang recieved the first 4.6 mod motors. The Cobra got a much hotter version than the GT, a 32v DOHC version that thumped out 305hp to the meager 215hp on all GT's that year. 1997 remained the same, and in 1998 the GT was hopped up 10hp to 225. Again the Cobra's also featured other performance enhancements as well.
In 1999 the Mustang Cobra recieved a slightly hopped up verision, or at least people were told that, it produced 320hp, but Ford dropped the ball, and really due to mismatching, it still only produced 305. Ford offered a fix that helped the problem for free. The big news was the GT got a new 2nd gen 4.6 SOHC motor that finally made some big performance, 260hp. Without the fix, the Cobra could scarcely fend off a new GT at the track, which was why the recall was made most likely. Ford killed the Cobra in an attempt to save face at the end of that year, and cancelled the '00 model.
Now in '01 the Cobra is re-appearing, I haven't seen any tests, but it's rated at the 320hp. The GT's carried over the 260hp rating.
To get the ultra specifics, you'd have to ask about a single model I guess. This takes too long.
