Personally, I'm not overly impressed with the new Cobra. It's soooo heavy. The cast iron block was completely unnecessary, and who in their right mind puts a cast alumium head/cast iron block combination together with a 390rwhp supercharged engine from the factory? All I can see is higher mileage head gasket malfunctions up the wazoo.
The engine makes a lot of power, there is no denying that. But it's super heavy. The IRS has been beefed up, and a 6spd is in it last I recall.
Still, it's a $35k base (at least) car. Weighing in at an F body dwarfing 3600lbs+. 400lbs more than a comparable GT, and 200lbs heavier than the last Cobra. You can really see how heavy the car is looking at trap speed. It barely manages to outgun a mild modded LS1 F body. 110-114mph depending on the tests of the preproduction models. If the real deal hits the streets with 450hp and traps 110mph you know with an aluminum block and some dieting it would have trapped 115, easy.
Last I checked, jmeiers was trapping about 114mph in his stock engined, bolt on Gen 1 4.6L Cobra. To argue how much cheaper a used Cobra is over a new one is a little difficult.
I've seen 2001 Cobras for $26,500 new before. Tack on $4k for the supercharger. Tack on some more bolt ons to make that S/C really work. Another grand easy with mods to the IRS. It's not a whole lot cheaper than the new Cobra, but it would kill a new Cobra in performance, everywhere.
Bottom line, it's out of my price range, and it's too heavy IMHO. I do love the new Mach 1 though.
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