Congradulations on the purchase. The only thing more fun then a Cobra is a convertable Cobra!
It is possible to make 11s NA in a convertable, but it will take a lot of work. But for a general performance increase, 4.30s will make a wonderful start. I have 4.10s in my Coupe which gave a very good gain with basically no loss in milage. Unfortantly if you want to go for 11s NA, you would need some steeper then that. 4.88s or even more.
You all ready have a strut tower brace, but some additional chassis bracing will also be nice for a convertable. I would suggest subframe connectors with cross support, such as the Kenny Brown. Weld in, instead of bolt in. BTW, when you break into the 13s a lot of tracks require you to have a roll bar.
As far as power: Freeing up the exhaulst is a very productive undertaking for the Cobra. To go all out you need a set of long tube headers such as MAC or BBK, as well as a high flow H-pipe, which come with the long tubes. Installing headers is a real PITA anyway, but long tubes more so. The other option is either the FRPP (Ford) shortie headers or the JBA shorties. If you go with a shortie header you can use any H or X pipe which will fit the stock manifolds. For now the stock cat-back is okay, unless you decide to go for sound. If you are seriously shooting for 11s, you will need something a little bigger.
Some other bolt on performance parts which will help are: underdrive pulleys, timing adjuster, MAF, throttle body. But to get into the 11s you will probly need some internal work, such as cams, ported intake, maybe some head work.
As far as tires, you can fit some really mamoth ones in the rear tire well. If you get a set of upper control arms to go along with the lowers you can pull off the quad shocks and go up to 315s. Till then you can fit a set of 275 Nitto DRs on the stock wheels.
Well, that's a start at least. Welcome to the board! I look forward to talking to you again soon.
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