1999 cobra horsepower
 

I have a 1999 mustang cobra convertible, a friend of mine brought it to my attention because he hates ford, that i might not have 320 hp, after researching it, i checked with the dealer and they claim he was right. Ford supposedly recalled the car back in december either 99 or 2000, and fixed the problem. someone also told me to call 800-ford-svt, so i did. they claim that i now have a full 320 horsepower since my particular car was recalled and tweeked back up to 320. NOW, on blue oval's website, they claim that some 99 cobras range anywhere from 240hp- 260hp. If this is true, did they actually tweek it back up all the way to 320hp??? I have no idea and i dont know how to actually check. anybody have any thoughts on this subject, i was thinking about getting a g-tech pro to test my hp, is that a good idea or bad idea. also, how much does it cost to get a car dynoed and where could i dyno it. sorry for all the writing but i just got this car and im curious.

First off, don't trust Blue Oval News. That's like trusting the enquirer.

After the "fix" for the 99 Cobra's you are making your full 320 horse power.

First: Delete that link to the Blue Oval News. I personally think it's backed by some European, Ford-bashing bastards. Hype, hysteria, chaos, panic, misinformation and bullchit.

Second: Don't you dare try and use a G-Tech to measure anything but your empty wallet. It is an absolute waste of money. You want dyno numbers? Go to a chassis dyno and get them.

The 240-260 hp that Blue Oval News is talking about is most likely rear wheel horsepower which is about where it should be. The 320 hp your car is rated at is at the crankshaft before it's transfered to the rear wheels. Typically you'll lose 15-20% of your flywheel ponies through drivetrain losses with a manual transmission car and about 20-25% for an auto. I'm in full agreement about Blue Oval. All the news they report is bad and I think Wheeler is on to something by saying that is run by Ford hating euro-snobs.

Get the car on a dyno. Do some research and you'll find most post-fix 99's are making 270-280rwhp on the rollers. If you had the fix, you're most likely in that range..

I still think 260-270 at the wheels for even a post 'fix' '99 is pretty optimistic. Every 'fixed' '99 I've seen dynoed was between 250 and 255 RWHP. The '01's which have been proven to make much more power than the '99's dyno at 275-280. MM&FF dynoed an '01 at 279 RWHP which equates to 326 at the crank (I know, who cares about flywheel hp). Now, who agrees that Ford is being extremely modest with their 390 bhp rating on the '03. Us mod guys know that a 4V even with modest boost makes crazy horsepower.

I don't think it's optimistic at all. Some seriously rival the 01's for power. The 01's seem to make more torque though. Go to the Corral and do a search and you'll see a lot of 99' guys making great numbers after the fix. Even quoting an ad in that crappy MM&FF, most people polled were making numbers easily over 260 through 275. Some of these guys were actually unhappy with the fact that their cars "only" produced numbers in the 270+ range too??

Yeah Ford wasn't very consistent when they did the 'fixes'. Some cars are weak and others are freaks and have a lot more power. Some people got lucky some didn't.

True.. Cars can vary from one to the next but I've seen most well over 260 for what it's worth. If anyone is interested though, get the Feb2001 MM&FF and look up "Thunder Road". I even screwed up quoting it. Some guys even got around 278 stock post fix..

If BadDad is around here I'm sure he'll chime in. I think he is making 310rwhp with pretty much comparable mods to mine before my car started running off it's 301peak.

COBRAon18s,

If you want it dynoed it'll set u back about $100( at least that's what it is around Milwaukee). You can have it done at a speedshop. In the yellow pages they should be under automobile performance & racing equip. And yeah as they said dyno's measure it as rear wheel hp.

thanks for all the info, i was worried for a little while, i dont think im in the position to spend over a hundred bucks dynoing the car right now, but are you sure that a gtech pro isnt good for 0-60 times and stuff like that, cause i really want one.

Yeah I hear you on the dyno price. You can just weigh it at a truck scale, take it to a track, get some #'s off the timeslip and get a pretty accurate hp #. I don't know about the gtech pro but I haven't ever heard much good about it.

Yeah take it to the strip, have it weighed (Or find the listing for your car's curb weight and add your body weight to get your track weight) then go to Mustang Work's Analyzer (it's on the tool bar at the top left of the page). This should give you a pretty good picture of the power you are putting to the wheels.