hey allright another Bama guy,!
ok to your question what year are you goin for? late 80's fox body or newer 94-98 style? or 99-03 style? pro's an cons with each, the 80's foxes are faster off the bat, light, nimble an looove bolt on goodies, perfect 1/4 terror. the lx 5.0 comin in first an the gt comin in next jus from the added weight of the ground effects. hatch is common if you can find a notch-back your in rare form with a rare car. engines pretty much the same from 86-93 with subtle cahnges from carb to efi on the late 80's early 90's model, better flowin heads, revised intake on 90's models.. very nice if you can find one stock, one that has been properly modded or that hasn't been smashed into a wall.(long story)
94-98 the change. (body, engine in 96,trans) redesigned the intake to fit under the lower hood, less headroom but engine still the same from the 93 GT powerwise. a lil sluggish due to the ECCIV cmputer, but not too shabby. its a nice daily driver. most are still relatively new abuse wise, an are in the 5k range.. 96 is when the engine swap happened 4.6 for both the GT an cobra the cobra bein a DOHC. the GT is not too impressive stock,(lacks the low end torque, but has better flowin heads than the 94 5.0, the DOHC cobras love forced induction..
the 99-03 are new, the aftermarket is a lil smaller than the 5.0 but the hp/tq out the box is very impressive.a chip, exhaust, etc. an your close to knockin on 300's door.
convertibles are strange, to make them really fast you have to lose alot of weight, those actuators in the roof particularly. , but stock for stock a 98 convertible cobra will get passsed by a cobra coupe, jus due to that added weight of the convertible. butif i wanted a convertible was after speed also, i'd look for a convertible 80's 5.0. guy i know has a beautiful turquois 80's 5.0 drop-top an puts about 360 to the wheels..not too bad.
but the most important thing to remember its get what you want.
