Next Gen Stang Info And 2003 Cobra Write-Up
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Next Gen Stang Info And 2003 Cobra Write-Up
This is pretty long but is a good read.
MORE MUSTANG MUSCLE
Current model will leave the road on a high note; retro version is due in 2004
The Ford Mustang, as we know it, will be put out to pasture in 2004. Its aging bones have been around since the Carter administration.
So has the legendary pony car gone lame?
Don't bet your two dollars on it. Not with a trainer like SVT, the Ford Special Vehicle Team. Its limited-production 2003 Ford SVT Mustang Cobra is designed to sustain the faithful until the next Mustang-for-the-masses arrives: The '60s-styled 'Stang that could become Ford's next baby boomer smash, an affordable encore to its nostalgic Thunderbird. After excruciating delays, that high-volume Mustang, with a base-price target of $20,000, will almost assuredly arrive in 2004 as a 2005 model.
Until then, the current Mustang soldiers on, still built on a chassis that dates to the late '70s. But if it's a relic in many ways, the SVT crew, especially, has worked modern magic to keep its version fresh. And fast.
In fact, their latest Cobra is the fastest Mustang ever, enough to have Corvette and Porsche owners nervously checking their mirrors. And at $34,750 for the coupe version, $38,995 for the convertible, its designers and engineers are challenging anyone, anywhere to deliver more bang for the buck.
The Mustang's secret weapon? An Eaton supercharger, which bumps the Cobra's already potent 4.6-liter V8 from 320 horsepower to a fierce 390. The supercharger compresses air, chills it via an intercooler to further increase its density, then crams it into the engine's intake, dramatically boosting power.
The newfound muscle is good for a 0-60 m.p.h. romp in the mid four-second range, and a quarter-mile in less than 13 seconds. John Coletti, the gregarious leader of the Special Vehicle Team, said the fear factor is back.
"Until recently, people went looking for Cobras to pick on," Coletti said. "No one's going to pick on this one."
Those bullies at times have included the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, but the Mustang's twin nemeses have declared a forfeit in their 36-year battle. GM's pony cars will end production after this year, and there are no plans to revive them.
Balance, handling
Here at Virginia International Speedway, it takes less than one hot lap in the Cobra to convince me there's plenty of life left in the Mustang. The speedway's north course, with its assortment of blind turns and elevation changes, hosted Jeff Gordon and other NASCAR stars the previous afternoon as they prepared stock cars for an upcoming road race.
Now, after our hair-mussing convertible run from the Duke University campus to the speedway, just over the North Carolina-Virginia border, the Cobras prove right at home on the twisting, 2.25-mile circuit.
The contralto note of the supercharger joins with the whiskey roar of the V8, and the Cobra delivers adrenaline performance, just as expected. More surprising are the car's balance and benign handling. Despite its 390 foot-pounds of torque, which conjures anxious thoughts of burnouts and spinouts, the Cobra never bites, its back end smoothly controllable in every situation. And with the helping hand from its supercharger, the Cobra hurtles past 130 m.p.h. down the long back straightaway before it's time to apply the powerful, fade-resistant disc brakes.
Not bad for a car with a crateload of parts, including the basic chassis, suspension and drivetrain that could bolt directly onto a Ford sedan from the disco era.
"To be realistic, underneath it's a '78 Fairmont," Dean Martin, the Cobra's chassis development chief, said of the 2003 model. And from the glass-half full perspective, it's amazing how much performance SVT has managed to squeeze from such withered fruit.
"The simple fact that you're mentioning us in the same sentence as the Corvette or Viper is a compliment," Coletti said of GM and Chrysler's sports cars, which are vastly more sophisticated but vastly more expensive.
Still, SVT's acclaimed, hot-hatch version of the Focus compact proved what the team could do when given a modern car as a starting point. Enthusiasts will expect no less when SVT follows the all-new, modernized 2005 Mustang with its own high-zoot version. And while the team prefers to talk about the current Cobra, its members are just as excited about the hush-hush model they're already developing.
Like Ford's modern revival of the Thunderbird, the all-new Mustang's styling will harken back to its heyday. The 1964 1/2 Mustang debuted in April 1964 at the Chicago World's Fair, an affordable coupe and convertible that became an instant, unprecedented hit. Ford expected to sell only about 100,000 the first year. It sold 22,000 the first weekend, as an estimated four million Americans flocked to showrooms.
Despite a late start, the Mustang finished 1964 with 263,434 sales. By its first birthday in April 1965, the Mustang set a world record with first-year sales of more than 418,000. With three factories churning out Mustangs, production peaked at 607,568 the following year. An American automotive icon had taken root.
Then as now, the vast majority of Mustangs were tamer V6 models; the original V6 produced just 101 horsepower. But from the beginning, beefy V8s were part of the mix, and with the muscle-car era in full swing, 1969 alone brought the high-powered Mach 1, Boss 302 and big-block Boss 429.
In the 21st Century, SVT will carry the torch, and responsibility, for top-shelf Mustang performance. The retro 2005 Mustang and its SVT offshoot will be based on the Lincoln LS, whose basic chassis is found in the Thunderbird and Jaguar S-Type. The Lincoln platform will also underpin the next-generation Jaguar XJ sedan, but with a much more expensive, aluminum-intensive design.
Improvements inside
As important as an all-new chassis is to a modernized Mustang, a new electronic architecture will let it incorporate needed features like electronic stability control, side air bags and vastly improved audio systems and secondary controls. And wave good-bye, finally, to the awkward seating position and time-capsule interior swathed in dull gray plastic.
The upcoming Mustang will likely rely on a 4.0-liter V6 with roughly 225 horsepower. From there, expect V8 models ranging from 4.6 liters to as much as 5.4 liters. Ford insiders are also keen on reviving fabled Mustang names, including the Boss and Mach.
Power? The sky is the limit, especially with Coletti leading the engineering effort on the 500-horsepower Ford GT40 exotic sports car, giving SVT even more go-fast expertise for cars like the Mustang. In Virginia, Coletti said, chairman William Clay Ford Jr. has a firm date to drive the first production GT40 on June 13, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the company his great-grandfather Henry Ford founded in Detroit.
With the coupe market on shaky ground, Ford considered but rejected an idea to give the new Mustang center-opening rear doors to widen its appeal, analysts said. Whether the basic model will mimic the Lincoln's independent rear suspension or continue the Mustang's solid-rear-axle tradition, is still up in the air. But one thing's certain: The future Mustang has a price target of about $20,000. Continued affordability is key to continued success, Coletti said.
'The Camaro and Firebird had roughly the same heritage but lost the value,' Coletti said.
Maintaining audience
SVT members don't gloat over the Camaro and Firebird's demise, saying they'll miss their challenge. But GM failed to keep its pony cars fresh, they say. Or to offer truly affordable V6 versions that Mustang has historically relied on for the vast majority of sales, including to women.
By keeping the Mustang's doors open to everyone, not just those with the money and proclivity for high-testosterone models, "Little Tricia still gets a piece of the Mustang," Coletti said. And Ford keeps sales strong.
With coupes so out of favor with their staple audience, the younger buyers who have largely turned to trucks, even a smash-hit Mustang has no chance of recapturing '60s-level sales. But Ford has surely kept the 'Stang alive and kicking. And where today's coupes are mostly econo-boxes and family sedans with two fewer doors or expensive imports that appeal to an entirely different crowd, the Mustang will soon be the only option for buyers who want a genuine American pony car.
The SVT Cobra has taken a 25-year-old chassis about as far as it can go. But as the car reaches a coda, as opposed to an ending, it's also reaching a performance crescendo few could have imagined it was capable of.
Now, bring on the future.
"If we can do this with this Mustang, can you imagine what we're going to do next?" Coletti asks.
MORE MUSTANG MUSCLE
Current model will leave the road on a high note; retro version is due in 2004
The Ford Mustang, as we know it, will be put out to pasture in 2004. Its aging bones have been around since the Carter administration.
So has the legendary pony car gone lame?
Don't bet your two dollars on it. Not with a trainer like SVT, the Ford Special Vehicle Team. Its limited-production 2003 Ford SVT Mustang Cobra is designed to sustain the faithful until the next Mustang-for-the-masses arrives: The '60s-styled 'Stang that could become Ford's next baby boomer smash, an affordable encore to its nostalgic Thunderbird. After excruciating delays, that high-volume Mustang, with a base-price target of $20,000, will almost assuredly arrive in 2004 as a 2005 model.
Until then, the current Mustang soldiers on, still built on a chassis that dates to the late '70s. But if it's a relic in many ways, the SVT crew, especially, has worked modern magic to keep its version fresh. And fast.
In fact, their latest Cobra is the fastest Mustang ever, enough to have Corvette and Porsche owners nervously checking their mirrors. And at $34,750 for the coupe version, $38,995 for the convertible, its designers and engineers are challenging anyone, anywhere to deliver more bang for the buck.
The Mustang's secret weapon? An Eaton supercharger, which bumps the Cobra's already potent 4.6-liter V8 from 320 horsepower to a fierce 390. The supercharger compresses air, chills it via an intercooler to further increase its density, then crams it into the engine's intake, dramatically boosting power.
The newfound muscle is good for a 0-60 m.p.h. romp in the mid four-second range, and a quarter-mile in less than 13 seconds. John Coletti, the gregarious leader of the Special Vehicle Team, said the fear factor is back.
"Until recently, people went looking for Cobras to pick on," Coletti said. "No one's going to pick on this one."
Those bullies at times have included the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, but the Mustang's twin nemeses have declared a forfeit in their 36-year battle. GM's pony cars will end production after this year, and there are no plans to revive them.
Balance, handling
Here at Virginia International Speedway, it takes less than one hot lap in the Cobra to convince me there's plenty of life left in the Mustang. The speedway's north course, with its assortment of blind turns and elevation changes, hosted Jeff Gordon and other NASCAR stars the previous afternoon as they prepared stock cars for an upcoming road race.
Now, after our hair-mussing convertible run from the Duke University campus to the speedway, just over the North Carolina-Virginia border, the Cobras prove right at home on the twisting, 2.25-mile circuit.
The contralto note of the supercharger joins with the whiskey roar of the V8, and the Cobra delivers adrenaline performance, just as expected. More surprising are the car's balance and benign handling. Despite its 390 foot-pounds of torque, which conjures anxious thoughts of burnouts and spinouts, the Cobra never bites, its back end smoothly controllable in every situation. And with the helping hand from its supercharger, the Cobra hurtles past 130 m.p.h. down the long back straightaway before it's time to apply the powerful, fade-resistant disc brakes.
Not bad for a car with a crateload of parts, including the basic chassis, suspension and drivetrain that could bolt directly onto a Ford sedan from the disco era.
"To be realistic, underneath it's a '78 Fairmont," Dean Martin, the Cobra's chassis development chief, said of the 2003 model. And from the glass-half full perspective, it's amazing how much performance SVT has managed to squeeze from such withered fruit.
"The simple fact that you're mentioning us in the same sentence as the Corvette or Viper is a compliment," Coletti said of GM and Chrysler's sports cars, which are vastly more sophisticated but vastly more expensive.
Still, SVT's acclaimed, hot-hatch version of the Focus compact proved what the team could do when given a modern car as a starting point. Enthusiasts will expect no less when SVT follows the all-new, modernized 2005 Mustang with its own high-zoot version. And while the team prefers to talk about the current Cobra, its members are just as excited about the hush-hush model they're already developing.
Like Ford's modern revival of the Thunderbird, the all-new Mustang's styling will harken back to its heyday. The 1964 1/2 Mustang debuted in April 1964 at the Chicago World's Fair, an affordable coupe and convertible that became an instant, unprecedented hit. Ford expected to sell only about 100,000 the first year. It sold 22,000 the first weekend, as an estimated four million Americans flocked to showrooms.
Despite a late start, the Mustang finished 1964 with 263,434 sales. By its first birthday in April 1965, the Mustang set a world record with first-year sales of more than 418,000. With three factories churning out Mustangs, production peaked at 607,568 the following year. An American automotive icon had taken root.
Then as now, the vast majority of Mustangs were tamer V6 models; the original V6 produced just 101 horsepower. But from the beginning, beefy V8s were part of the mix, and with the muscle-car era in full swing, 1969 alone brought the high-powered Mach 1, Boss 302 and big-block Boss 429.
In the 21st Century, SVT will carry the torch, and responsibility, for top-shelf Mustang performance. The retro 2005 Mustang and its SVT offshoot will be based on the Lincoln LS, whose basic chassis is found in the Thunderbird and Jaguar S-Type. The Lincoln platform will also underpin the next-generation Jaguar XJ sedan, but with a much more expensive, aluminum-intensive design.
Improvements inside
As important as an all-new chassis is to a modernized Mustang, a new electronic architecture will let it incorporate needed features like electronic stability control, side air bags and vastly improved audio systems and secondary controls. And wave good-bye, finally, to the awkward seating position and time-capsule interior swathed in dull gray plastic.
The upcoming Mustang will likely rely on a 4.0-liter V6 with roughly 225 horsepower. From there, expect V8 models ranging from 4.6 liters to as much as 5.4 liters. Ford insiders are also keen on reviving fabled Mustang names, including the Boss and Mach.
Power? The sky is the limit, especially with Coletti leading the engineering effort on the 500-horsepower Ford GT40 exotic sports car, giving SVT even more go-fast expertise for cars like the Mustang. In Virginia, Coletti said, chairman William Clay Ford Jr. has a firm date to drive the first production GT40 on June 13, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the company his great-grandfather Henry Ford founded in Detroit.
With the coupe market on shaky ground, Ford considered but rejected an idea to give the new Mustang center-opening rear doors to widen its appeal, analysts said. Whether the basic model will mimic the Lincoln's independent rear suspension or continue the Mustang's solid-rear-axle tradition, is still up in the air. But one thing's certain: The future Mustang has a price target of about $20,000. Continued affordability is key to continued success, Coletti said.
'The Camaro and Firebird had roughly the same heritage but lost the value,' Coletti said.
Maintaining audience
SVT members don't gloat over the Camaro and Firebird's demise, saying they'll miss their challenge. But GM failed to keep its pony cars fresh, they say. Or to offer truly affordable V6 versions that Mustang has historically relied on for the vast majority of sales, including to women.
By keeping the Mustang's doors open to everyone, not just those with the money and proclivity for high-testosterone models, "Little Tricia still gets a piece of the Mustang," Coletti said. And Ford keeps sales strong.
With coupes so out of favor with their staple audience, the younger buyers who have largely turned to trucks, even a smash-hit Mustang has no chance of recapturing '60s-level sales. But Ford has surely kept the 'Stang alive and kicking. And where today's coupes are mostly econo-boxes and family sedans with two fewer doors or expensive imports that appeal to an entirely different crowd, the Mustang will soon be the only option for buyers who want a genuine American pony car.
The SVT Cobra has taken a 25-year-old chassis about as far as it can go. But as the car reaches a coda, as opposed to an ending, it's also reaching a performance crescendo few could have imagined it was capable of.
Now, bring on the future.
"If we can do this with this Mustang, can you imagine what we're going to do next?" Coletti asks.
