The development of the 03-04 Cobra is pretty interesting story and is chronicled in the book "Iron Fist, Lead Foot" by the head of the development team named John Colletti. Colletti has a reputation for being a real ball buster, but he's also known as a real car guy.
In 1999 Ford released the first "new edge" Cobra that had a 4.6 DOHC motor that was supposed to have 320hp. Unfortunately some last minute changes to the exhaust had the adverse effect of the cars putting down 230-240rwhp on a dyno. Owners were pissed and Ford eventually had to recall all the cars to fix them to make the appropriate power. This is why their was no Cobra (just the Cobra R) in 2000. The 2001 Cobra was basically a fixed version of the 99 Cobra with some minor tweaks (different transmissions and some exterior changes).
The 2002 Cobra was in development at this point and was scheduled to come out with a 340hp version of the DOHC 4.6. The story goes that during one of the development test drives Colletti was driving an 02 Cobra mule and was being followed by an SVT Focus in the caravan. Members of the development team say that over the radio they could hear Colletti becoming more and more angry by the fact that he was unable to lose the Focus. They were dreading the next stop because they knew they were going to get an earful.
When the caravan stopped at a shopping center a visibly angry Colletti gets out of the Cobra prototype and said "I hope this grocery store sells Alpo, because this car is a f*&king dog!!!" In looking at the modular DOHC architecture Ford was using it became clear that they were going to be unable to get the power they wanted without using a supercharger. When Colletti brought the idea up to his team of using the Eaton M90 supercharger (same blower that the Thunderbird Super Coupe) the team initially told him it was impossible and could simply not be done. The next day however, not only did the team tell Colletti it was possible, but suggested using the larger Eaton M112 supercharger.
The timetable they were working on made it impossible to get the new engine done in time for the 02 model year, so the 02 Cobra was scrapped and development of the Terminator Cobra (it was called the Terminator because it was meant to settle the Camaro/Mustang contest once and for all) started. The development process was challenging and the team encountered a number of problems.
One rather large problem was Ford did not have connecting rods strong enough to hold up to the durability tests needed for the Terminator. In testing they tried using the same off the shelf rods from the 01 Cobra but kept blowing motors up. Eventually they contacted Manley and used forged rods and pistons from them. I can't remember the exact figure, but I think the difference in price was something like $7 for Ford pistons versus $56 for the Manley ones. It's incredible to me that Ford authorized this at the time. As we all know eventually all the development problems were ironed out and the Terminator Cobra arrived. It's a truly excellent car and I'm thrilled Ford decided to make it before the financial meltdown
A couple days ago I stumbled onto a whole bunch of photos from the design process that I had never seen before. These include pictures of prototype designs and pictures from the Romeo engine plant where the engines were built by hand. Below you'll find a selection of these.
Alternate Front End Designs (I like the final product the best):
The Final Design:
Terminator (03-04) Cobra Development Thread
