[Cobra #3170]

Sorry to hear that you are making the exchange, you may not be as happy with the choice after living with it awhile. My wife isn't a big fan of either car and won't even ride in the Cobra anymore because it is so violent when pushed. Our GT has other issues, if you go anyplace, you either take your clothes in a grocery bag (no room) or throw everything away daily and buy new ones at the local Walmart at your destination as needed. The GT is pretty dumbed down vs a Cobra because of the type of people that generally buy them (rich with minimal driving skills). It has roll understeer in both the front and rear suspension geometry which makes for a fairly lazy response to inputs. The suspension is also way too soft to exploit the cars true potential and vision to the rear and sides is quite limited.
Another factor to consider is that people swarm it more than they do a Cobra because they are few and far between. Some folks may like the attention but that gets old after awhile. If you haven't already pulled the trigger you might consider a ZR1 or possibly an ACR Viper which would both be a lot more fun on a long trip. The GT can be fixed with very little effort (I am doing that to mine now) and made into a great handling driver but then you have a Cobra with a roof and AC that you can't see out of and still no room for suit cases.

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

I've gotten a handful of queries about "why" so I thought I'd give a little bit of an explanation.

I love my Cobra. It is "all the fun you can have, legally, in public, with your clothes on". Now that the engine really is running, I have been driving it more, and my wife and I went for a few drives. Well, she doesn't like it. Not at all. Her feet get too hot, she got a snake bite, the shoulder harness issue on the passenger side has got her twitterpated, and basically, if she's not happy, I'm not happy. I can drive it all day long (figure of speech) but she can only stand it for short drives. I wanted to take it to Glenwood Springs and the answer was no.

I had never intended the Cobra to be anything other than a local "touring" car - not for cross country trips - but even locally it's only working for me, and I guess that's not as much fun as it could be.

So it looks like I'm reverting to original Plan B which is a Ford GT. A FGT was in the running before I got the Cobra, but I'd always wanted the Cobra, so I got a Mustang and a Cobra. The FGT has Air Conditioning (no whining about hot feet), a radio (no whining about noise) and no side pipes (no whining about snake bites). I haven't told her that she'll bump her head on the door but that's kind of like snake bites, it'll only happen a few times before she figures it out.

And she gets her garage space back. I think this should help restore Peace in the Valley. Plus we can drive it to Vegas.

The "fun factor" of the Cobra is still bigger than the FGT, but it'll do as the consolation prize.

By the way, I seriously considered a SPF/CSX9000 Daytona Coupe (remember, it has Air Conditioning, and electric windows ) but it was a lot out of my price range and I don't want the wait.

So that's the nutshell version right now. I hate to let it go, especially now that it's got all the kinks out. Removing the spinners with the lead mallet was so much fun!


Car Nut and Chip can pipe in now.

I'll continue to hang out here. I can't preclude the possibility of a nice 289 FIA car at some point in time.