[Russ Dickey]

Bandit:
You got a little off track, but that's ok. I asked your opinion in an FE SPF vs. 460 SPF performance showdown, and I'll assume that all your dancing around of that subject means that it's probably too close to call.

As far as car magazine tests, I guess some of you guys consider all these different replica manufacturers as different as apples and oranges. I see them as all oranges, and I just want to find out which one tastes better. It's my opinion that these cars are all built to replicate one vehicle: the Cobra. Therefore, to find out which one is "the best overall" Cobra, each of the cars in our "road test" would have to be identically prepared or else you'll end up with some cars that have advantages in certain areas.

To me, a CSX vs. an SPF road test is not the same as a Corvette vs. a Viper road test: the Vette and Viper are two completely different cars, whereas the CSX and Superformance are both Cobras. Maybe a better analogy would be to think of it more like a showdown between the top-dog Mustangs: the Roush Stage 3 vs. the Saleen S281E vs. the '03 Cobra. All are basically the same car, all powered by supercharged 4.6 DOHC engines (albeit different tranny's) with some different chassis and suspension set-ups. Then, put all these Mustangs through my series of performance tests, and see how they rank.

And as far as your last comparison goes, I don't have that kind of scratch to build either an FE or a 460 of the caliber your talking about. I know that for around $10k, you can build either of them, with reliable horsepower and torque figures around the 500 mark.

Plus, can you really put 750 hp to the ground in one of these cars?? I don't know because I don't have one, but it sounds pretty tough.