I have both. CSX4206 with a '65 427 NASCAR SO built to pretty much all original specs and an 2005 FGT.
The FGT stock is pretty much plugged up from the factory for what else...emmisions reasons. Gotta keep the EPA and DOT gremlins happy. Stock tires are terrible (Goodyear) for any serious tracking. The stock Goodyears are good for normal road work (in warm weather, put it away in cold weather) but forget the track. Top Gear ran a stock FGT. Put a good set of tires, not even track tires and a tune from Heffner performance and its a transformed car. It runs the way it was supposed to. You go from stock 550hp to 580 hp with just a tune. Add exhaust and/or pully two easy quick bolt ons and the ante ups again. With pulley (easy and quick from Ford Performance) your up to 700 hp roughly with tune.
However, for the average mortal even a stock FGT has a performance envelope way out beyond what most can handle. Its handling characteristics are much different then a Cobras. Its a mid engined car compared to a front engined car.
On the track times and track used by top gear I seriously doubt a Cobra built to original specs like mine could compete with an FGT or any other of todays super cars. In a straight line over a short distance (1/8 mile) again, staying with the original formulas for both cars and from my seat of the pants experience, Cobra has the edge initially, but once the FGT gets her legs after that 1/8 point get out of her way.
The Cobra has that street brawler, "don't "F" with me attitude on the street. Thats what really made the 427 famous and put it on the map. Ken Miles' famous sprint from 0-100-0 in 13.8 seconds. Not that it was a bad track racer in its day in its class with multiple SCCA wins in A Production and it was designed to take on the Corvette Grand Sport and Ferrari 275LM which it didn't because none of them were ever homolgated or homolgated in time... but that little 0-100-0 run is what made it famous overnight.
The new FGT can outperform the original Ford GT (commonly referred to as the GT40) on the track and in just about ever other way. The original Ford GT (GT40) could out perform the original Cobra and ran in a higher class to boot. Soooo you figure out which can out perform the other on the track... new FGT or Cobra. The answer is self evident.
As Carroll Shelby has said the Cobra was really outdated (289) before it was built. The 427 was a leap forward chasis and suspension wise but it is light years behind the new FGT not to even mention it was outdated by the original Ford GT.
Lift up the rear clam shell of a FGT. No discussion necessary. The design and chasis speak for themselves.
The FGT is an updated version of the orignal GT40 built to meet todays well at least 2005 and 2006 EPA and DOT standards that the original could never meet but neither could the original Cobra.
But...The FGT and Cobra are apples and oranges. Both are special cars in a different way. I love them both and both provide more performance then I or the average guy here could ever hope to extract from them and both if not handled correctly will bite you in a serious way. Both perform differently and each does some things better then the other. Cobra is unrivaled in that bare knuckled in your face muscle car "thing". It takes you back to 1965 like no other car can. The FGT puts you in a modern GT40 that still harkens back to 1967. Both are representatives of American automotive prowess at the top of the food chain. The FGT dispatches its prey with a scalpel. The Cobra blugends its prey to death with a sledge hammer. Pick your weapon.
They are both still "super heros" in the car world. Doubt me? Then all you have to do is to watch the reaction of people who see them when they go out in public. If I likened each to a super hero to match their personalities the FGT is Iron Man..., powerful, fast, tough, smart, cutting edge and with seemingly enough power and armament to dispatch its adversaries at will. The 427 Cobra...Hellboy. Definitely Hellboy. Rough, gruff, emensly powerful, loud, acts like a bull in a china shop with that fearless persona and not the most tactful... but you be the one to tell it..
Takes care.
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