I have a 427W I built myself that I am extremely happy with. 10.5:1, Factory block, a mild F/T cam that I specified (232/237 @.050) and very well ported Trick Flow Heads/Windsor JR manifold. It has a self-tuned 800AVS Edelbrock carb and 1 7/8" headers with 3 1/2" collectors. It has a Tremec 5 speed with 3.50 gears. Makes over 500 HP and revs over 6000 but peak power is around 5200. the car is very balanced and fun to drive and will cruise smoothly in over drive at 70MPH at around 2100 rpm.
The key to me was to have wall-to-wall torque and the power is really all the chassis can handle on the street.
I have been building motors for over 45 years and strokers for over 30. You can spend a lot more on forged cranks and rods, 4 bolt main aftermarket blocks and roller cams but in my opinion, most people will never be able to load the engine hard enough or hold the throttle open long enough for 90% of owners to make that extra expense really be worth investing into a Cobra. The rod ratio on the 427W (4.17 stroke) doesn't like high revs (piston speeds over about 4200 fps)...but it doesn't really need them either, but the occasional weekly WOT blast is fine, like I said you really can't load a cobra engine very hard due to it's light weight and lack of aerodynamics which induces lift instead of downforce. A good
oil pan with 8+ quart capacity and good cooling and good
oil and fuel pressure is really all you need,
There are many ways to skin a cat but for me I love the 393-427 Windsor strokers ability to emulate the FE like torque and throttle response of a vintage big block muscle car combined with the light weight and balance of a smallblock (the one that won nearly all of the important races in Shelby history) Cobra.
i build a motor for a target horsepower or controllable power to weight ratio. I build a solid reliable shortblock and generally put the majority of my "go-fast" dollars into the Heads and Manifold porting. On a stroker I generally like a smaller port with optimal mid lift flows that will achieve that HP level, and then I Cam it to make the broadest/flattest and most usable torque curve that will still get me to that target HP....more like a road race powerband than a peak/HP drag motor....because for me the fun of a Cobra is really pulling through the gears, not powershifting down a drag strip with tight ratios and/or a high stall converter. For a cobra to be set up properly for Drag Racing the suspension has to be set far from what is optimum for handling. Anybody who has really drag raced their Cobra hard knows you need to crank more stiffness into the right rear to counteract the twist unloading primarily the left front, most of us just countersteer it but that costs ET at the track. that not just cobras , that's pretty much any decently powered RWD car that hooks the tires hard.
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