Z282SLO wrote:^^^
Is your brother nice enough to let you borrow it for a spin?
Let's put it this way - it was last given a state inspection in, I think it was, 1998. He put about 40k miles on it in its first 5ish years. And it's pretty much sat ever since. He starts it once a month now, but no reg/insurance so it doesn't go anywhere. The total miles are in the 40k range, but not all on the same engine.
Story behind his car:
Second owner. He bought it from the original owner in 1994. The original owner put less than 300 miles on it before his wife made him sell it bone stock for $17,000. (You can see me turning green now.)
He's been through two engine blocks including the stock one. Put ice in the aftercooler to get a bit more oomph and cracked the stock one. So, he dropped a 5.8 liter something or other in, upgraded his S trim Vortech to a T trim. At this point, back in the late 90's, it was about a 550hp car. Pretty nuts especially for back then. Suffice to say he never had trouble getting up to highway speed/merging with traffic.
Later on it developed an issue with running pig rich. Didn't know what it was at first....thought maybe O2 sensor so he replaced it. Didn't fix the problem. He let it sit for many years without addressing it. Fast forward a decade and he called up his old mechanic Bob Pucell only to find out he had passed away not many days prior in 2009. He ran a gig called CE Racing in Mass - he was a great guy, and pretty much the only person my bro trusted to work on his car.
Fast forward several more years. My bro decides to get the Cobra finally fixed. Goes to a local shop, they throw a rod on the second engine. Apparently it was a faulty A9L cpu that opened the floodgates. All that fuel sitting all that time wasn't so hot for it.
Now he's got a 6.something I don't even know ludicrous engine in it and upgraded the supercharger again. (A TI trim, I think?) The engine alone makes as much HP as the old one did WITH the T trim. It's frickin' stupid, but he doesn't even drive it. He wants to keep the mileage down...but not sure why given his car is a far cry from stock. He doesn't have the stock block as it went to our deceased mechanic way back when. Outward appearance looks stock though, sans the hood. He has the original one and wanted to put it back on, but this recent guy who threw the rod and also put the new motor in changed the mounts without even telling us. So, the stock hood won't close all the way. Fun to find that out as you're trying to close it.
Bro lives right down the road. I'll post pics of it sometime next week. Complete with 1998 state inspection sticker lol!
Maybe I can convince him to fire it up for a video. X pipes/flowmasters and no cats sounds monstrous. He still has the stock pipes/mufflers and cats too. Along with every other stock part sans the stock block and, I think, the battery/air filter and maybe tires. I know he has the spare, at least.
PS: You'll be happy to know it's the best cobra color -
BLACK. No black interior, sadly. (Grey leather, has held up surprisingly well for 23-24ish years.)
