New to the stable: 2003 Ford Mustang Cobra

I've always been a Mustang fan, well of the 60's and 1995+ Mustangs. It was inevitable that I'd eventually have to try one out.

During the winter I looked around for a deal on a curent GT500 (also a Cobra), but the dealers were asking outrageous markups; a local dealer was asking $25K OVER the $45K MSRP. That is just plain wacky pricing for a Mustang.

So, I looked at the previous generation Cobras which were made in 2003-4. These also had supercharged V8's which make 390HP, compared to the current model's 500HP. After some research on the Internet, it became clear that a boost to 500HP was quite simple for the earlier Cobras. And, they run around $25K; so, for the same amount as the markup on a current Cobra, I can get a clean used previous generation Cobra, and have 500HP!

It didn't take long before I found a 2003 "garage queen" with only 9800 miles in completely mint condition; as far as I can tell, it was never driven in the rain (in Seattle!).

Here is how it looked when I bought Dec 23rd.