Home Grown Cobra

Everyone has their dream car, the car that they want oh so desperately.  More often than not, that dream car lies far from reach, but for some, their dream car is just outside of their realm of attainability.  For Minneapolis resident Josh Dietz, he fell into the latter group.  The car that he wanted most just after graduating college was an 03-04 Mustang Cobra.  At that time, Cobras were still fetching top dollar in the car market placing it just outside of his comfort zone in what he was willing to spend.  So, he settled for the next best thing, an 02 Mustang GT 5spd.

Looking back on it, he is rather happy with his purchase.  "If I bought the Cobra, I would still be making payments on it and it would be all stock," he told me as I snapped pictures of his immaculate representation of his "Cobra."  In all honesty, you cannot tell the difference.  When I first saw pictures of this car, I actually thought it was a Cobra.  Only until Josh emailed me did I find out it was a GT.  This is what intrigued me most and got me interested in featuring the car.  Much like myself, Josh started with the underdog and over the course of a year or so, turned it into his very own Cobra.

Of course, the exterior is the most striking part of the car in my opinion.  It is remarkably clean with a sleek and menacing look.  The all black usually works on cars like these and Josh pulled it off very well.  The Cobra body panels are all authentic Cobra items and not replicas so the fit and finish is on par with OEM specs.  What I also liked about this Cobra was the overall appearance package, Josh nailing everything down, including the stance.  I think that majority of domestic tuners focus mainly on the the engine and horsepower, but a clean looking ride is also important.  Josh's GT sits on H&R springs with Tokico shocks.  Further adjustability comes courtesy of Maximum Motorsports adjustable caster/camber plates, and further chassis bracing is had with Steeda sub-frame connectors, balljoints, Maximum Motorsports rear LCAs, and an Auto-Power 4pt roll-bar.  The rear-end houses a Moser 31-spline axles, a Torsen differential, 3.73 gears, and a T/A girdle.  The coup de grace on the exterior though has got to be the satin black CCW Classics.  Sized 18x10 up front and 18x11 in the rear housing some meaty 315s, these finish off this GT's absolutely menacing stance.  I only wished I brought an extra person so I could have snapped some rolling shots as it looked terrifying driving down the highway.

Factory Cobras came with a supercharged, 4v, 4.6L V8.  If Josh was to truly make his car his own home-grown Cobra, a little boost needed to be added to his 2v 4.6L V8.  This issue was addressed with a Kenne Bell 2.1 twin-screw spinning at a modest 9spi.  Coupled with an Accufab 75mm throttle-body, 90mm maf, SLP cat back exhaust, and a Thump racing tensioner, Josh estimates his GT is pumping out around 450hp.  Not too shabby, and more impressive on a stock motor.  This winter Josh plans on dropping the engine to build the internals for more boost, and clean up the engine bay with a partial wire tuck.  It really is nice to see someone focus just as much attention on the presentation as on making power.

The interior has also received some mild attention.  Corbeau bucket seats hold the driver and passenger in place with 4-point harnesses.  The aforementioned Auto Power roll-bar provides mounting points for the harnesses as well as a nice camera mount.  The steering wheel, shift boot, e-brake boot, and center console have received some custom upholstery work.

In the end Josh has pretty much created his dream car, save for a few adjustments.  Hey, a project is never really finished is it.  Still, what has resulted is quite the unique package of style and performance.  Josh has come under some criticism from his fellow Mustang/Cobra owners, but in the end, the car was built for him, not the others.  He is happy with it and took the underdog and bred it into a top dog champion.

More pictures here:  Photos by Kaien @ NLP