Lebaron GTC vs. Mustang Cobra

1465 Views 18 Replies 11 Participants Last post by WickeD87ShelbyZ, Jun 15, 2005

Whorse

Discussion Starter · Jun 4, 2005

Either this guy doesn't know how to drive his 97 Cobra or this Lebaron VNT really is all it's cracked up to be. Idiot rips up on the freeway weaving in and out of traffic, and I can tell he's going to cut me off and slam on the brakes, so from 5th (going about 100km/h), I shift down to third as he just passes me at WOT (you can tell WOT on a cobra), and proceed to watch him get smaller in my mirror, and when I finally slowed down at 160km/h, I waited a second and he ripped by me still gunning it.

No matter how hard he was trying, the look on his girlfriends face when I blew ahead of them was priceless, and the look on his face when he caught up after I hit the brakes was even better.

Whorse

1 - 19 of 19 Posts

LynX853

· #2 · Jun 4, 2005

what mods do you have? unless its extensive, it probobly wasnt a true cobra, maybe a V-6 with exhaust badges and body kit...

no offense, but I just dont see what you described happening

Whorse

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jun 4, 2005

Nothing major, just removed my A/C, put in a much bigger rad, and removed all air restriction to my Intercooler. I was running 94 Octane with 10% ethanol from Mohawk and some octane boost fuel intector cleaner at the time, and I agree, it was probably some idiot trying to pretend he had a cobra - even I know that a true cobra is a faster car, but this was still hilarious.

LynX853 said:
what mods do you have? unless its extensive, it probobly wasnt a true cobra, maybe a V-6 with exhaust badges and body kit...

no offense, but I just dont see what you described happening

WIDOWMAKER

· #4 · Jun 5, 2005

Let's not forget that the '96-'98 Cobras with the naturally aspirated 32-valve 4.6, in stock form, lay down 100-plus horsepower less than the supercharged 2003 and later models. They are quite slow in stock form(compared to the 2003 and later models.)

I would think, however, that a stock '97 Cobra would put a hurting on a mild GTC. It could have been a poser, or maybe he was driving like a maniac but not racing.

Turbo Charger

· #5 · Jun 5, 2005

I dont know if Cobra's came with an auto. .but maybe it was an auto?

WIDOWMAKER

· #6 · Jun 5, 2005

Turbo Charger said:
I dont know if Cobra's came with an auto. .but maybe it was an auto?

They were only offered from the factory with 5-speeds.

Whorse

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jun 5, 2005

Don't get me wrong, I completely agree here, which to be honest is why I posted this in the first place. It defintitely wasn't an SVT, but it did have Cobra badging all over it. My best guess is that I just caught him sleeping through a bad gear shift because he wasn't expecting me to drive like an asshole Lebaron should, and second, you're probably right that it's some young guy (younger than me) trying to make his car look tricked out with some badging (kind of like the old Honda addage that decals add horsepower).

Either way, he certainly got a surprise from me, and this was my first experience at WOT myself since the new Rad setup and replaced PCV valve and connector. If it's any consolation to all you guys who love huge engines, I wasn't able to beat the Viper :bang head

WIDOWMAKER said:
Let's not forget that the '96-'98 Cobras with the naturally aspirated 32-valve 4.6, in stock form, lay down 100-plus horsepower less than the supercharged 2003 and later models. They are quite slow in stock form(compared to the 2003 and later models.)

I would think, however, that a stock '97 Cobra would put a hurting on a mild GTC. It could have been a poser, or maybe he was driving like a maniac but not racing.

tkelly27

· #8 · Jun 5, 2005

it makes me sad when I see a nice mustang with cobra badges all over it and 1 exhuast tip hanging out the back

You said you heard it at WOT, I love the 4.6's tone. I can't think of many scenarios where a VNT would walk a 4.6 though. Mayby a badged up GT with pipes and a bad driver? Anyways, he was slower than you, and that is what counts. Keep rocken the VNT :thumb:

DirectConnection

· #9 · Jun 5, 2005

tkelly27 said:
it makes me sad when I see a nice mustang with cobra badges all over it and 1 exhuast tip hanging out the back You said you heard it at WOT, I love the 4.6's tone. I can't think of many scenarios where a VNT would walk a 4.6 though. Mayby a badged up GT with pipes and a bad driver? Anyways, he was slower than you, and that is what counts. Keep rocken the VNT :thumb:

To put it into perspective, I raced a 4.6 GT that was decked out to be a Cobra clone with my VNT Shadow 2 months ago (and posted about it in this forum). His car also had an aftermarket exhaust and a K+N cold air setup. My car has mild portwork(head and exhaust manifold), no cat, super turd muffler, no balance shafts, no a/c, and a kick butt cal that runs around 15psi. I pulled 1-2 car lengths on a couple tries from a 30-90mph run.

Whorse

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jun 6, 2005

Yeah the guy obviously didn't know how to drive because he never shifted up when he had the throttle opened up. I read somewhere that Motortrend once tested a stock VNT and it had a 13.5 quarter mile. Is that true?

I agree about badging a car for what it isn't. I saw a riced out Neon with Viper badging and a viper grill on it. Embarassing.

tkelly27 said:
it makes me sad when I see a nice mustang with cobra badges all over it and 1 exhuast tip hanging out the back You said you heard it at WOT, I love the 4.6's tone. I can't think of many scenarios where a VNT would walk a 4.6 though. Mayby a badged up GT with pipes and a bad driver? Anyways, he was slower than you, and that is what counts. Keep rocken the VNT :thumb:

Turbo Charger

· #11 · Jun 6, 2005

I believe the official quarter mile time for a VNT Shad is like 14.7.

My brother can hang (side by side) the 260hp 4.6 GT's until about 180kmh.. after that he starts to pull away.

They do get him off the line though.

He's got a T2 engine A-555 in his SC with a MP 14psi cal and an opened up exhaust (no cat/muffler) 180 thermo.

Khajjathefang

· #12 · Jun 6, 2005

i smoked one back when the tona was 99% stock, (14 psi) seemed like the guy wasnt that great a driver. did the one you race have the cobra bumpers? most guys dont go through the trouble of swapping em

DirectConnection

· #13 · Jun 6, 2005

Khajjathefang said:
i smoked one back when the tona was 99% stock, (14 psi) seemed like the guy wasnt that great a driver. did the one you race have the cobra bumpers? most guys dont go through the trouble of swapping em

You talkin' to me? Hehe.

Not sure exactly, but the car looks soooo aggresive compared to the stock GTs around town. I did notice the Cobra rims and hood and when I mentioned to him if it was a Cobra, he said no, it's a GT (260hp model) with aftermarket exhaust (tight sounding) and K+N cold air setup. Also, it was a standard.

As for how fast were the VNT's stock? Never had a chance to run 13's at all, and honestly, only way to get a stock VNT to barely break into the 14's would be with slicks. The VNT daytonas reportedly ran high 15's/low 16's in the magazine tests I have seen. VNT Shadow reportedly ran 15.3's at 89mph. My VNT shadow 100% bone stock back in '96 ran a 9.91 (2.4 60ft..blah)at 71.x mph which equates to a 15.3 as well. In '99 it ran 9.5 (2.30) at 76mph with a 14psi cal, some head and manifold work, and a better than stock exhaust. *Since* it's resurrection this past Novemeber, I've freed up a tad more HP from removing the balance shafts and a slight induction improvement, and took out around 60+lbs. I could make yet another few improvements with cam timing using my adjustable cam gears I make, a cold air induction (using stock box setup right now...kaka) and adjusting my base timing up from 12 to 13-14 degrees. I'm content with the way it runs for now until i rebuild the engine possibly this summer. I'd say right now the car would run low to mid 14's at 96+mph and I could squeeze another mph or two with the additional mods I mentioned that haven't been done due to lazyness while still on the VNT's 14-15psi.

Anywho... the tangent about this and my car was to show that I was able to beat a GT 260hp Mustang with my VNT Shadow(lighter than a Lebaron) on mild performance mods along with the GT having the exhaust and K+N setup. I am thinking the Mustang the Lebaron ran was a V-6 as well to easily beat one like he did.

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moparzrule

· #14 · Jun 6, 2005

Yeah the cobra's in that year were really not much faster than 99-up GT's. But I agree it was probably a GT with cobra badging, and the GT's in 96-98 had a whopping 215 HP.
There's a V6 mustang that rolls around here with a fart cannon on it that reads in big letters on the side ''BOSS mustang'' LMAO. I would hope all of us on this forum could atleast distinguish between V6 and V8 exhaust notes. One time when I told a story about hanging with an automatic LT1 camaro with loud exhaust in my car when it was non-intercooled some people said it was probably a V6. I was like WTF, I know what a V8 sounds like people and V6's sound NOTHING like it.

Turbo Charger

· #15 · Jun 7, 2005

The VNT daytonas reportedly ran high 15's/low 16's in the magazine tests I have seen. VNT Shadow reportedly ran 15.3's at 89mph.

Which goes to show how 'out to lunch' the testers where. I read a T2 Dayona review last year from the 80's. They ran a 15.9 with it. That seemed off to me so I kept reading.. low and behold it was running like crap! No wonder!

only way to get a stock VNT to barely break into the 14's would be with slicks.

Or a very good driver. The official time for the Shelby CSX (175hp/175torque)was 14.9... from Car and Driver. I'm betting the VNT was just as fast if not faster thanks to it's 210 torque levels.

Ondonti

· #16 · Jun 7, 2005

Look for round driving lights on the corners of the front bumper. Its true, most cobra posers dont go that far.

I cant ever hear another cars exhaust above my own unless I am at the drag stip next to an open header dragster (then I cant hear anything else). Hard to tell what someone else is rolling in.

Whorse

Discussion Starter · #17 · Jun 7, 2005

Yeah didn't bother to check the bumpers since I was watching the road and all. The 13.5 VNT I heard about was one someone added a 3 bar SBEC to apparantly. I read about it at auto-enthusiast.com. I talked to a guy yesterday who owns a 97 GT, and sure enough his sounded a lot like the one I beat. I asked him what his exhaust setup was, and he had headers with no cat and a sport muffler.

Ondonti said:
Look for round driving lights on the corners of the front bumper. Its true, most cobra posers dont go that far.

I cant ever hear another cars exhaust above my own unless I am at the drag stip next to an open header dragster (then I cant hear anything else). Hard to tell what someone else is rolling in.

blk86trbo

· #18 · Jun 7, 2005

A few years back, before I sold my VNT Shadow, I raced it at the track with slicks.

Totally stock everything. The engine and trans performed perfectly.

No matter what I did, I couldn't run any better than a 15.1...

Can't remember the mph off the top of my head, but I could look through the piles of times slips I've saved, if need be.

Paul

WickeD87ShelbyZ

· #19 · Jun 15, 2005

Most of the mustangs that I have linned up with here from stop light to light have not been that impressive. I can hold one back pretty good in my rumble bee, its putting 307 hp to the rear wheels. As far as the cobra goes, the pre charged years suck, especially if they are stock. But the SCed models can be some serious fast cars, really fast I mean. I can show you a guy I work with that can't take my bee in the 1/4 we have marked off out in the country, he does not hook off the line very well, but right there at the end of the race he flies by me so bad its funny. He is running stock gears, 5 speed, its a non charged car as well.

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