Cobra's end up doing better in the long run than the Mach's do.

Cant go wrong w/ an 01 Snake. 03/04 Interior with better HP than the Mach, and the IRS is like budda, very smooth.

Just firm up the IRS a lil bit and its worth every penny.

 

and the debate continues....with equal drivers and stock for stock the mach will win a 1/4 drag race due to the better low end power, 3:55 gears, and live axle. The 01 Cobra has an edge in the top end.......but all of it's close enough to be called a drivers race. Add a few mods and 4:10's to both cars and things could get really interesting, but the 1/4 mile probably would still go to the mach.

Cobra guy will of course say the cobra's a better car and mach guy will say the mach is a better car....the debate will never end, but I know which car I'd take and it doesn't have snake badges.

 

No, there was an article in one of the mustang mags, and it ended up finding that the 01 cobra was better in the end than the Mach.

I'll have to dig the article up.

 

ha ha ha ha...ok. COBRA'S CAN NEVA LOSE....just ask a cobra owner...sorry had to get that in there.

 

I would take a 01 cobra over a 03-04 mach.

 

Honestly, all kidding aside. You can't go wrong with either car. If you can find an 01 cobra that is in good shape without a ton of miles then by all means go for it and you won't be dissapointed.....Mach's are newer so it might be easier to find something with lower miles. Really, you can't go wrong with either car and if one was hands down better than the other then we wouldn't be having this debate (well, cobra owner might think differently). It really comes down to what you like.

 

Where to begin. We'll do it anecdotally... Ever break a lower control arm? I have. Ever break a center section, I have... twice. How about the half-shafts? I have fragged 2 full sets, one side at a time. That's just major parts breakage. Now we'll move on to how it's design causes it to be rickety.

The IRS was built on rubber mounts that isolate noise and vibration pretty well but they allow rapid coupling and decoupling of the ring and pinion which have to be set up with bigger tolerances than their solid axle brethren so they don't burn up or make even more noise. The term cobra clunk comes from this lousy way of putting IRS together. Wheel hop is native to the mustang IRS and is the number 1 destroyer of them, that sucks. Yes you can tune much of the wheel hop out but not all of it and certainly not if you get the car on a prepared track and try to launch.

Aside from the durability issues, it handles ok but not beyond the limits of what a well put together live axle can do. I used to be a IRS believer and I've swapped 2 of them into formerly live axle stangs of mine, then I got my MM Max Grip kit and I tell you what, the live axle is so much easier to drive fast. It's way more predictable and easier to tune.

Unless you make the IRS so unfriendly to actually have on your car that you come to hate it with passion you can't make it grip, or handle or hold together well enough to justify the added 90lbs and smoother ride.

What I will give the IRS was that it was VERY comfortable to drive upside a similar handling live axle.

 

geez. its such a hard decision...both vehicles have their ups and downs. how hard would it be to turn the mach into a 12 sec. car? cuz i wanna be able to drive it on the weekends and maybe do some track time during the summer. Also, how will the Venom Kit mustang tuning sells fare on either engine? will it hurt it at all? anothe question is...if i were to buy the mach, what exhaust kit would i buy for it? the GT kit?

 

easy... drag radials and gears...

if ya wanted to go really fast get a shot of nitrous... the mach block and its forged internals can take that... and with 32Vs it goes even further...

 

yea i like the idea of going fast and the Venom kit is looking mighty nice lol

 

Better yet buy the setup Badfish is selling!

 

only problem is im not buying the mustang soon....probably not until the summer. im just trying to get as much info as possible so i know exactly what i want when the time comes

 

Very easily....I posted a video on this site a while back of a guy with a mac prochamber and DR's going 12.6 1/4 mile....Other than that the car was bone stock. There are lots of N/A machs in the low 12's and high 11's....Go check out the mach 1 registry forum and you'll find out everything you'd ever want to know about mach 1's and what they are capable of.

As for exhaust and mid pipe....you get the GT kit. The cobra has different exhaust cause of it's IRS. The mach has a live axle like GT's so it works perfectly.

 

Get the Mach, they're a really fun car to drive. They just feel lighter than the 03-04 cobras, even if they're not as fast. And you really can't beat the styling. And jjtgiants right, we need more Mach's on the site!

 

Just to let you guys know, Mach's do not have full forged internals. The crank is forged, but the pistons and rods are not.

 

lol well thats an easy fix.....just buy some eagle rods and JE pistons and ur set!

 

Yeah, I know. I was just posting to inform all the guys who had a misconception about a mach having forged internals.

 

it all good dude....im just hoping that when im ready to buy ill be able to find a mach for sale