1996 Ford Mustang Cobra - Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday takes us back 24 years when the young Graeme checked out the “Snake Charmer", the 1996 Mustang Cobra!
#Throwback ‪@ford‬ #Ford
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(The segment originally aired on Motoring TV 1996 Episode #22)

[@MyKeno18]

I love this car, it is still on the road and is my daily driver. It is an experience every time I drive it.

[@georgeharleydavidsonrider156]

I just bought a 1996 Mustang SVT Cobra SVT Convertible 23-K original miles . Locks smells and drives like a brand new car.

[@mikeydemeno9186]

these cars are still great buys for the money even today you can find a clean one with under 100k miles for less then 10k

[@derklanz1222]

Good luck finding a decent not clapped out 96-98 Cobra for under 10k. At one time that was the case, but not anymore.

[@AdrianRivera-rt4ce]

Found one just a week ago with 82k miles for 8k dollars. Bought from original owner.

[@johnb6653]

@@AdrianRivera-rt4ce nice man I got mine for 5k 96 cobra 94k

[@Vntichrist]

@@johnb6653 cap

[@newyork4198]

Still have my 98 Cobra, which I bought in 1999. 305hp doesn’t sound like a lot, but at the time it was one of the faster cars on the street. Full exhaust and a set of 4.10 gears, and it would pretty much walk away from anything.

[@Apprentice_of_the_Leonine]

305 brake horsepower is what the 4-cylinder turbo Mustang of today makes, I think. Somewhere around that number. Anyways, I think it's kinda sad that Ford's fastest Mustang offering in the mid to late 90's was barely able to keep up with a base Camaro SS, which I'd presume was less expensive because it wasn't as special and limited of a performance package. The base Mustang GT from 1998 had an 80-horse and big 0-60 time deficit relative to the Camaro SS of that same year.

[@newyork4198]

@@Apprentice_of_the_Leonine you do know there’s no difference between the z28’s and the SS’s, other than price tag, right? Also, you might not like fords marketing strategy, but it worked and it kept the mustang alive while the fbody died. I think it’s kinda sad that Chevy is a company that doesn’t know how to make money by selling a product. Also, the 305hp came out in 96, when Camaro’s were making 275hp and the vette 300hp (less than v6 mustang territory today). Chevy couldn’t build a dohc motor (they tried) so they went with an all-out ohv setup. You sound like a person who was too young to have been driving during this era, and are really just talking trash from a place of ignorance and inexperience.

[@Apprentice_of_the_Leonine]

@@newyork4198 Ignorant? Like you just ignored that I mention when you put the GT, not the Cobra against the base V8 Camaro offering of the time, it's no contest? Also, I have driven some of these older cars to get to know them better. They just so happen to belong to friends I've met along the way thus far. Good day, you arrogant boomer.

[@lj5190]

Who knew one day the base Mustang would be more powerful than this.

[@jameseast7966]

Going tp a local car show tommorow. Washed and waxed,I usually only have to do this once a year.I don't take it out during LOVE BUG season (May--June,Aug---Sept) That 26 yo MYSTIC paint still pops. I got it new in FT MYERS FL. Still all original 26k except for a K&N.

[@Mondaybob]

My Laser Red 96 Cobra is also all original except for the K&N filter, Bilko shocks and struts and Ford Racing shifter. 46,100 miles purchased February 10, 1996 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

[@toddekramer]

“There is no replacement for displacement.”

[@xevious2501]

Boy did i love this car. particularily the engine. i wanted to get a mustang cobra so bad, but then i ran into something while flipping thru some pages of a playboy mag that a friend had in college. Outside of one of my classmates being that months centerfold model. And all the oddity of that conversation with her. There was a spotlight on a particular vehicle that would change everything. The Saleen s351speedster. Good gracious, screw the naked classmate, this car was jaw droopingly hot. Saleen make a mustang look on par with a ferrari. And not just look like one but perform like one as well. Think GT350 back in the 90's, it was very much that. A car homoligated from saleens endurance racing dna. It looked like no mustang before it and it drove like no mustang until the current shelbys. It was that ahead of its time. BUT, it was also expensive. My goal was to get a cobra and purchase much of Saleens aerodynamic body replacement offerings to make it look like a saleen. But! i didnt need to do that either. as the S351's little brother the S281 had also debuted that year. All the capablility of the s351, but with mustang GT's engine, not the 351windsor which was used in the s351. So i ended up with a real saleen but without the cobra's engine , two years later saleen would do just that, creating an s281 sourced not from a GT mustang but from a cobra. hence the s281cobra edition. Yes i wouldve loved that car even more, but i was more than happy with my GT powered variant. which proved to be less of a pain than what people experienced with those cobra motors.

[@BMan100]

better than a busted MT82....

[@RoachLx]

Really debating if I should trade my 90’ Lx 5.0 Hatch for my brothers 96’ Mystic. Both California cars so the paint has definitely seen better days. My fox is aod still 4 lug and for the most part bone stock. Seems like going with the cobra should be the easy choice but the look of the 5.0 is iconic I need help guys

[@Rgh71fish]

Everyone has different taste. If it were me, I'd be going for the Cobra. Its got the name, the rare paint, and that awesome revving 32 valve 4.6. They sound intoxicating at high RPM and give me goosebumps. But thats just me.

[@leeejoynerr562]

Figure out how to get both

[@jameseast7966]

Get the MYSTIC. Some day it might be more collectable. Insure with Grundy's for cheap.

[@fast02gt]

I like how he says nothing about it being a mystic cobra lol … disregard I didn’t watch the whole thing .

[@jamesa6272]

Ok now find a gt video like this

[@joshcarter8650]

Ford can't go through test without tearing up

[@JimmyLoose]

1:52. Is that Burt Gummer from Tremors?

[@bkeith269]

"I'm completely out of ammo..."

[@JimmyLoose]

@@bkeith269 Val: "What's that?" Burt: "Cannon Fuse." Val: "What do you use it for?" Burt: "....My cannon."

[@jareknowak8712]

It had IRS??

[@RetroCarsForever]

No that came later

[@anthonylaudano9751]

This version of the 4.6 is junk.

[@ryan422423]

@@anthonylaudano9751 no there not there great engines dude

[@FordSVT1313]

@@ryan422423 block is great, rods are glass.

[@midnight347]

@@FordSVT1313 forged rods and pistons cost like 1200 bucks. Easy and fairly cheap to turn this into an 800-900+ rwhp capable engine as the crank is already forged and the block is the shit. Underrated car for big power. Keep it around 400 whp or less and they will last a long time not terrible for an engine from the early to mid 90s.

[@luisforeal8676]

In today’s money that’s $63k dollars… inflation has DOUBLED since 1996.

[@adamprestidge4775]

Ford: Can't even get though a test drive without breaking......

[@stonemichaels1774]

Shit happens. I've owned six of these Cobras and currently have 2 Mystics and have only every had to replace sensors on them. And most of the time, it was from changing the exhaust.

[@anthonylaudano9751]

The mystic cobras paint is only the good part. Other than that the 4.6 was junk.A glass jaw until the 03 04 cobra was born.

[@setharnold3699]

Anthony Laudano u are pretty uneducated. I had a 96 that I drove nearly 200k miles and run 8.3’s in the eighth with only gears and a H-pipe. Never had to do anything but change the spark plugs.

[@anthonylaudano9751]

@@setharnold3699 Yah stupid ha.Yah the 10 mustangs I had were just given to me.I was just making a point. Go look up 96 to 98 cobras and you will lose count on how many have replacement motors.You got lucky or whatever. I just know the facts about the first version of the 4.6.It wasn't nothing even close to my Terminator or my 5.4 in my gt500 and both of my super snake's. My 08 gt500 has 850hp stock internals and my 10 SS has 900hp.Try that with your cobra. Those motors struggled to make 500hp at the crank.I missed one shift in my 97 cobra and the car had only 2thousand miles on it with just exhaust and it blew up. My 87mustang GT that I still have beat the shot out of it and the 5.0 never flinched.Sorry brother just a fact.

[@derklanz1222]

Dude the terminators had forged internals because of their supercharger, so yes of course they were tougher. However, that doesn’t make the early 4.6 4v junk by any means. They still had one of the toughest aluminum blocks in the market build by Teksid, you know same guys that do Ferrari blocks. These Cobras also had a forged Kellogg crank good to 1500 up unlike the mark VIII or other mustangs. The weak point was their rods, but with rods and pistons these are 900 hp engines easy. To compare the to terminators or GT500s is not fair because the cars were not factory boosted. To bash them means you are a fool. Also in stock form these engines will do 400 whp reliably.

[@e4300]

Very weak engine.

[@bobforpples]

It’s a 96. Get a grip!

[@Mmvarto]

300hp in 96 was pretty good, more than the ls was making at the time actually

[@1sick88lx1]

@@MmvartoThere was no LS in 96, it was the LT1, the LS came out in 1997 in the Corvette.

[@moffettcoates6455]

Every nice engine.

[@Mmvarto]

@@1sick88lx1 true but my point was GMs Fbody V8s weren’t as hyped up as people say these days, 4.6 DOHC had the upper hand for several years

[@anthonylaudano9751]

The car and the hood looks great.But there not durable PERIOD.I know.