I was on the hunt for a Rio Red / Black 96-98 cobra coupe for a while. I settled for a RioRed/Saddle 94 because of its amazing condition. Heres what ive done so far. On the way home from NC. Waxed it up.. Nice Interior I never liked horizontals so they were the first to go. Had some bad bump steer and it was missing some sway bar bushings if you look close. Next up was the s281. Ordered fiberglass and got carbon! Went wingless while the trunk was getting done. FYI I picked up a used 96/98 trunk but decided to just have the 94/95 trunk modded.
$1100 later! Had some steering slack so I got a ZM (Terminator) rack reman'd from rockauto. Tested and confirmed it has the larger bump stops. I shot some photos with a friend. LT1/T56 RX7. Only 75k and so clean underneath. Tucked it away for winter and prepared to buy a house.
Moved into my new house in March! Put on some smoked UPR headlights. Then I started putting on all the things I had tucked away. EGR delete. Replaced the front main and found a bad damper so I got the ford racing unit. Deleted SMOG 70mm Throttle Body BBK Ceramic Shorties. Moates Quarterhorse and Binary Editor with an Innovate Wideband. Got a used MM solid steering shaft which finally cured my sloppy steering. Now Im working on getting these cheapo control arms on!
Oh my God - I love this car. Thank you for the detailed pictures - I'll go back and look them over in more detail. Where in MD are you? May I drive the piss out of your car? :grin::headbang::grin:
Yeah I used to have one with an LS1. He got his with an LT1 already swapped but had a bad thrust bearing and we ended up pretty much redo-ing the whole swap. Mine before I sold it. Motor in his right after replacing the crank, 1 rod, and all the bearings.
Those things must be mind blowing to drive. Specially the LS1 powered one. What is the curb weight of one of those beasts?
Right around 2800 with the LS1 and not difficult to make 400whp. I finally finished the control arms and picked up a new daily driver. SVT Focus!
Not really it has 166K but the last owner had it for 12 years and said it was garaged every day and highway driven. Normal seller notes but this actually looks like it.