Bob Bondurant's driving school just got a fresh shipment of SVT Mustang Cobras. George Stradlater gives us the full report.
With the 4.6-liter dual overhead cam Cobra, Ford's Special Vehicle Team introduced to the world the first civilized musclecar. A far cry from the fire-breathing beasts of the '60s from which it inherited its name, enginewise the Cobra is more refined than either of the LT1 Camaro/Firebird twins, the only other high-output V8 ponycars to have survived years of heinous insurance rates, OPEC and the green movement. Make no mistake, its 305-horsepower engine can burn rubber like those big block-powered Shelby roadsters and GT500s of yore, but it does so with a social conscience, sipping fuel modestly while spewing daisies from its burbling exhaust pipes.
The Cobra is Ford's statement that high technology, refinement and tire-shredding torque can live harmoniously in one package. There are some environs, however, where you can sacrifice comfort in the name of all-out performance and the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in Phoenix is one of them. The Bondurant School has started replacing its sizable stable of 5-liter Mustang GTs with 1997 Cobras, and to ensure that they are up to the rigors of training students, Bondurant has enlisted the help of Roush Industries of Livonia, Michigan.
Most enthusiasts are well aware of Roush's successful racing efforts, but few realize that the company is a full-service engineering outfit that serves the automotive industry with operations in the United States, Mexico and England. The result of this is the equivalent of putting an iron fist in Ford's velvet glove.
Ford's relationship with the Bondurant School goes back to 1983 when, as Tim Boyd, marketing manager for Ford's Special Vehicle Team, put it, the Blue Oval's reputation was not quite what it is today. Since then, the school has used everything from Mustangs to Taurus SHOs to Formula Ford race cars. The Cobra was the next logical step for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are its performance capabilities, its prestige and the fact that it is so chock full of good hardware it costs less to upgrade it for the grueling demands that will be placed on it.
Among the many tasks given to Roush for this project was ensuring that the Cobras would survive the rigors of hour upon hour of track time under the scorching desert sun at the hands of merciless students. They pay good money to attend this, one of the country's premier driving academies. The last thing the students and the Bondurant people want are vehicles that will fail. This means improvements had to be made to the cooling system, the brakes, the transmission and the suspension. Interestingly, the powerplants themselves remain stock. Only the catalytic converters are removed, replaced by resonators from the 1991 five-liter Thunderbird. A reusable K&N air filter cuts down on replacement costs and adds a couple of extra horsepower to the mix, while lower 3.55 gears take the place of the factory 3.27s. Bondurant chose this ratio not just for improved acceleration but because they were better-suited to the Firebird International Raceway facility on which they will see duty.
"Our Bondurant-spec Mustang GTs are great cars, but the SVT Mustang Cobra has a more powerful engine that revs higher and offers better acceleration," according to Bondurant, who knows a thing or two about high-performance driving. He was one of Carroll Shelby's team drivers from the beginning of the glory days and over 60,000 students have graduated from his school since it opened in 1978. He feels the extra horsepower and smoothness of the "cammer" engine will enhance the driving and learning experience for his students.
First on the list of things to do was to beef up the cooling system. An oversized radiator and oil cooler were lifted from the Ford parts bin, leftovers from the successful 1995 Mustang Cobra R. A mechanical fan system and overflow tank were pirated from the Crown Victoria and Ranger truck, respectively, and twin electric pusher fans were mounted in front of the radiator. A custom fan shroud, an air-to-water power steering cooler and special silicon hoses round out the package.
To keep the passengers from overheating, the full-throttle air conditioner cut-off switch that comes standard on Mustangs and Cobras has been disabled. If the student or instructor turns the A/C on, it stays on-a big plus when cockpit temperatures of over 120 degrees are possible.
Next, everyone's attention turned to the suspension. Bob Bondurant had Monroe supply Formula GP shocks and struts to his specification and from there, Roush went to work. Its engineers revised the springs (slightly softer linear rate Eibach coils all around in place of the standard variable rate units), and went with a 1 mm thicker stabilizer bar from the 1996 Mustang GT up front. It is in the rear where the most drastic changes were made. A Roush-designed panhard bar eliminates the upper control arms and along with a custom-designed torque arm, helps to better locate the rear axle, according to Dan Hudson, the program manager for Roush.
Roush's team relocated the upper strut mount, moving it inward and rearward. This allowed them to go to more performance-oriented caster/camber specs. Because of a sponsorship agreement Goodyear Eagles (245/45ZR17) replace the Cobra's standard BF Goodrich Comp T/As of the same size. They roll on chromed seven-spoke American Racing wheels that were designed by Bondurant to aid brake cooling.
Regarding the anchors, the Cobra's 13-inch front discs with twin-piston PBR calipers and 11.75-inch rears remain and are fitted with Performance Friction carbon metallic pads. Braided steel lines are found up front, along with ducting that routes air to the brakes from the holes formerly occupied by driving lights. The Bosch three-channel ABS remains, but a cut-off switch has been added to accommodate driver preference. Filling the oversized master cylinder from a 1995 Ranger truck is Castrol DOT 4 fluid.
To ensure that there are no premature transmission failures, the Borg-Warner T45 five-speed is the recipient of sturdier carbon fiber blocker rings.
And as student safety was a primary concern, a host of changes were made. A 20-gallon Fuel Safe cell, another refugee from the '95 R model, supplants the smaller stock 15.4-gallon gas tank. A twin-bottle Halon fire suppression system has outlets in the engine and passenger compartment, as well as over the fuel cell, and is triggered from a switch on the console. Once the cars are shipped to Bondurant, a six-point padded roll cage is installed, along with RJS window nets on both doors and four-point safety harnesses.
Aside from the safety gear, changes to the interior are minimal. A Recaro LSL seat is added to the driver's side and a raised throttle pedal makes heel-and-toe driving easier for the novice. What's unusual is that all the Bondurant School cars start off with the base interior package, which consists of cloth seats instead of leather and a base stereo without CD (for which the power is disconnected). Only a small fraction of the 10,000 Cobras built each year are shipped this way. Each leaves Dearborn's River Rouge assembly plant dressed in white paint with rather unattractive speckled camel-colored upholstery. Bondurant applies the retina-popping orange paint.
A host of Ford SVT's public relations staff was on hand to accommodate the every whim of the journalists present and they were kind enough to provide me with a production Cobra the evening before we were scheduled to hit the track in the prepared school versions. The first thing you notice is the compliant suspension, a proper four-spoke steering wheel and the silken smoothness of the 4.6-liter engine. This is one helluva road car. But stand on the gas pedal hard enough and its musclecar roots make their presence felt. Shift at anything over six grand on the white-faced tachometer and you will immediately be thrust into "Go directly to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200" territory. Even in this day of higher speed limits, it is hard to talk your way out of triple digit citations. Fortunately, the stock brakes are more than up to the task of hauling you down before The Man hauls you away.
According to Boyd, the suspension on the school cars was designed to work in this specific environment, and work it does. Turn-in is noticeably quicker, while handling is more neutral. The rear of the car can be kicked out in turns, but only if you want it there. It is far more predictable and forgiving than stock, and it reacts faster to driver inputs. As a vehicle in which to learn, it provides one heck of a thrilling classroom.
Alas, it will take a full three years to replace the school's entire fleet of five-liter Mustang GTs with DOHC 4.6-liter Cobras. That means only the advanced students will get the chance to sample the Roush and Bondurant-prepared ponycars at first. Ford will supply 35 new Cobras per year in 1998 and 1999, when the last of the 90 pushrod-equipped Mustangs now employed will be put out to pasture. While that may mark the end of an era, we're not shedding any tears. Not when the future looks this good.
