2002 Cobra Exists!!! 100 produced

[stylin99]

Listen up boys and girls. What I am about to tell you may shock and amaze you but try not to jump out of your seats. Brought to you first by the words of the Yellow Mustang Registry.

There were 100 "secret" 2002 Cobras Produced by Ford. These were all shipped to Australia as exports and SVT does not count these in their totals. So essentially it's an unpublished secret production of Cobras all sent overseas specifically designed for Australia's standards. These were exaclty the same as 2001 Cobras with the 4v 320HP motor.

I first got word of this with some production numbers sent to me by a contact inside Ford. on the sheet were listed "SHP" Cobras. When inquiring about this marking, it was said to be Super High Performance 4v Cobras. (I initially assumed State Highway Patrol but was wrong). They came in different colors and both coupe and convertible.

Boy, would I love to get my hands on one of these Cobras. I think they are all setup with right hand drive and metric guages if I'm not mistaken.

Has anyone else heard of the existence of these before?

 

[akatherazor4]

Nope.:read:

Razor.

 

[griffined]

I have seen posts and picutres about Australian Cobras, that are converted to right hand drive, have a new facia with extra driving lights installed, and have some side marker lights installed to meet local lighting regs. I've also read that the model year designations for the Australian Cobras tends to fall behind the US ones by a year.

For instance 99 was the first New Edge Cobra here, but it was a 2000 Down Under. 03 was the first Supercharged Cobra here, and I think the Australian version will show up in late 03 or 04.

 

[stylin99]

Those options are correct. Here's a pic of one of our yellow Cobra owners from Australia but this is a 2001 Cobra. Would be the same as the 2002 Cobra and has the extra lights, right hand drive, etc.

Also, these 2002 Cobras are not actually 2001's. Ford has them recorded as 2002's so they were sold as '02's. They were most likely very very late production '01's but marked as the next model year for these stray batch to Australia.

 

[SVTCobra2001]

I have a sales brocure for the 2000 Cobra. US Model...

 

[quick01snake]

Originally posted by SVTCobra2001
I have a sales brocure for the 2000 Cobra. US Model...

Me too......

 

[rande/melissa]

i have enough trouble driving with the steering wheel on the correct side (for us)...me driving one with the steering on the "wrong" side would not be a pretty sight...

 

[OzLightning]

Being that I bought my '01 Cobra just on a month ago right here in the Land of Oz, I can confirm that I was offered either an '01 or '02 badged car. Now what I quickly learnt was the build dates on these "02's" were actually late '01 and due to the fact that Ford or any other manufacturer is allow sell a car as the year it was given it's local certifaction they ended up being called '02s.

Hope that clears things up. By the way I turned down one of the so called "02s" because they want to rip me off another $5000 for one, know what I mean...:nono:

 

[Leftywayn]

Being that I bought my '01 Cobra just on a month ago right here in the Land of Oz

Hey Oz, how's it going. How are you enjoying your new toy? Is it everything you expected?

Mine is still an absolute blast everytime I take it out.
Shane

 

[OzLightning]

Yep, it's great. Just got the gears done this week (4.10s), talk about needing them, what a difference. I also had the suspension done with eibach springs and billstein shocks, nice improvement there too. Had a hiccup with my hooker headers, right set are right in the way of the steering shaft. So much for a perfect right hand drive conversion. Probably have to get the right set fabricated now, bummer!

Oz

 

[willyum]

I had the same problem with my hooker longtubes. My mechanic moved the tube that was touching the frame and all is well. It's funny, Hooker acts as if this has never happened to anyone but me. Good luck.

William

 

[raider187]

Oz.. Did you get you shocks valved for the eibach springs? I'm looking to do my suspension next.

 

[Adam01Snake]

I was told it was a pain in the a$$ to put spings on 99+ cobras since they have the IRS, Is this true?

If so what makes it that much more difficult?

I put Ford "C" springs on my 2000 GT, and it wasn't that hard!
Ahh my old 00GT, I sure do miss her! But thats another story!

And the moral is.......Don't trade in your Mustang! It's taken a year and a half to get back in one, Trust me, without one all you do is think about getting one! Now that I'm a proud owner of a 01 Cobra...I guess it was worth the wait!

Adam:coolman:

 

[OzLightning]

Springs and shocks went in with no problems at all. The Billsteins came from the distributor as upgrade spec, not stock replacement units, so I tend to think they'd be pretty well suited to the eibachs. Any as far as the driving goes the car feels a lot better on the road. I'm going to drop in the Steeda camber plates and am getting the PHP IRS brace, that should just about get me where I want to be. After that all I'm waiting for is the 19" Miglia Evo's to arrive so I can get some decent rubber on the road. Won't worry about the Kenny Brown package till I get my hands on an '03:coolman:!

 

[99SVTcobraVERT]

pic looks photo shopped to me. look at the foglights. they are moved down. not to mention the front license plate is a little sideways. i mean COME ON my little cuz could do better with michael jordan's body on pamela anderson's body lol lol

 

[OzLightning]

No Photochopping there guys...it's for real. I'll see if I can't get a pic up of my blue baby a little later on. Got it at the office today, will borrow a camera and get some pix.

 

[IUP99snake]

whats the deal with those extra driving lights in the front on the Aussie models?

-Homer

 

[RDJ]

Not to rain on your parade but ..... Big Deal! this whole thread is old news... nothing surprising about it. those Australian Cobras are NOT counted as 2000 cobras as has already been explained. There were NO 2000 cobras. They cancelled the run so they could fix the HP issues with the 99 Cobras, but they cancelled the run AFTER the brocures were already printed up and distributed.

Originally posted by SVTCobra2001
I have a sales brocure for the 2000 Cobra. US Model...

 

[Traveler]

Are Australian Cobras sold with SVT badging or is that an American only thing?

 

[OzLightning]

Originally posted by Traveler
Are Australian Cobras sold with SVT badging or is that an American only thing?

NO they are sold under the FTE (Ford-Tickford Engineering) banner and domestic Hi-Po editions as FPV (Ford Performance Vehicles) over here, there is no use of the SVT branding. Personally I think Ford should use it here to counter GM's HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) brand.