Rare Low-Mileage 2000 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R Is Half Animal, Half Cautionary Tale

Yes, compared to second and third-gen Mustangs, the fourth-gen model was like a breath of fresh air, but not the type you’d take on a beautiful morning out on the ranch. More like during in the middle of a smog alert in downtown Los Angeles.

Visually, it’s almost pointless to even consider anything built before the 1999 model year, since that’s when the so-called “New Age” styling was implemented, featuring sharper contours and larger wheel arches, for an overall more aggressive aesthetic.

Fast-forward one year and that’s when the SVT Cobra R specification returned for a limited production run of just 300 units. This would become Ford’s only high-performance Mustang for the 2000 model year.

Visually, it’s like what that one guy in the miniseries ‘Chernobyl’ said about the radiation levels – not great, not terrible. It’s certainly more handsome than any of its stablemates, but in a vacuum, you could obviously do so much better as a collector.

Yet, low-mileage examples can still fetch a pretty penny, so it’s not entirely a bad purchase if you happen to want one. As for what you’d get out of the driving experience, pretty much whatever you can extract from the 385 horsepower 5.4-liter DOHC V8, which is mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. You won’t be setting any record lap times, and the steering feel isn’t amazing, but the brakes are great, and the straight-line acceleration is more than sufficient.

For the record, it’ll take you just 4.7 seconds to hit 60 mph from a standstill in a Mustang SVT Cobra R, which is ‘supercar-fast’ by 1990s and even mid-to-late 2000s standards.

With that in mind, get a load of this low-mileage example we just found getting auctioned off to the highest bidder. It’s got just 9,000 miles on the clock and it appears to be in tip top shape.

Visually and mechanically, it’s loaded with everything you’d expect from a Cobra R, meaning the Performance Red exterior, power dome hood, side skirts, quad side-exist exhaust outlets, 18-inch five-spoke wheels, Bilstein shocks, Eibach springs and four-wheel ventilated discs with four-piston Brembo calipers.

As for the interior, highlights include Dark Charcoal sports seats by Recaro, remote keyless entry, power windows, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, power mirrors, a leather-wrapped shift knob and Cobra R embroidery.

Keep in mind, the car doesn’t come with air conditioning, cruise control, stereo or even a rear seat, which is both justified and unjustifiable at the same time. So, if you’re in the market for this type of Mustang, you better know exactly what you’re getting into.