To this day, Shelby American can build the Cobra of your dreams if your pockets are deep enough to own a piece of history. For example, the aluminum-bodied 427 S/C without the engine and transmission starts at a whopping $180,995.
Thankfully, though, there are companies such as Superformance that charge a lot less for the open-top sports car than Shelby American. This fellow here is a MKIII, but as the headline implies, you won’t find a Ford-developed powerplant under the hood. Instead, a Chevy small-block V8 and go-faster goodies from Lingenfelter give this Cobra a very different persona.
“Not something we work on everyday, but sure is fun when we do,” reads the description of the YouTube video, and even though it’s a dyno run at wide-open throttle for maximum aural pleasure, the tuner hasn’t published any output ratings. However, it’s pretty simple to guesstimate the engine’s crankshaft ratings.
Lingenfelter offers multiple LS3 crate options, starting with the 378-cubic-inch option and a compression ratio of 11.5 along with a price tag of $12,795. The 6.2-liter blunderbuss is good for 550 ponies and 505 pound-feet right out of the box, but more displacement is also available. The 417-cubic-inch LS3 – translating to 6.8 liters – cranks out 620 horsepower and 555 pound-feet.
The underhood shots confirm that we’re dealing with an aspirated mill, and frankly, what more do you need in such a lightweight car? The supercharged CSX 3303 was so scary to drive that Bill Cosby gave his car back to Shelby American. The subsequent owner, Tony Maxey, drove the Cobra off a cliff straight into the ocean.
Without any attention from Lingenfelter, the LS3 still is a tempting proposition for engine swaps. Introduced for the 2008 model year Corvette with 430 horsepower and 424 pound-feet on tap, the 6.2-liter plant was replaced by the LT1 for the 2014 model year Corvette. Its latest evolution – the LT2 in the C8 – is a dry-sump design that was developed specifically for midship applications.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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