In a test of the ABS brakes, Bob came hurtling down the straightaway on the test paddock, turned into a corner following the painted lane and jammed on the binders. A traditional car would lose control and spin in such a situation, but the four-cam Cobra followed the narrow lane perfectly--never dislocating a cone--and came to a rapid halt. Unlike many race-car drivers competing with modern street-based cars, Bob said he would never disconnect the ABS brakes, even for racing competition.
Cars have gotten better over the past years, and Mustangs have done so in spades. The late-model Mustang that debuted in 1979 represented a huge improvement in handling, braking, ride quality, steering control and--of course--engine power, compared with all of the cars that had come previously. Over the years of its life span, the third-generation Mustang was made even better by Ford with constant engineering upgrades. For as good as our beloved third-generation pony had become by the last year of its production, the SN-95 Mustang that followed it in 1994 was even better. The chassis was stiffened even more, steering and road holding were raised another notch and ride quality became nothing short of phenomenal. So, when the '96 Mustang Cobra was announced with the claim that it could do everything the new Mustang GT could do, only better, it seemed hard to believe. Although our first impressions of the new Snake seemed to confirm this claim, what we really wanted was to get the Cobra on a closed racetrack and really put it through its paces. There was one problem, however. The new Cobra seemed so good, it might be more car than we could legitimately test. The answer was to get a real race-car driver who had years of experience driving at the limits to put the Cobra through its paces. With this part of the testing problem solved, we knew there was only one man for the job--Bob Bondurant.
Bob made his mark in the world as a first-class race-car driver competing for Carroll Shelby, among others, and winning the World Championship for Ford in the '60s. He has driven Shelbys, GT-40s, Formula 1 race cars and everything else you can imagine, and he has won with all of them. After a racing accident, Bob retired from competition and opened a race-car driving school that has become the biggest and best in the land. Bob still races competitively. He is a member of the Saleen/Allen RRR race team, competing with a Mustang in SCCA World Challenge competition. Further, Bob uses late-model Mustangs as his school training cars, so he knows a thing or two about the quirks and capabilities of these cars at speed and at the limits.
We arranged with Ford SVT's Jim Sawyer to have a regular-production Mustang Cobra ferried to Bob's private racetrack at his driving school in Phoenix, Arizona, for our test sessions. The plan was simple. Bob would do the driving, giving us feedback all along the way. All we had to do was sit back and take notes. Ha! Little did we know what we were in for.
Everything started innocently enough for us. To set the stage for this report to you, let us first explain how Bob approaches any new car he intends to drive for the first time, including purpose-built race cars. According to Bob, he goes through a deliberate "getting-to-know-you" procedure that he has developed from experience over his many years of testing and racing. With the engine off, Bob slides into the driver seat and analyzes the position of the controls and the relation of the driver to the car. The seating angle and the distance from the steering wheel and pedals are examined. Steering-wheel angle is checked. Position and feel of the shift lever is tested. Inside and outside mirrors are adjusted, and mental notes are taken on the ergonomics of it all.
With adjustments made and a beginning feel for the controls established, Bob then starts the engine. He listens for how easily it fires and how it idles. He reads his instruments and ensures that his line of sight is clear. One important factor in any performance car is how easily and quickly the gauges can be read. At high speeds, with lots of things going on that require your attention, you only get a split second to take your eyes off of the track for a quick glance at the gauges. Information must be easily obtained. These rules apply to any car Bob ever gets into, not only a car soon destined to be driven in extremes.
With the engine idling and everything under control, Bob then tests the feel of the clutch pedal as the clutch is engaged and the engine powers the car away from a stop. Good clutch operation and feel is critical to making the car do what you want on the racetrack, such as heel-and-toe downshifting while you brake from high speeds when going into a corner.
With the car doing speeds near the century mark, Bob pays critical attention to steering feel and response, as well as brake modulation and effectiveness. Steering feel and response are critical to controlling a car when speeds are raised to competition levels. Bob conducts lane-change maneuvers to test response sensitivity and quickness. He wants to know how far the wheel has to be turned to make a rapid maneuver. He wants to feel how the car responds to rapid steering-wheel inputs. Most cars offer a response that favors either the front end or the rear end of the car. You turn the wheel, but the front end doesn't respond fast enough, so you have to turn it more. Or in other cases, you turn the wheel and the back end responds too quickly--wanting to come around on you--and you have to back out of the steering input. The ideal car is one that is predictable and as close to neutral as possible. Squirreliness is to be avoided at all costs.
Bob also wants to determine brake effectiveness. How hard do the brakes pull the car down from speed? Do the brakes begin to fade as brake heat builds and the pads, calipers and brake fluid get hot? Bob picks those parts of the racetrack that will allow him sufficient recovery room if the brakes do less than he hopes for during these tests.
Finally, with all of the previous tests under his racing belt, Bob is now ready to put the car through its real high-speed paces. He is now looking for engine power and acceleration ability, as well as the overall balance of the car's capabilities when driven at the limits. For example, he tests the tire's ability to hold to the track surface. This means velocity, folks, and muscle-fatiguing g-forces.
Bob fired up our Laser Red four-cam Cobra and immediately went through his getting-to-know-you checks. "Steering-wheel feel and angle are excellent," said Bob, "because you can adjust the steering column. I like the steering wheel to be angled upward just a little bit. The steering wheel is nicely padded and not too skinny, so it will give me an easy grip and good feedback during racing."
As for the seating position, Bob explained, "Lots of people think you want to lay back and recline in the seat for high-performance driving, but this is wrong. In fact, you want to sit as upright as you possibly can. You see better, you get better leverage on the controls and it makes you more alert. The Cobra seats are quite comfortable and have a certain amount of side bolster support to hold you in place during cornering. The seatback can be raised pretty far, although I'd like it to be just a little more vertical. Also, the seats could travel just a little farther back, away from the steering wheel. To avoid fatigue in a race, you need your arms to make about a 120-degree bend at the elbows. If you sit too close to the steering wheel, your arms lose leverage."
Gauge visibility is excellent, according to Bob, helped immeasurably by the white-face dials. And the mirrors could all be properly adjusted without blind spots. So far, so good.
The engine fired up much to Bob's liking. "You can tell how an engine has been engineered by how it starts. This motor starts and idles perfectly," remarked Bob. After easing out the clutch and rolling away from a stop, Bob reported that the Cobra's clutch is easy to depress without too much effort but also without a vague feel. "You clearly know when and how much the clutch engages through pedal feel," he remarked. After a few stabs on the brakes, Bob began his maneuverability tests. This was where the grin popped up on Bob's face.
From about 75 mph, Bob made a rapid lane-change maneuver. The g-forces pushed us sideways, but the Cobra settled on its suspension smoothly, without any perceptible body roll. When we looked over at Bob, he was smiling. "I like this," he said in an understatement. Bob was impressed with how little the steering wheel had to be turned to effect a high-speed change of direction. "It all has to do with steering speed, front-end geometry and ackerman percentage," explained Bob. He had such a good time testing the maneuverability of the Cobra that he did it three or four more times. As we were pushed this way and that by the g-forces, it became a little hard to keep taking notes. Little did we know what was going to happen next.
Bob began the actual race testing of the Cobra by lapping his 1.6-mile track at ever increasing speeds, starting from a slow 100 mph on the front straightaway. On each lap, he drove deeper into the corners, braking harder to scrub off speed, heel-and-toe downshifting. Each lap, he accelerated harder out of the corners, playing with the engine rpm to produce exactly the right amount of acceleration. After five laps, everything outside of the windows was a blur.
As we hurtled into a corner at impossibly high speeds, with the tires shrieking, Bob shouted, "Very good balance!" Gripping the door handle at the time, we simply nodded. Accelerating up a short straightaway into what appeared to be a curve sharp enough to reduce you to walking speeds, Bob shouted over the engine noise, "Tremendous steering. Great feedback. Smooth!" We nodded, this time holding onto the seat. Flying at light speeds through a wide sweeping curve, we could hear the engine speed rise and fall as Bob modulated the gas pedal. "Very good throttle oversteer, good suspension reactions," he reported. Trying to keep from being flung into the stick shift and center console, we swallowed and responded, "Great." It didn't sound very convincing.
Then, with the rear end hung out to the moon and an imminent spin surely milliseconds away, Bob suddenly jammed on the brakes, throwing us forward against the seatbelt--papers were flying, pencils were hurtling and lunch was thinking about making a return appearance. The Cobra came to a smooth and controlled halt with nothing more than an odd bumping sound. The rear end had stayed put, defying the laws of physics that guaranteed the Snake would go out of control once the tires were asked to take on the added burden of a panic stop. As the dust roiled around us and we regained our composure, Bob exclaimed, "There's something you can only do with ABS brakes. This Cobra's got them figured out dead." We limply smiled in unknowing agreement.
Our plan had been to accompany Bob as he put the four-cam Cobra through its paces on the track, alertly paying attention to his every move and taking serious and copious notes, all the while discussing slip angles and front-to-rear balance characteristics. We knew we could do this because we had driven fast before, and it seemed quite plausible. We made one error in judgment. We had never driven with Bob Bondurant. His idea of testing a car and driving fast is obviously far different from our own, or anyone else's for that matter.
In a more relaxed discussion in Bob's office afterward, we caught up on the notes we should have been taking while in the Cobra. "This Cobra is one heck of a car," said Bob. "It is really the closest thing to a race car I have driven that still retains so much streetability and civility. The ride is smooth and supple, yet it corners like a race car. Body roll is minimal; steering response is simply excellent. Best of all, the Cobra never does anything squirrelly. It allows you to be in control at all times, right up to the limits. You are never guessing with the Cobra."
What could the car do better? we asked. "Well, about the only thing that it needs to be a pure race car is less understeer. All front-engined, rear-wheel-drive cars are front heavy. This makes them understeer. The Cobra has done the best job of negating this problem and is far better than any other similar car in this regard. As a race driver, however, you'd always like more."
How does it compare with other high-performance and race cars? we asked. "Superb, just superb," reported Bob. "Its great strength is its chassis and handling. The car goes where you tell it without complaint. The chassis is so rigid, you get no wandering or unpredictable feel at all, unlike many other sports cars." Like the Camaro or the Firebird? we asked. Bob just smiled.
What about the engine? "It's like a Formula engine," said Bob. "It makes tons of power and revs highly. You need to keep it in the right gear for maximum power, which might take some getting used to at first, but the power is definitely there. You can make it do things Mustangs could never do before."
One final question. The Cobra R is a Mustang made to be nothing but a race car. How does the four-cam Cobra compare? Bob thought about it for a minute. With a grin returning to his face, and SVT’s Jim Sawyer looking on, Bob responded. "The Cobra R has more bottom-end torque with its far bigger engine. But the four-cam Cobra is a better handling car, faster through the corners." Which one would win in a race? Bob just gave us that grin.