In 1999, Ford found they had a two-sided problem: on one hand were the 320 horsepower Chevrolet Camaro Super Sport and Pontiac Trans Am WS6, two cars that were potent, faster than they had yet been, and gaining traction thanks to the new LS1 engine that had been raided from the Corvette. At the same time, the 1999 SVT Cobra had been under fire as overrated on power, with customers claiming that power was down, sometimes as off as 50 horsepower. Not good for the face of performance. With the SN-95 Mustang on the way out and the S197 platform in development, Ford and SVT decided to shut up the issue once and for all. Thus, the Terminator Mustang was born. After a stop-sale and recall to fix the issues on the 1999 cars, a gap year for 2000 that only saw the limited-production Cobra R going out of the door and the mildly updated 2001 Cobra getting some tweaks here and there, the new-for-2003 Cobra, which had been given the “Terminator” code name by SVT, was unleashed.
The Terminator Cobra could be considered the first large cannon shot in the second horsepower war, the retaliation to the LS1 F-bodies. A cast-iron 4.6 fitted with Zolner Pistons and Manley H-beam connecting rods was kitted up with an Eaton M-112 supercharger to produce 390 horsepower and 390 ft/lbs of torque. A Tremec T-56 six-speed was fitted, and the independent rear suspension, which had first appeared with the 1999 Cobra, was reworked, fitted with 31-spline shafts and packed with a 3.55 gear ratio. The result was the kind of warning that Ford wanted to give anyone else who dared to try to threaten the Mustang, and at the same time a call to arms, one that Pontiac took up with the Holden-sourced GTO.
