slonlo_350 said:
Basically, if you wanna go really fast really cheap... but feel like you are in a really fast really cheap car, get a Cobra. If you don't mind planting your but on the Pleather and Fuede seats that is.
Now if you wanna go a little bit slower, but do it in a much nicer vehicle (and don't like hearing WWWWEEEEEEEEE everytime you mash the gas) get a GTO.
So the question is, is the car gonna be a racer or a cruiser?
And plus if you want to mod the GTO, there are plenty of parts for it. Heads, cams, longtubes. That right there is 450 wheel hp. Now true, it only takes exhaust and pulley to get that from a Cobra, but the GTO sounds alot cooler hahaha.
You're on the money here, Terminators are incredible cars if you're planning to add mods and going fast is what you're into. They can make staggering power (500+ rwhp) with less than $3K in mods.
I had an '03 convertible for about 18 months. I loved the look of the car, the blower whine, and the fact that it was inexpensive to maintain. That said, I could never get used to the fact that the car rattled like crazy over even slightly bumpy roads, the interior and ergonomics were mediocre at best, and the overall build quality was inexcusable for a car that stickered new for $41K. And at 6'3", the car just wasn't very comfortable for me.
I personally keep my cars stock or mostly stock for warranty and resale purposes. I found it difficult to do that with the Cobra because those cars have so many things that need to be corrected as they come from the factory. Case in point, my car suffered from terrible wheelhop, to the point where I couldn't give it more that about 80% throttle in 1st without the car feeling like it was going to shake itself to pieces. Sure that can be reduced, but you're into a bunch of suspension mods and a set of drag radials to get there (which creates a whole different set of issues). After lots of debate I finally sold it, as I wasn't happy with the car as it was and didn't want to go down the path of having to spend a bunch of money on mods that I knew I would never get back when I moved on to something else.
Having driven an '05 Goat I can say that I wish I had known that these cars were going to get the LS2 and cosmetic changes when I bought the Snake. I would have definitely waited.
So if pure speed is what you want and you plan to race and modify the car, the Cobra is for you. They're faster (albiet very marginally) in stock form, and that difference increases with mods. If you want a comfortable daily driver/weekend cruiser that sounds great and goes like hell, the Goat is probably a better bet.
I'd drive both and see what appeals to you, even though these cars are aimed at a similar market they have completely different personalities.
Also, if you're looking at Cobras, keep in mind that many of them have been driven *very* hard. I'd try to find one that hasn't been pullied and has been kept in good shape, even if you have to pay a bit more for it. And keep in mind that you're going to get a biased perspective here. I'd do some reading over at SVTPerformance.com, you can learn a lot about Terminators over there.
Good luck with the decision :cheers
