1997 Ford Mustang

Built/Forged 4.6L V8

5-speed Tremec T-5 HD

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PLEASE TAKE TIME TO READ THIS ENTIRE LISTING. IT WILL BE WORTH YOUR TIME! This is a special cobra and I want to take some time to tell you about it. I purchased this car because I knew of Bob Norwood- the man who built it. I had heard his story several times and knew him to be a world renowned Ferrari and race car builder. I knew about the many world records he held for land speed times on the Bonneville Salt Flats and I knew about his positive reputation among peers and customers in the race-car-building world. In the racing world, he is widely known for his achievements in modifying and racing Ferraris. He as hand built and sold 14 P4 Ferrari replicas. Because of the Norwood reputation and his history of exceptional race car building, these replicas have been given the legal seal of approval by the Ferrari plant in Italy. An article about Norwood states... "While Bob Norwood may not have the easy household-name familiarity of Carroll Shelby or Enzo Ferrari, his accomplishments are well documented; in fact he has 137 listings in the Guinness Book of Automotive World Records in the areas of super car and high-performance automotive design…much of it revolving around well over 30 years of work with Ferraris." It had been my dream to own a 'built' 1996-1998 Cobra since childhood but I had always been a little uneasy about pulling the trigger due to the nightmare stories I had heard involving improperly built setups. I was waiting for an opportunity to purchase a 600 horsepower cobra with the proper setup from the proper builder. When I found out that Norwood had built this car, I sprung at the opportunity. Both before and after the purchase I was pleasantly surprised to find Bob Norwood, himself, easily accessible over the phone. He can be contacted personally at Norwood Autocraft in Dallas, TX. He sold the company but still tinkers on projects there. We spoke several times and he was happy to discuss the car's history and build details at length. It was obvious that he took the time and attention to upgrade every aspect of the car during the build so as to leave no "weak links". The car is very strong, sound, and reliable. It is a reliable daily driver yet will defeat anything on the road. Even though it's been about 10 years, Norwood offered to personally tune it again in Dallas and I gladly accepted. Bob tuned the car in Dallas last weekend and it ended up pulling just shy of 500 rear wheel horse power at 12lbs of boost (580 horse power at the motor). The dyno sheets are included and can be corroborated by the dyno shop in Dallas. According to Norwood, the Cobra began it's transformation while in the possession of the regional president of Compass Bank in Dallas, TX. Bob reported that he had coppies of well over $70,000 in receipts for all of the work that he did to the Cobra. The car had about 15-17,000 miles on it at the time. Later, the president of Compass sold it to a "soccer mom" in North Dakota who just wanted something quick to drive around town in. I bought the car from her. She hand delivered it to me on a car hauler and literally cried while sitting in the Cobra's front seat during title transfer. I guess she had bonded with it. The car has not been modified since it left Norwood's shop. Here is the Build list for this 1997 Mustang Cobra: 25,000 original milesSean Hyland Engine: -forged internals -high-flow heads/intake -blower cams Vortech V-1 T-Trim supercharger tuned to 12 lbs of boost Custom fabricated air-to-air intercooler by Norwood Custom fabricated air intake piping by Norwood Custom fabricated throttlebody by Norwood Custom fabricated Turbonetics "Godzilla" blow off valve (boost wastegate only allows boost under WOT) by Norwood Custom Supercharger boost dial (under hood dial... boost easily adjustable from 6lbs to 14lbs) by Norwood Custom Motec ECU setup (highly tunable/programable computer. Any dyno tuner is familiar with this) by Norwood Custom fabricated fuel delivery system with Paxton fuel pressure regulator (by Norwood) Custom welded long tube Headers 85lbs injectors Custom MSD ignition M&W Pro-14 4 channel ignition box Custom built M&W Pro 14 Wire harness 5 Speed Tremec T-5 HD transmission Centerforce clutch Heavy Duty differential with 4.11 gearing Flowmaster exhaust with H-pipe Magnaflow catalytic converters Short throw shifter Chrome Cobra R wheels (9.5 front, 10.5 rear) 315 Mickey Thompson ET street rear drag radials Alpine MP3 stereo with auxiliary bass boost control in the dash Kicker 15" Solo Barric Subwofer in custom box Boost/Fuel Pressure gauge pod on dash Immaculate interior from leather, to dash, to carpet, to headliner... etc. AC and heat work great Alternator charges well NO oil, fluid, fuel leaks Paint is in great condition No dings, dents, scratches that I am aware of Glass is in excellent shape State inspected Faster than you can imagine DESCRIPTION OF LAST 5 PHOTOS POSTED:1 & 2- Dyno slips showing horse power and torque before... and after motec tuneup.3- Photos of our day around the Norwood dyno and speedshop. Bob is depicted with the cobra and next to a $20,000 ferrari engine he is building. The bottom 3 ferraris were completely rebuilt by Norwood. Those 3 cars represent around $30 Million. 4- Magazine articles and news publications throughout Bob Norwood's career. 5- A list of links you should check out about Bob Norwood. Ebay did not allow me to post the links in this description. I am selling for business reasons. I am a dentist and am opening a new practice. All toys need to go for now. This is your opportunity to own a tiny piece of american racing history. Bob Norwood is a race car building legend and his reputation and accomplishments are unmatched. PLEASE CHECK OUT THE YOUTUBE/WEBSITE LINKS ON THE LAST POSTED PHOTO FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT BOB NORWOOD. His story is really fascinating. I reserve the right to end this auction locally at any time. This car has received a lot of attention locally and might be sold sooner than expected. Thank you for looking. Please email with any questions. If you desire to speak on the phone, email me with a request for my phone number. Enjoy!! On Jun-20-12 at 19:52:04 PDT, seller added the following information: This question was emailed to me. I did not click the box that would post the Q&A to the listing description. Here is the copy/paste of my response: Q: Dear otis_lee,It seems like that setup could make a lot more power, is it just tuned conservatively? Which sean hyland block is it? What was it rated to? Which pulley is on the blower? A:This car is absolutely sick... So well made. I'm probably an idiot for selling it. I hope you win. I know very little about the block. Keep in mind that this was built in the late 90's. Hyland has records on the transaction with norwood (Hyland himself actually came down to dallas from canada and helped with the initial tune once installed; the guy Bob built it for spent crazy $ on the cobra). The info they have is choppy, though. Records weren't kept that well over the past 15 years. Bob and the people at Hyland's place both remember the transaction. Norwood said Shawn is a real asshole :) The blower setup is the most unique part of this car. The setup is currently tuned to 12lbs. Norwood said it was tuned to 16lbs while in the ownership of the Compass president... around 700 to the wheels (as referenced by the 84lb injectors). The car's tune is mapped to a much higher boost than 12lbs. It just needs the pulley changed and the motec will recognize the boost increase automatically. The boost adjustment dial is completely badass... one of a kind. The dial works in conjunction with the Godzilla blowoff valve which acts as a wastegate. So technically, the wastegate will only allow the amount of boost through to the motor that you have the dial set to. The rest of the pressure gets released. It's so cool. The 84lb injectors are in place along with the rest of the system to be able to run crazy power. If I were going to keep this car, I would put a 16lb pulley on, take it back to Norwood's for a final tune (just to be safe) and keep the dial turned down to 12lbs. Then turn it up when I wanted it. I just left it detuned to preserve everything. I was more collecting this... not racing it. I never took it to the track once. According to Norwood, He had the car making between 700-1000hp in the late 90's. Let me know if you have more questions. I'll try to answer as best I can.