2003 Mustang Cobra convertible getting e-level setup!

[MikeG]

looks awesome. Post some vids of it destroying other cars

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Thread is relevant to many of my interests!

[Fastphil]

Cool idea! Not loving the fact that it's a Cobra, at least it's a convertible though

Just wondering, why not? Sure, Cobras are made to go fast and so on and so forth, but they're not that rare. Besides drilling a few holes, none of the work I've done on the car is irreversible. It goes plenty fast already. My only gripe with the car is that it is a touch too low and rides too rough for my tastes (although it looks great). This is obviously something I can only blame on myself, and it's the main reason I'm going with air suspension.

Looks mean as hell, love the shoes.

Thanks bro, I searched for a long time before finding what I wanted! I love the look of them, but they're a bitch to clean.

this will be good if i can go low enough

Strangely, that's one thing I didn't feel the need to measure. It will be a crapshoot whether the tires hit the inner fenders, or the front K-member brace hits the ground first. I figure it will drop another 1.5 to 2 inches lower than what you see in the pics above. Either way, it won't go any lower without modifications that would be more intense than I am willing to make.

Looking forward to seeing this bad boy sitting a bit lower Thanks again Phil for the support!

You bet Mike!

[kramerbuccs24]

Cool idea! Not loving the fact that it's a Cobra, at least it's a convertible though

[ChrisVRsix]

Looks mean as hell, love the shoes.

[hinrichs]

this will be good if i can go low enough

[AccuMike]

Looking forward to seeing this bad boy sitting a bit lower Thanks again Phil for the support!

[Fastphil]

Hey All,

Well, it's official, I just put in my order with Mike over at Accuair for an e-level setup for my 2003 Cobra convertible. I ordered the 5-gallon tank with dual Viair 400C compressors and the touchpad, and the bags are coming from RideTech. In this thread I'll try to keep you posted on the work as it progresses, as well as my thoughts as the project advances. For now, all I can give you is some background.

The car is a 2003 Ford Mustang Cobra convertible, which I bought bone stock in 2007. Since then, I've added a few mods, including the following:

CCW Classic 18x9 and 18x11 fully polished with Michelin Pilot Sports (275/35) up front and Nitto INVOs (295/35) out back
Kenny Brown Performance Extreme Matrix subframe connector system
Maximum Motorsports front Strut Tower Brace
JLT Carbon Fiber CAI
BilletFlow 2.76" blower pulley with 100mm idler
Stock throttle body and inlet plenum ported by Stiegemeier
SCT Xcalibrator2 with custom tune
LFP Dual Pass Heat Exchanger
Innovate LC-1 Wideband Oxygen Sensor
LFP Supertank intercooler reservoir
Bassani full-stainless catted X-pipe
Borla full-stainless catback
MGW short shifter
Cut stock springs from a Cobra coupe
Custom paint-matched CDC Lightbar
Bullitt side scoops

I've probably forgotten a couple of things, but that's the important stuff. The car makes an estimated 480 crank hp. I have had it dynoed but I never trusted the numbers it showed. I plan to get it dynoed again, but it's a good way down on my list of priorities. I've run it on the 1/4 mile, my best time so far is a 12.82 without abusing it, as it's my only car.

So this spring I started seriously thinking about going with an air suspension setup. I had toyed with the idea in the past, but couldn't justify the price. After a couple weeks of research, I had determined that Accuair had the most interesting air management setup, and that RideTech had the only Cobra-specific listing for bags and plates that I could find. When I got in touch with Mike at Accuair, we were able to price a system that would meet my needs that was within my budget of $3000. Barring any unforeseen obstacles, we will have met this target. Mike has been very forthcoming in answering all my questions (and I had lots), and so far I can say that Accuair is a top-notch company.

A big part of making this project financially feasible was that I would tackle the install with the help of my friend Michel. We both have a history of casual wrenching on cars (I did almost all the work on my car myself, and Michel has a big-block C3 Corvette that he tinkers with), lots of tools, and a garage to do the work in, so we figure we should be OK to install the air suspension setup on our own. As Jeremy Clarkson is known to say, "How hard could it be?" There, now I've gone and done it.

There are a couple of challenges in this build. Among others:

We will need to re-roll the fenders to clear the tires once it's on air (it already rubs occasionally)
Limited trunk space due to the space the convertible top takes up
Cobras have IRS, and as far as I can tell, there isn't any info to be found on bagging one of these (although it shouldn't be any more complicated)

So that's about all I can say for the moment. Mike says 7-10 days to build the system I've ordered, so all I can do in the meantime is impatiently wait for it to arrive. I am excited to finally get to do this project, and I am also excited to be able to share it with anyone who is interested in reading about it, so please don't hesitate to post up any comments or questions you might have in this thread.

Later,

Phil