Ford Mustang Cobra Drag Event - Cobra Combat

3rd PLACE
Don Walsh Jr.
9.92/134 mph

Mike Matarazzo (at left in photo) has been a longtime friend of MM&FF, and when he told us about his Cobra, we just had to invite him down. He had Don Walsh Jr. (right), Pro 5.0 champion and owner of Walsh Motorsports, handle the driving chores. Actually, Matarazzo is quite the stickman, and he's not hip on driving the auto trans. That's why after the shootout the Cobra was scheduled to receive a D&D-modified six-gear and Matarazzo will take over the seat. The only changes to the car from when we first saw it was the addition of a Performance Automatic C4-making the Cobra more consistent.

What surprised us the most about this car was how close to stock the combination really was. Changes were limited to typical bolt-on components including exhaust, nitrous, and a Kenne Bell upgrade. Of course, Walsh tuned everything to perfection as they made 770 hp and a stump pulling 839 lb-ft of torque at the rear tires. On the dragstrip, that equated to a stout 9.92 at 134.8 mph. As you can see, the car gets all twisted up on the launch-a problem that will be fixed with the addition of a racing-style antisway bar. Running in the 9s is quite an accomplishment given the small amount of modifications.

4th PLACE
Bob Clayton
10.06/133 mph

Bob Clayton laid claim to the quickest pass of the shootout without the aid of nitrous. Using just 23 psi of boost, the red Cobra nearly blasted into the nine-second zone. As with most of the Cobras in the shootout, once again the theme was to keep the car surprisingly close to stock. Thanks to SVT, running high boost is not much of a strain on the engine. That comes by way of a great engine block, steel crank, steel rods, and forged pistons. The induction system is also geared toward a boosted application.

Clayton's car was extremely consistent and ran in the 10s each time down the track. After each run, Rick Erdman of Amazon Racing tweaked the car a little more until it was pulling cleaner and cleaner. Clayton tried hard to crack the 9-second zone, sans nitrous, but he simply ran out of track time. Running bottom 10s at 133.17 mph while hauling 3,634 pounds down the track takes horsepower. Using a simple math formula, we calculated Clayton's to be around 670 or so.