The 1993 Mustang Cobra was the first vehicle designed and engineered by Ford’s new Special Vehicle Team (SVT). SVT essentially replaced Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) which was now focused on Ford’s racing efforts and OTC performance parts. What differentiated the SVT Cobra was that it now had a robust, specially-tuned V-8 under the hood. For 1993, less than 5,000 Cobras were built, and the exterior/interior color combination might make this car a one-of-one. It’s located in Charleston; South Carolina and the seller knows what he has as the bidding here on eBay has reached $41,000 with a Buy It Now price of $50,000!

To help re-establish the Mustang as a performance car, the Cobra was created to be a faster, better riding and handling machine than it was before, and would also be better-looking and more aggressive in the speed and handling departments. The exterior of the 1993 SVT Cobra was not a radical departure from the year’s GT model. Where it shined was below the surface, with a highly modified 302 cubic inch V-8 rated at 235 horsepower and 280 ft/lbs. torque. A 5-speed Borg-Warner manual was the transmission of choice and the car would carry disc brakes all around. This would be a limited production car to give the Cobra some exclusivity.

These Cobra’s were fast cars, some of the fastest since the muscle car heyday of 20 years prior. Road & Track tested one and it did the quarter mile in 14.5 seconds at a top speed of nearly 100 mph. Zero to 60 mph took under six seconds. Not shabby for a hatchback car that stickered for $18,500 in the day, which is about $33,325 in 2021 currency. Color choices on the Cobra were kept to three on the exterior: black, red and teal metallic. The latter is what’s found on the seller’s car, which would make it 1 of 1,355 produced for 1993. However, if you drill down to teal metallic on the outside and gray cloth interior on the inside, you end up with only one car produced that way. If it were gray leather, the number would be 802. And black even more. But the upholstery looks gray to me!

Someone besides the seller must have thought this car would be a future collectible as it’s seen highway use held to the tune of under 40,000 documented miles in 27 years. The seller has owned it for about five year and has largely driven it to car shows and the like. The Cobra comes with a plethora of paperwork and certificates and is completely original except for the radiator (replaced but original was saved), exhaust (old also saved) and the camshaft (saved, too!). Fortunately, the tires are not original, and the seller says they have just been replaced.

The paint and interior look to be in good shape, but there are a few surface scratches and a repaired paint chip on a roof pillar. If you want the car, you’ll have to come get it yourself as the seller will not get involved in shipping. Hagerty places a premium of the last of the Fox-body Mustangs in Cobra trim. Mid-five figures look to be common ground for these cars and if you had one of the 107 of the Cobra-R’s that were built, you could be looking at more than $100,000. Those were practically factory race cars the way they were built.