After the heartache that many people faced during the early days of The Malaise Era, it would have been easy for American auto manufacturers to forget that the performance car market ever existed. It would have been simple to focus solely on producing horrid little fuel-efficient rot-boxes with all of the performance potential of your average turtle. Thankfully, those companies chose to persist with development. That means that today you can buy a true muscle car that can trace its roots back to those giants of the late 1960s but produces emission levels that those 1960s engineers could only have dreamed of. Bridging the gap between The Malaise Era and today’s future classics are cars like this 1993 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra. These cars showed that America hadn’t lost its desire for performance and that the engineers weren’t simply sitting around drinking coffee. This one is an incredible two-owner classic that is in as-new condition. The time has come for it to find its third owner, so it has been listed for sale here on eBay. The Cobras is located in Hilliard, Florida, and while the bidding has reached $48,200, the reserve hasn’t been met.

I’m probably not alone in looking at a Fox-Body Mustang in Hatchback form and thinking that the Ford Design Department got it spot-on. The company was aware that the new Mustang had to be a radical departure from its predecessors, and there was no arguing that the Fox-Body achieved that goal. Rightly or wrongly, the styling of the Mustang II had copped a lot of flack, and as one member of the design staff so eloquently put it, “We didn’t get the styling wrong. We just didn’t get it right.” The Fox-Body soldiered on well beyond Ford’s intended lifespan for the car, and that’s because people simply liked it. The 1993 model year marked the final for the Fox, and the Mustang SVT Cobra seemed like a fitting way to bring down the curtain. The company chose to release 4,993 examples of the Cobra, and they were only offered in three colors. This one wears Vibrant Red, which ranked second in popularity behind those wearing Black. The paint on this car shines beautifully, with no apparent marks or chips. The panels are laser straight, and the gaps are tight and consistent across the entire vehicle. The unique SVT aero add-ons, including the deeper front spoiler with round fog lamps and a rear spoiler, are all free from damage. The good news continues when we delve below the surface. The owner provides photos of the Cobra’s underside, and it is in as-new condition. The Cobra option also brought with it distinctive 17″ alloy wheels. Not only are these still present and in a flawless state, but they are wrapped in the car’s original Goodyear tires.

While Ford wanted the SVT Cobra to be a unique and collectible car, they chose to create it using as many off-the-shelf parts as possible. The fuel-injected 5-liter V8 was beefed up with the addition of GT40 cylinder heads, a unique camshaft, and intake, as well as an improved exhaust for better breathing. The upshot was a V8 that pumped out an “official” 235hp. Some experts believe that this figure is conservative and that the actual figure was possibly north of 250hp. All of those horses found their way to the rear wheels via an upgraded Borg Warner T5 manual transmission. The suspension and brakes didn’t escape the company’s attention, with Tokico engineering the shocks and struts, while stopping power was provided by enormous disc brakes on all corners. Point a Cobra at the ¼ mile, and the journey would be over in 14.1 seconds. Any owner who was brave enough to keep the pedal to the metal was rewarded with a top speed of 150mph. This Cobra is a two-owner vehicle that has been part of the same family since it was new. The current owner says that the car has a genuine 2,890 miles showing on its odometer, but he doesn’t mention whether he holds evidence to verify this. He says that the car runs extremely well, and the photos confirm that all of the original factory markings and stickers are intact.

The Cobra’s interior is just as spotless as the exterior. I guess that you’d have to expect that in a car with this sort of odometer reading. Gray cloth upholstery was the second most popular interior trim color, and this car is 1-of-1,000 to feature Vibrant Red paint and Gray cloth trim. There’s really not much more to say about this interior, except that it is nicely equipped. It comes with a driver’s airbag, air conditioning, power windows, a power driver’s seat, power mirrors, a leather-wrapped wheel, and a premium sound system.

Fox-Body Mustangs have become a car that has started to perform well in the classic market. The SVT Cobra takes that to a higher level because values have increased by a whopping 8% in 2020 alone. This trend shows no signs of slowing, and pristine examples can easily fetch prices beyond $50,000. I would put the condition of this one up into that territory, and I wouldn’t rule out $60,000 being hit before the auction ends. This is a listing that should be worth watching.