Just heard that the new Cobra, will NOT have an independent rear suspension as prevoiusly thought, and that the new Cobra will keep the solid rear axle, as the new '05 mustangs have.

 

I know they were having trouble fitting the IRS they used in the '04 into the new chassis, but I thought they wre going to redisgn it so they could make it work.
I guess if they don't use an IRS, I'd expect to see a dramatic decrease in the price.... perhaps a couple grand less.

 

Sources?

I heard that the government captured a 100-ft long rattlesnake and they're keeping it in Area 51. :hiding:

 

get your facts straight..

It was a Sidewinder and 125ft.


::In a Napolean Dynamite voice::

"Gosh!"

 

Hmm.. an interesting turn of events. The IRS crowd will go bonkers when they hear this

 

I doubt that'll happen. Ford isn't going to work so much on their top performance car (going after the Vette, in their words) to place an outdated suspension in the car. Although updated, the Mustangs live axle is really unheard of in most vehicles these days, especially sports cars.

 

eeerrrmm, the corvette has leaf springs as it's suspension! (here we go again!)

 

ooopppss...but it is still fully independent, right??

 

Yeah, I'd like to know where the info came from as well. I'm not saying it isn't true. I'm just witholding judgement either way until I know the source.

 

Uhhhhhhhh the NEW vette uses leaf springs in the rear

 

The vette does not use "leaf springs". It uses a single leaf spring as a stabilizer.

 

Sounds like the bean counters struck again.

 

I doubt it... while it may make sense economically, from a marketing and strategy point of view, that's a very risky move (to not do IRS). Partly because they said they would. Mostly because they said their target market is the M3, S4 and so on -- which all have IRS. Even if you could make a SRA perform as well (which I don't think you can in the edge-cases), just the marketing would hurt you. So I think it would be a bad move from that point. I just don't buy that an IRS is that hard to do, or that expensive.

 

Find who told you that and

They have no idea what they are talking about. This is wrong on so many levels that i'm not even going to get into it.

 

I find this highly doubtful. To play in the league that the Cobra intends to, it will need to bring a good IRS. They certainly would NOT be trying to cram the existing Cobra's IRS, a rather stop-gap piece itself anyway, into the entirely different S197 frame.

The only way I think the Cobra could retain a live axle design and still retain any credibility as a high-end performance car would be to do something pretty high-tech and wild with the live axle in terms of materials and whatnot. The live axle's big achille's heel is its massive unsprung weight. Perhaps through liberal use of high strenth alloys, aluminum, magnesium, titanium and/or composites, they could drastically slash the unsprung weight. It would end up costing about as much or more than an IRS, but at least if they're having packaging issues, that would be a way to bypass that.

Can't understand why they would have so much trouble designing a new IRS for the S197 as there are plenty of 2+2 cars of similar size with fine IRS systems. But maybe they were just too shortsighted and penny pinching in the initial chassis design stages and didn't design it to accomodate an IRS later...?

As for the Vette, it does use a leaf spring at each end, as a spring, though any similarity to the old, steel multi-leaf springs found on so many cars of yore ends there. The Vette's is a composite construction, transversely arranged. Its advantages include very light weight, very low CG, takes up almost no room and also lasts much longer than a metal spring (coil or leaf), which tend to soften and sag with age. The only real downside I can think of is greater cost.

 

Stop me if I am wrong, but isn't the 05 Chassis S197 based on that of the Lincoln LS and the Jaguar X-type, and both of thos cars have IRS. While the packaging of the S197 may be different it would seem that if both cars from which the chassis is derived have IRS, Ford could find a way to package one for the S197.

 

With the IRS is it possible the new Cobra would have a hard time keeping up with the GT or rather stay far enough ahead to warrant a customer spending the extra dough?? Or is the new car blowing the IRS all to pieces with the rumored 500+ horses?
Just a couple of possible scenarios. Am I way off here? Go ahead and blast away if I am. I'm no engineer. We have some brainy people on here like Scott Hew and others. Maybe they can share their opinions on why or why not and what makes sense

 

I can't see a $40k car w/500 horses without IRS, unless they are building it to use only at a drag strip.

 

I highly highly doubt the new SVT Cobra will NOT have an IRS! B) It simply makes no sense at all!

 

If I lay down 40 large on a Cobra it better be keeping up with the new Corvette!