A very rare Cobra

RIDE OF THE WEEK: 1993 FORD MUSTANG COBRA

The Ford Mustang had one of the biggest — and most successful — product launches in American history. The first Mustang rolled off Ford Motor Company’s assembly line in Michigan on March 9, 1964, was introduced to the public at the New York World’s Fair on April 17, 1964, on all three television networks on April 19, 1964, and appeared in the James Bond movie “Goldfinger” in September, 1964. It sold more than one million in its first 18 months on the market and has remained in continuous production ever since.

This week’s ride is a teal 1993 Ford Mustang Cobra owned by Vince Galushka of West Wyoming. The 1993 Mustang belongs to the “third generation” of Mustangs produced from 1979 through 1993. Galushka says that the Mustang Cobra was rare in 1993 — there were only 4,993 produced that year — and the teal color was the rarest, with only 1,355 produced (the two other Cobra colors available were red, which had 1,784 cars produced, and black, which had 1,854). Making Galushka’s Mustang Cobra even more impressive is its gray cloth interior, which is one of only 368 such Mustangs produced (the other models had either gray leather or black cloth).

Galushka says that the Mustang Cobra came from the factory rated with a 235 horsepower but that he has made a few modifications to improve on that number. He has added BBK full length headers, a BBK off-road H-pipe and a Flowmaster 40 series 2 ½-inch exhaust. He says that he also upgraded the Mustang’s ignition to an MSD 6AL and added a cold air intake.

Galushka says he also swapped out the front sway bar for one that is 1 ¾ inches to prevent any roll and also added subframe connectors. He says that he has wrapped stock wheels in 255/45ZR15 Nitto extreme tires and a Pro 5.0 short-throw shifter replaced the stock Ford one to get the transmission through the Mustang’s gears with as much ease as possible.

Galushka says he is planning other modifications which will probably include a supercharger and a new, aftermarket hood.

Galushka says that he only drives his Mustangs on weekends during the spring and summer months when he takes it to car shows and SCCA (autocross) events. It is not driven during the harsh Northeastern Pennsylvania winters.