"In the Cobra's defense, it was not in top form the day we were at Willow. The vehicle was delivered to us with heavily worn rear tires, and cords were visible on them by late morning. We actually had to stop testing the Cobra midway through the day at Willow in order to drive it back down to Los Angeles for a new set of rear tires. If a fresh set of tires had been provided at the beginning, the lap times would have almost certainly been better. Additional help could have come from testing at a faster track. The increased downforce benefits from the Cobra R's rear wing and front air splitter were underutilized on the Street's relatively slow corners.
That said, a majority of our editors said that the Cobra R was the most fun car to drive. It is in a racetrack environment that you get to experience all of the Cobra R's modifications working together in a sort of UAW pact. The suspension is similar to the regular Cobra's but features stiffer Eibach springs, Bilstein shock absorbers and stiffer suspension and subframe bushings. The race-compound BFGoodrich g-Force KD tires (when not worn down to the cords) provide plenty of grip and work well with the suspension to inform the driver as to the levels of traction available. Even without stability control, we felt we could trust the car when driving it on the tight turns of Streets of Willow. Repeatedly reducing speed via the Brembo brakes is easy thanks to an excellent pedal feel, though the long vertical separation between the brake and throttle pedals make heel-and-toe downshifts difficult."