A few facts are missing or misrepresented in this article: 1) Ford didn't requite a racing license to buy the 1993 Cobra R. Ford built 107 Cobra R's and built them to race. Instead they were all snapped up by collectors. Almost none of these saw a race track. Some buyers were annoyed that Ford charged more for the Cobra R than for the regular Cobra, despite the Cobra R having less content to go with that lower weight and no increase in power. It had exactly the same powertrain as the regular Fox body Cobra. Ford addressed both issues by requiring a racing license to purchase the 1995 Cobra R based on the SN95 Mustang Cobra. Instead of a GT40-based 5.0L putting out 235 hp, the SN95 Cobra R got a 300 hp 5.8L 351 massaged and borrowed from the Ford Lightning F150. Ford made 300 of these at an MSRP of $39,995. 2) Regarding the catalytic converters on the E39 540i's two facts escaped publication. The BMW cats contain a higher pecentage of precious metals needed to catalyze the exhausts. They last longer and they're built better to withstand the higher heat of their higher compression engines. Add to the fact that these are OBD II cars, these have between two and four catalytic converters instead of the one or two found on earlier OBD I cars. Hope this helps.
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