Photos By Mitch Holt and Jared Hackbarth

As much as we’d like to think we control our lives, at least occasionally it seems that some cosmic force steps in and changes the path we’re on. This was the case for Mitch Holt, who had been a Fox-body fan, and even owned an ’83 convertible which he’d dropped a 351 Windsor into. Having sold that car and missing the thrill of driving a rear wheel drive V8 coupe everyday, Holt was searching for a new car.

He had not been a fan of the SN95 and New Edge cars, although their designs had grown on him. Since he’d been out of the loop for a few years, and paid little attention to these cars he had no idea what was going on with the Mustang scene in 2005 when he went car shopping.

The New Edge style had grown a little on Holt, but he thought that for the most part the Mustangs were still probably down on power compared with their GM rivals.  With that in mind, at that time in 2005 GM was offering “employee pricing” on new vehicles, and with the Camaro gone by the wayside Holt’s focus was on procuring a new Pontiac GTO, paying virtually no attention to new or used Ford products.

Holt was finding it impossible however, to get a salesperson to even give him the time of day when he went shopping on the local dealer lots for a new GTO. Finally the discount period which he had hoped to use to his advantage lapsed, and a salesperson walked out of the showroom to tell him that bit of good news -how nice that they finally paid attention to him.

Explaining that there might be something on the used car lot that was more in his price range, Holt was taken to see a Mineral Gray 2003 Cobra that was recently traded for a bow-tie pickup. Only knowing that the Cobra package offered better performance than the standard GT, Holt signed up for a test drive. Immediately enamored with the car, paperwork was signed, and Holt took the car home with him the same day, a scant 21,000 miles on the odometer.

After researching the car and discovering the potential that lay within, Holt like so many other Terminator owners began his quest for more power. The car already sported a Bassani X-pipe and cat-back exhaust when he purchased it. Holt started adding some of the easier bolt-on pieces, including a K&N FIPK system, a BBK throttle-body, 2.76-inch blower pulley, and Kenne Bell Boost-A-Pump. Those parts were all eventually working together to put down 465 hp and 469 ft-lbs of torque to the rear tires.

Knowing his car was no slouch Holt was content to drive it in that configuration for a number of years. As a civilian contractor for the United States Department of Defense Holt was deployed to Iraq to work there, this was shortly after he’d made the final payment on his Cobra. While the work hours are long, and can be stressful even for contractors in this environment, there’s also no lack of down-time, and occupying those hours can sometimes be difficult. It was during this time that Holt hatched his plans for upgrading the Terminator to it’s current configuration. “I saved money during the deployment and started my plans for modding the car to it’s current configuration,” he tells us.

Back on US soil, Holt unleashed his plans and the current modification list reads like a who’s who of Terminator upgrades. The highlights of these are an upgrade from the stock supercharger to a Whipple 2.9 liter, a slew of fuel system upgrades, UPR tubular K-member and coil-overs, DSS half-shafts, Billstein shocks, McLeod RXT twin-disc clutch, and 100 shot of giggle gas for good measure. Holt is waiting on better weather to get the car tuned this spring, but expects it to put down 700 hp to the massive CCW 18×11-inch rear wheels and 800 hp with the help of the nitrous system. This is all still on the original engine that’s currently running just under 100,000 miles.

Based on what we know, the Cobra should have no trouble generating that level of power, and we’re sure it will keep Holt happy until the next upgrade bug bites him.