Fox Trot; Ford's SVT teaches Mustang Cobra to dance on its aged platform.(Brief Article)

Its Eagle F1s prance across the tarmac, spinning and spitting in a muscular pas de deux of rubber and road. Call it choreography at 390 horsepower. Call it a blast.

Given the assuredness with which the 2003 Ford SVT Mustang Cobra moves around the track, you'd never guess that under all that 21st-century sheetmetal and plastic sits a relic. But Ford's Special Vehicle Team has managed to inject the 25-year-old Fox chassis with better all-around road manners than any Mustang has ever had.

``Our intention was to make this car absolutely bulletproof,'' said John Coletti, chief engineer at SVT. ``And fast. And fun.''

And yet with its blown small-block and Vette-like numbers, the Cobra intimidates, especially given its almost 60 percent front weight bias. Visions of both power-induced and lift-throttle oversteer, of ends swapping mid-corner and the world spinning 'round outside the windows, conspire to keep speeds down during the first few laps. But it doesn't take long behind the wheel to find out- despite its ferocious specs-how easy the Cobra is to tame. The wheels transmit a tremendous amount of road feel, and control is so tactile the car seems like it has hands for contact patches. With every circuit of the track our speeds climb, nerves calm. Soon the car dances on the edge, at speed, with only a feathering of the throttle and flick of the wrists keeping it straight. And then speeds get even quicker, because for every clipped apex, every late turn-in and hard-braking point nailed just right, the Cobra rewards with the intoxicating sensation of riding on rails. All confidence-building stuff-more so the first time the tail does snap out on an overcooked corner, only to swing back in line with a couple of countersteering twitches of the wheel.

Ford has been de-bugging the Fox platform for so long now that the chassis finally feels robust. And don't count on the fine-tuning to stop until Ford finally kills off the Fox and trots out a new model-on a new platform-expected in 2005.

And yet for all the attention due its track manners, the 2003 Cobra also has an engine story tucked under its conspicuously bulging hood and functional hood scoop. That's where SVT engineers wedged a 4.6-liter dual-cam V8 with a massive Roots-type Eaton blower-the same found on the Lightning-bolted on top.

Spinning out up to eight pounds of boost, the supercharger hikes engine output to at least 390 horsepower at 6000 rpm and 390 lb-ft of torque at 3500 rpm. With an 8.5:1 compression ratio, actual peak power probably sits closer to the 400-hp mark, but SVT, still reeling from the not-quite-320-hp Cobra debacle of 1999, prefers to stick to the more conservative number for now.