We had several FFR Cobras in the New Jersey Replicar Club. We even had the FFR operator, Mark, come to a meeting to speak. He gave us a very detailed and interesting talk about the FoMoCo/Shelby vs. FFR lawsuit that FFR won. The name Cobra actually comes from the original Crosley “sheet metal” engine that was “Copper Braized” and had the Cobra logo on it’s engine. As an amatuer racer in the early 50’s, Shelby had raced Crosley powered sports cars.
There are at least two aftermarket 2.3L “hot rod” vendors. One is Esslinger’s (USAC midgets) and Racer Walsh (Road Course). The “Lima” 2.3L is capable of big HP numbers without much bottom end modification. A local shop here in NJ, Modern Performance, uses turbochargers to make over 500 rear wheel HP in the Merkur XR4Ti, a car that he specialized in. He claims only a piston change and a balance and blueprint to the bottom end made this possible. I suspect it had tons of head work done too. A mild cam, headers and a couple of Webers would wake that little 2.3L right up.
Good luck with those two red beauties.