The thing that would concern me with the stock Gen 1 intake is even distribution of air to all of the cylinders. As the air enters at the rear, instead of nearer the center as with the Cobra intake, I'd be curious (and surprised) to see if it flowed nearly the same to all cylinders in real-world conditions. In addition, the larger volume of the Cobra intake also helps to balance the flow.
If the Gen 1 intake was as good as the Cobra intake, I don't think that Ford/SVT would have bothered with the tooling costs to create the Cobra intake.
Of course, I have no data to support my concern, so it's just an observation and a question.
Not to drag up a really old post... but why not.
What you need to always understand with intake design is that total flow is really a very small part of the equation of making good power. Obviously if the intake or throttle body can't flow enough air you won't make ultimate power... but it is the unsteady gas dynamics that really determine how well, or poorly your intake manifold performs.
Basically every time a valve opens and closes it creates waves that are sent back into the intake manifold which in turn creates turbulence in the manifold. The reason large plenums help is they create a bigger resonant chamber for the waves to go into and reduce the amount of turbulence in the air... if you throw a pebble into a puddle vs a pond which one has a bigger impact kind of idea...
So that being said where this all plays into the Mark vs Cobra intake equation... TB placement has no impact on flow distribution because each runner only sucks air at the time it needs it, when an intake valve is open. Now to people an engine running moves so fast that it seems unfathomable that each cylinder event (1st order, 2nd order, ... also called 1EO, 2EO, ...) happens in a succession and that no matter how fast the engine moves they still react in the same way. Think of it like there are 8 people drinking out of a big glass with 8 straws, the people are the pistons, and the straws are the runners... if the glass is being fill by a hose and everyone is drinking out of it a sip at a time in a drinking order (aka firing order) the person closest to the hose would get the same amount to drink as the person farthest away, unless they drank up the supply of fluid and then the person closest to the hose would get more... but only when total flow became the limit. So unless you reach max flow for the TB you will not have a cylinder to cylinder distribution issue... and from Cobra to Mark your TB choices are almost identical so I would say that is a mute point...
Now that being said the Cobra intake has the advantage of a bigger plenum volume, which is a good thing. With that though usually low end torque is improved and if you can't hook anyways off the line what the hell does that matter.... low low end is for trucks towing trailers, not hard launching drag cars
If anyone actually reads that I will be surprised hahahaha.