[klayfish]

Rob,
I know you research a lot, and you should. It's your car. But I also know you want handling similar to what your C5 had. While you can never compare the two cars, they are apples and oranges, remember how short the Cobra wheelbase is. Power steering, in my opinion, will give you sort of a "numbness" in the steering, which can make the car feel vague and unsure in handling. It can be harder to feel what the car is doing with power steering, and with a car as twitchy as the Cobra, that can be a bad thing.
If you really want power steering, I recommend looking into a power Mustang rack with the Heidts valve. That way, you can dial in how much power assist you want. I'm thinking about ditching my Flaming River 18:1 rack for that idea. In fact, I'm not thinking about it, I'm definitely getting rid of the 18:1. It's far too slow ratio for me in autox. The Heidts set up will allow me to dial in some power steering for autox, where I really have to cut left right, and then turn it off on the street. You may actually like the FR 18:1 rack if you're only street driving your car. It's great for street driving. Lots of feel, plenty of feedback, not as twitchy. Tony loves them. If you want mine, we can talk, as I want to replace mine anyway. My FR rack is only about 8 months old, and has less than 1000 miles on it.
Actually, now may not be a bad time for you to go down to Tony and check out different steering. My car is there, as well as a few others. Feel free to sit in mine and check out the steering for yourself. I know my car is a few hundred pounds lighter, but you'll get the idea.

Steve