About a year ago, a rash of high-power storms hit the deep South hard, with a record 208 tornados touching down on April 27th, 2011, though the storm system lingered from the 25th to the 28th. These storms killed over 300 people in three days and caused billions of dollars in damage, destroying lives and livelihoods, as well as many classic and modern Mustangs their owners thought were safely tucked away in garages and barns.

The Mustang Source posted this story about a forum member named Ben, who survived the tornado outbreak with his family, though his collection of Mustangs was severely damaged, among them an ultra-rare 2000 Cobra R.

Ben is one of the many Mustang owners who have had their cars seriously damaged during the past year’s hectic tornado season. When it comes to repairing rare, low-volume models like the 2000 Cobra R, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to properly repair these cars. We covered the recovery of Scott Van Hoose’s rare Saleen Mustang, and it took him a long time to track down a new glass roof for his rare Saleen.

As for Ben’s 2000 Cobra R, as you can see from the pictures it was pretty heavily damaged, along with a few of his SVO Mustangs. Ben turned to Paul Becker of SVPUlimited, and Becker took his time rebuilding the Cobra right with the correct (not clone) parts. The result is that 2000 Cobra R #33 of 300 is back in fighting shape, and another rare Mustang has been saved from the scrapheap.