The Ford Mustang Cobra Jet 50th is an eight-second car
We’re at an important moment in motor car history, as the makers of the vehicles we know and love attempt to futureproof them: essentially, making them kinder to the environment and somehow able to survive in a world without fossil fuels.
Well, apparently. Perhaps as a coping mechanism for such worthiness, we’re also going through some kind of fuel-gargling muscle car revolution, with a new special edition of one of the big three – Camaro, Challenger, Mustang – revealed on what feels like a daily basis.
And this Mustang is very special. It’s the - deep breath - Ford Performance 50th Anniversary Mustang Cobra Jet turnkey race car, and while the name may seem excessive, it’s got nothing on the excessiveness of what lies beneath the badges.
It’s designed to be the most powerful Mustang out of the factory, able to hit 241kph while clocking a quarter-mile time in the mid-eights. Yes, it’s a drag racer. And unlike the Dodge Demon, it cares not for the sanitisation that comes with being ‘road legal’
It gets an enlarged, 5.2-litre version of the Mustang’s V8, with a 3.0-litre Whipple supercharger to supplement it. There’s no word on what the total output is, but somewhere in the region of 1,000bhp seems a safe bet.
That power is backed up by a nine-inch solid rear axle, two-way coil-over suspension with adjustable ride height and a low-drag disc brake system from Strange Engineering. Naturally, there’s a rollcage and seats with all the proper racing certifications.
Just 68 will be made – marking the 1968 introduction of the original Mustang Cobra Jet – and you’ve a choice of red or white paint, both festooned with graphics. The price is $130,000, which currently converts to about £100,000. That’s the same as a modestly specced Porsche 911, which absolutely won’t cover a quarter mile in the mid-eights…
