12 Of The Fastest Fords Ever Made, Ranked By Top Speed

There are few automakers with a bigger reputation for speed as Ford, from the first Mustang in 1964 to winning Le Mans four years in a row in the late 1960s. The rivalry that Ford had with Ferrari at the time is documented in the movie "Ford vs Ferrari." Since then, Ford has put out many more vehicles, often with the help of collaborators like Shelby and AC Cars. Many of those vehicles would go on to win more races and earn Ford more prestige in the speed category. 

This has urged Ford to make fast versions of many of their cars, including ones that you might not expect. A good example are the Ford ST models, which include fast versions of the Ford Edge, Fiesta, Focus, and Explorer. Those cars can get really fast, but Ford saves its best work for its muscle cars and race cars. Thus, for a list of the fastest Fords ever made, you're going to see the words "Mustang" and "GT" quite often. 

We'll also give a brief hat-tip to the mod community. Modded Fords can go much faster than their stock counterparts. For example, this modified 2006 Ford GT has a max speed of 310.8 MPH, making it one of only a handful of street-legal cars that can eclipse 300 MPH.

For this list, we kept things simple and ranked each car by its top speed. We looked around at various sources and include both the rated speed of the vehicle and any reports we could find where the car went that speed or faster. Thus, things like zero to 60 MPH times or quarter mile times weren't taken into consideration for ranking unless it was needed as a tiebreaker. Top speed is a bit tricky because of governors and limiters, but Ford lets its fast go fast most of the time, so it wasn't much of an issue. 

Additionally, we're keeping the list to stock Ford vehicles. The automaker has a long and rich history in racing and its customers have embraced that history. So, there are tons of modified Fords out there that can go faster than their stock counterparts. You can broadly assume that nearly every car on this list can go faster than its rated speed with a good tune, some aftermarket parts, and the removal of the electronic limiter. You'll also see the long relationship between Ford and Shelby on full display in this list. 

The 2015 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 is as good a place to start as any. Ford continued its relationship with Shelby long after the two first worked together in 1962. The Shelby GT350 is a factory-modified version of the 2015 Ford Mustang GT. It looks like other Mustangs, but this one has a lot more going on under the hood. Otherwise, this was actually a fairly economical sports car with a base price of just over $47,000. So, it wasn't just fast, it was also affordable. 

The car has a max speed of 180 MPH. In addition, the car can go from zero to 60 MPH in about four seconds and can run a quarter mile in 12.3 seconds. It achieves these impressive numbers thanks to its 5.2-liter V8 that outputs a very impressive 526 hp and 429 lb.-ft of torque. That's a pretty big upgrade from the 5.0-liter Coyote V8 that comes in the regular Mustang GT. The naturally aspirated engine sounds excellent and there are plenty of examples of this car hitting its top speed pretty regularly. 

Consequently, this isn't the only car Ford made that can do 180 MPH. The 2016 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350, 2003 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra, and the 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 also had rated top speeds of 180 MPH. 

Generally, as technicality improves, things tend to go faster. With Ford, there was a real winner with the Shelby Cobra from the 1960s. These little cars were made by Ford, Shelby, and AC Cars and they were quite special back in the day. The two-seaters were designed for the racetrack, and they were some of the fastest cars from the 1960s. The key to the speed was twofold. The first was the small stature of the car helped keep the weight down. It also helps that Ford shoved a massive engine into the thing. Combined, the 1965 Shelby Cobra could go pretty quick.

Its top speed has been measured as high as 186 MPH. It makes sense considering the car's specs. Under the hood was the Ford 427, a 7-liter V8 that made 485 hp and 480 lb.-ft of torque. Together, it helped propel the car to 60 MPH in around 4 seconds and completed the quarter mile in 11.8 seconds. That's quite fast even by today's standards. Ford would go on to build faster cars over the years, but the Cobra is still known for how fast it was. Ford would put many engines in the car, but the 427 seemed to be a perfect match.

Ford made all sorts of quick cars over the years, but few are as unique as the Ford FPV FG GT F. The FPV part stands for Ford Performance Vehicles. It's an Australian company that, like Shelby, takes Ford cars and makes them faster. The company closed its doors in 2012 after 21 years in business, but it didn't go down without a swan song. That swan song was a 2014 FPV FG GT F, which was a modified Ford Falcon. 

The car was surprisingly fast all things considered and had a max speed of 186 MPH. That's nearly 40 MPH faster than the Ford Falcon it was based on. FPV achieved this with a modified 5.0-liter Coyote V8. That's the same engine that Ford stashed in the Ford Mustang GT back in those days. FPV's version of the engine made 471 hp and 420 lb.-ft of torque. The car could do zero to 60 MPH in four seconds.

It would be the last car FPV made before shutting its doors, making it a collector's item in some circles. You'll never see another Ford Falcon quite like it.

[Featured image by Sicnag via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 3.0]

The 2010 Shelby Mustang GT500 was the top car from Shelby in 2010. It's the same deal as most Shelby Mustangs. Ford built the car, and Shelby modified it to its specifications. That included some nice touches like hand-applied body stripes and an aluminum hood with a functional heat vent. It was certainly more souped up than comparable Mustangs from that year and quite a bit faster as well.

The top speed for this car is subject to debate. It's electronically limited to 168 MPH. Without the limiter, people have clocked the Shelby going as fast as 184 MPH. Some simulations have the car going as fast as 191 MPH, although we couldn't find an instance of that happening in real life. Regardless, this is one fast car. It uses a 5.4-liter V8 that puts out 540 hp and 510 lb.-ft of torque. Somewhat surprisingly, despite its beefy specs and high speed, the big news in 2010 was that it was as fast as the much cheaper Chevy Camaro from that year. Both cars put up a quarter mile in 12.9 seconds. Ford claimed that the car could do it in 12.5 seconds, but testers were rarely able to match those figures. 

The 2011 Shelby Mustang GT500 SVT has a similar story to the 2010 GT500. It was Shelby's best car that year and came with many customizations from the factory Mustang GT it was built from. In fact, despite the name change, most of the stuff on the 2011 model was the same with only minor changes from the prior year. However, there are enough differences that it's worth talking about. However, externally at least, you would be forgiven for mistaking the 2011 model for the 2010 model. 

The cars are similar enough that the top speed of the 2011 Shelby GT500 SVT is also a little bit hard to find. It's electronically limited to 168 MPH like the prior model, with various reports showing that the car can go well into the 180 MPH range and potentially even into the 190 MPH range. It's similar to the 2010 GT500, although the 2011 model had a slightly updated engine. The newer engine is the same 5.4-liter V8 but outputs 550 hp instead of the prior year's 540. It's not a huge change, but it makes the top speeds right up there with the fastest Ford cars. You may have to put in a tune to overcome the limiter, though. 

The Shelby GT500 Code Red is where we turn the page into dangerously fast cars. This is much like Shelby's other modified Mustangs in that it's an in-house version hand built to be as fast as possible. The name stems from it being the most extreme GT500 that Shelby has ever made, and they produced the cars from 2020 until 2022. At its core, it's a Shelby Mustang with all of the trimmings along with a sleek, black paint job and red stripe that hints at the power underneath. It sounds like marketing jargon, but this thing really is crazy.

With its specs and performance, it's only because of an electronic limiter that this car doesn't go over 200 MPH. The heart beating inside of this monster is a supercharged, twin-turbo 5.2-liter V8 that outputs an insane 1,300 hp and 1,000 lb.-ft of torque. While the top speed is electronically limited, the car can sprint to 60 MPH in three seconds and flies through the quarter mile in 8.59 seconds. Those are going to be the fastest such numbers of any car on this list. In all honesty, this is likely the fastest car that Ford helped produce, but no one's taken the limiter off and opened it up.

The 2013 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Super Snake is one of the fastest Mustangs ever built by either Ford or Shelby. This time around, Shelby set out with something to prove. This would be the first Mustang that could top 200 MPH since the 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350R. Shelby put a lot into the Super Snake that would continue in future cars like the Code Red. The 2010 and 2011 Shelby Cobra GT500s are fast, but the Super Snake was even faster and it looked good doing it.

So, how fast was it? Ford said it was rated to go 200 MPH. Independent testers got the car to go anywhere from 202 MPH to 190 MPH, so depending on where the car is and the conditions of the track, you can actually hit 200 MPH. Propelling the Super Snake forward was a monstrous 5.7-liter V8 that could output 850 hp and 800 lb.-ft of torque. That muscle helps the car complete a zero to 60 MPH jaunt in 3.5 seconds and the quarter mile in an impressive 11.9 seconds. This would set the pace for future Shelby Mustangs and remains one of the fastest Ford cars to this day. 

Before the 2013 Shelby Mustang Super Snake, there was the 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350R. This relic was not only powerful, but surprisingly fast. However, like most Mustangs in the 1960s, there were multiple engine options and only one of them became the Silver Bullet. The base model came with a 289 CID engine that could make up to 360 hp, and it had a very respectable top speed of around 184 MPH. That is not the fastest version of the car.

The fastest 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350R is known as the Silver Bullet and it has a 358 CID V8 engine that produces more power than the stock 289 CID. Technically, this is a modified Mustang, but the Shelby Mustang is modified already. At its peak, the car has been clocked going 200 MPH, making it the fastest version of the 1965 Shelby Mustang ever. The owner, Todd Landon, decked it out with myriad performance parts to get it to its fastest speeds and it's quite the achievement. 

Even without the Silver Bullet, the stock GT350R's 184 MPH would've made the list anyway, but we wanted to talk more about Mustangs that went over 200 MPH, so we chose the SIlver Bullet for this list. 

The Ford GT is a legendary car among Ford fans as it represents the fastest cars that Ford has ever made. A good example of that is the 2004-06 Ford GT. You can tell just by looking at it that Ford built this thing for racing and that it was going to be fast. In a repeat of the famous Le Mans races from the 1960s, reviewers often put this car up against its Ferrari counterpart and the occasional Porsche. It was a comparison that Ford often won because the GT is actually that fast. 

Pedal to the floor, this car can go 205 MPH. As you'll see further down the list, this is not unusual for Ford GTs. Powering the car was a supercharged 5.4-liter V8 that made up to 550 hp and 500 lb.-ft of torque. That isn't the most powerful engine on this list, but when it's attached to a chassis that only weighs around 3,300 pounds, you can see how this thing gets up and goes. By contrast, most Shelby Mustangs weigh around 4,000 pounds. The car impressed virtually everyone who's ever driven it and that's because they knew they were in a very fast car.

If the 2004-06 GT was quick, imagine what Ford can do with another decade of improvements and you have the 2017 Ford GT. By this time, Ford had improved virtually every aspect of the car from its 2004-06 model years and what you get is a car built for the racetrack. In its stock configuration, it looks like something you'd see in a street racing movie, and it has the chops to prove it. The second-generation Ford GT already had good results at Le Mans and the 2017 Ford GT was just as impressive as its predecessors. 

The car was capable of going 216 MPH, which is a fairly large departure from the prior iteration of the GT. It accomplished this task with a number of things, including a strong engine, excellent aerodynamics, and enough downforce to prevent liftoff at higher speeds. Oddly enough, the car is powered by a twin-turbo V6 instead of the usual V8. However, Ford really juiced up that V6. It makes 674 hp and 550 lb.-ft of torque, putting it on par with V8s of the past. It'll do zero to 60 MPH in 2.9 seconds and a quarter mile in 10.6 seconds, which makes all of its numbers equally impressive. There are few faster cars built by Ford than the 2017 Ford GT. 

The third generation of the Ford GT began in 2019 and is the current generation of the Ford GT. Ford made only slight gains in terms of performance with the latest model, and it still looks as sleek and fast as the prior generation. In fact, it runs the same engine as the prior generation. Most of the changes are minor and include things like modified engine cooling, better airflow, and a few other modifications that added a total of 13 hp to the prior generation's twin-turbo V6. Some other parts, like the seven speed automatic transmission, remained unchanged. 

So, it should be no surprise that the latest Ford GT's top speed is still 216 MPH. That's a tie with the prior generation, but those aforementioned engine improvements showed up in other ways. The car can do the 60 MPH sprint in 2.8 seconds, which is a tenth of a second faster than the prior generation. Oddly, the quarter mile is a tad slower than the prior generation at 10.8 seconds. In short, despite a refresh, Ford didn't change much about the GT and that's okay because it's still one of the fastest cars that Ford has ever made. It also has the distinction of being the fastest car that Ford currently makes. 

The 1967 Ford GT 40 MK IV was a masterstroke of Ford engineering. It was developed to win Le Mans, which it did in historic style. This car is the star of the "Ford vs Ferrari" movie and it placed first and fourth in the 1967 Le Mans. Ford would go on to win the event for three more consecutive years with the Ford GT 40. In short, this is one special car, and it's easily among the most iconic ever built. It's also likely the fastest car that Ford ever built. 

The exact speed is difficult to pin down because there is conflicting data from those days. What's available suggests that the car maxed out anywhere from 211 MPH to 224 MPH. One story from the book "Ford: The Dust and the Glory" suggested that the car reached 232 MPH. When cars are this iconic, there is some storytelling involved, so it's likely that the car didn't actually go over 230 MPH. However, given how much effort Ford put into the car, 220 MPH isn't outside the realm of possibility, and it likely went that fast at least once. Either way, this is probably the fastest car that Ford has ever made and it has the title belts to prove it.