This Is The New 2018 Mustang Cobra Jet, Ford's Factory Drag Racer
Ford has taken the wraps off the Ford Performance 50th Anniversary Mustang Cobra Jet, its drag-racing homage to the original 1968 car. Billed as the fastest production Mustang on the drag strip, the 2018 Mustang Cobra Jet will be a seriously rare sight: Ford is only making 68 examples.
Blink, meanwhile, and you might miss it at the drag strip. Ford says the new Mustang Cobra Jet is capable of over 150 mph on the strip, while delivering a mid-eight-second quarter-mile run. To do that, it needed a different engine from what you'll find in current production Mustangs.
In fact, Ford's engineers started out with the familiar 5.0-liter V8, but bored it out to 5.2-liters. It then got strengthened to deal with extra race day forces, and fitted with a 3.0-liter Whipple supercharger.
Power is delivered to the rear wheels through a 9-inch solid rear axle, and there are two-way coil-over shocks with adjustable ride height. Ford also uses a Strange Engineering low-drag disc brake system, paired with a four-link rear suspension with antiroll and panhard bars. Inside, you get FIA-certified seats and a NHRA-certified roll cage for safety.
Production drag racers are still a niche in the performance car world, but not unheard of. Perhaps the best-known right now is the Dodge Challenger Demon, an 840 horsepower variant of the coupe intended to beast the drag strip but also be – just about – usable on the street, too. Production of the Demon ended earlier this year, with Dodge making around 3,300 examples, though a version of its engine has gone on to find a home under the hood of the 2019 Challenger Hellcat Redeye.
The first Cobra Jet was launched back in 1968, a 428-cubic-inch V8-powered Mustang with 335 horsepower. It was designed to go very fast in a straight line, with fifty produced and six of which were sent off for NHRA competition. That kickstarted a legacy which continues five decades on.
Ford rebooted the Cobra Jet name in 2008, this time with a supercharged 5.4-liter dual-overhead-cam V8. It proved to be the first Stock Eliminator car to get an 8.x second time at an NHRA National Event, though it did differ from the strategy of the original car in one key way. With no VIN numbers, the fifty 2008 Mustang Cobra Jet M-FR500-CJ cars produced weren't actually road legal.
That's been rectified for this latest model. The new 2018 Mustang Cobra Jet is available to order now, in either Race Red or Oxford White. Exclusive 50th Anniversary graphics and badging are available, too. Only 68 of the cars will be produced – a nod to the 1968 original – and they'll be priced at $130,000 apiece.
