Ford's 50th Anniversary Mustang Cobra Jet Does The 1/4-Mile In 8.5 Seconds

Ford just unveiled the 50th anniversary edition of its factory build drag car called the Mustang Cobra Jet. This utterly not street legal Mustang is is hailed as the hottest, fastest, and most powerful drag racing Mustang ever. The very first Cobra Jet Mustang rolled off the assembly line back in 1968 and this special 50^th anniversary edition will debut at the 2018 Woodward Dream Cruise this weekend.

Power for this mid-eight second, 150mph pony car comes from a special Ford 5.2L V8 based on the Ford 5.0L V8 engine used in street Mustangs. The bulk of the power from that giant engine comes thanks to a 3.0L Whipple supercharger. To handle all the power that blown V8 makes, Ford fits the drag racer with a 9-inch solid rear axle and two-way coil-over shocks with adjustable ride height.

The Cobra Jet also uses a special low-drag disc brake system from Strange Engineering and a four-link rear suspension with anti-roll and panhard bars. The car is fitted with an NHRA-certified roll cage, FIA-certified seats and retro looking 50th anniversary graphics along with anniversary-badged racing wheels. Buyers can choose from Oxford White or Race Red colors for the car with 68 units being produced to celebrate the 1968 year the original Cobra Jet debuted in.

Drag racers able to find one of these in dealerships will need to shell out $130,000 to take one home. It would be no surprise to see dealers able to land one of these 68 special rides tacking on thousands more in "market adjustments" to the base price. While the original 1968 Cobra Jet was street legal, the modern reincarnation of the Cobra Jet built since being reborn in 2008 have all lacked VINs making them track only rides. Ford recently produced the 10 millionth Mustang since the debut of the car in 1964.

"From the very first Mustang Cobra Jets dominating the 1968 NHRA Winternationals to our modern-day racers, the Ford Performance Parts team continues to build on Cobra Jet’s success at the track over five decades," said Eric Cin, global director, Ford Performance Parts. "This has inspired generations of Mustang fans to create their own performance machines for the street."