Ford’s 50th Anniversary Mustang Cobra Jet Will Smoke You Out of the Box

Quarter mile in 8.5? Talk about a second wind.

April 20, 2018 9:00 am

The milestone 50th birthday can be a boon or burden: a chance to inject life with a new sense of purpose … or just buy some garish car in an attempt to outrun crushing malaise.

Or you can do like Ford, and accomplish both, with a 50th anniversary edition of the Mustang Cobra Jet. This Wednesday, the automaker announced a limited run of 68 new drag-strip-ready cars, the number alluding to the model’s first year of production.

While full specs and ordering details will be released this summer, Ford said in a press release that this will be “the most powerful and quickest version from the factory yet, capable of running the quarter-mile in the mid-8-second range while topping 150 MPH.”

As Autoblog points out, we’re talking about a difference of tenths of a second in quarter-mile time between this new model and the 2016 version (something like 8.9 vs. 8.5 seconds, though the new CJ’s time has only been estimated at this point), which might as well be eons over that distance.

But there’s more to this ride than the ‘16 with a quick shave. Under the hood you’ll find a supercharged 5.2-liter Coyote V8, while the NHRA-certified roll cage and FIA-approved seats mean it’s ready to race — as in, legal by National Hot Rod Association standards — out of the box.

Alas, with all that power comes one great, crucial responsibility: keeping it off the streets. Autoblog warns that “you can’t drive a 2018 Mustang Cobra Jet on the street, because it doesn’t come with a VIN and can’t be registered.”

Undeterred? We thought so. So do you want it in Race Red or Oxford White?

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