Bow Before The 8sec 50th Anniversary Ford Mustang Cobra Jet

Following on from a teaser dropped a few months ago, Ford has given the all-new Mustang Cobra Jet its full reveal. And my, does it look serious.

It marks the 50th anniversary of Ford’s original Cobra Jet “turnkey race car,” and it’s the quickest one yet. How does a mid-eight-second standing quarter-mile sound to you?

The brutal straight-line pace is made possible by a 5.2-litre V8 with a massive 3.0-litre Whipple supercharger added for good measure. The suspension is radically different to a normal road-going Mustang, with a nine-inch solid axle and new multilink suspension at the rear plus new anti-roll and Panhard bars. The Cobra Jet also receives adjustable shock absorbers all round.

Everything you need for drag racing glory can be fitted at the factory. We’re talking fat drag radials at the back, skinny ‘front-runners’, an NHRA-approved roll cage, FIA-friendly seats and a parachute. Unsurprisingly, all of this results in a car that isn’t road legal.

Want one? You’ll have to act fast: just 68 are being made, in a nod to the original Cobra Jet’s 1968 launch. You can have it finished in Race Red or Oxford White, and the MSRP is $130,000.