Friday 14th April 2023

Mustang Super Cobra Jet returns as 1800hp EV

The drag special Cobra Jet was already an eight-second electric vehicle - now Ford wants it to go faster still

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With instant torque and enormous performance in a discipline that requires covering very little distance, EVs are perfectly suited to drag racing. So it should be no surprise to learn that Ford’s mightiest Mustang, the 1,400hp Cobra Jet, is back with even more quarter-mile melting performance. That being the car that set a 1,320-feet record for EVs, clocking an 8.128-second run at 171.97mph. Obviously, it needed to go faster still…

What was a 1,400hp Mustang is now and 1,800hp one (!), thanks to work by Ford Performance’s project partners Watson Engineering, Cascadia Motion, AEM-EV and MLe Racecars. Hence the return of the Super Cobra Jet name, first seen in 1969 - what else do you call a car more powerful than a Mustang Cobra Jet? Though still employing the same four PN-250-DZR inverters and pair of double-stacked DS-250-115 motors, the Super Cobra Jet now gets a totally overhauled, lighter batter system, a new transmission, updated software, and a modified rear end to best get that phenomenal power to the strip. That means revised suspension geometry and even larger Mickey Thompson drag radials. So not only is this Mustang hundreds of horsepower more potent than before, Ford also reckons it's hundreds of pounds lighter. Yikes. Even Dominic Toretto’s fastest car won’t be able to keep up with the Super Cobra Jet.

The previous MHRA record was set in June 2021, driven by Bob Tasca III in Norwalk, Ohio. This time around, the Mustang will be driven by MLe Racecars’ co-founder and test driver for the program Pat McCue. An exact date hasn’t yet been confirmed, but the run will be at an NHRA event to ensure that whatever time laid down by the Super Cobra Jet is legit. “We’re always looking to push ourselves in every corner of the motorsport world,” said Mark Rushbrook, Ford Performance Motorsports global director. “Drag racing remains a key proving ground for our products and technology, and we’re excited to not only try to best our own record in the quarter-mile, but to further showcase ongoing development we continue to make across the entire electric vehicle landscape.”

As well as the overall quarter mile EV record, Ford is also targeting the fastest electric vehicle 0-60mph, as well as the fastest two-wheel drive electric vehicle 0-60. In for a penny, in for a pound, eh? It’d certainly be a brave person to bet against the Super Cobra Jet - expect a confirmation of exactly when it’ll run very soon.

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• Seven-motor Mustang Mach-E revealed
• 500hp confirmed for Ford Mustang Dark Horse

[Water Fairy]

Crikey that's gonna pull yer face off

Out of interest what kind of Gs would this be pulling?

Special training required?

[cookie1600]

article said:

a totally overhauled, lighter batter system

Mmmmm lovely and crispy then. Can you supersize mine please?

[Nomme de Plum]

cookie1600 said:

article said:

a totally overhauled, lighter batter system

Mmmmm lovely and crispy then. Can you supersize mine please?

Cobra Tempura.

[RumbleOfThunder]

Water Fairy said:

Crikey that's gonna pull yer face off

Out of interest what kind of Gs would this be pulling?

Special training required?

Very fast no doubt, but not extraordinary. For reference "regular" guys have street legal cars that routinely run 7-8 seconds, and competitions like Drag Week have competitors driving these same cars a 1000 miles from track to track.

[Hammersia]

McMurty Spierling would appear quicker, and goes round corners as a bonus feature:

https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1138167_mcmurt...

[Nomme de Plum]

RumbleOfThunder said:

Very fast no doubt, but not extraordinary. For reference "regular" guys have street legal cars that routinely run 7-8 seconds, and competitions like Drag Week have competitors driving these same cars a 1000 miles from track to track.

But this is just the beginning of the EV development. It may take a few years for battery energy density wh/kg to improve sufficiently for them to compete with ICE equivalent but it will come.

An EV now has the Goodwood hill record.

[Nomme de Plum]

Hammersia said:

McMurty Spierling would appear quicker, and goes round corners as a bonus feature:

https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1138167_mcmurt...

Yes and it was not even designed for drag racing.

[RumbleOfThunder]

Nomme de Plum said:

RumbleOfThunder said:

Very fast no doubt, but not extraordinary. For reference "regular" guys have street legal cars that routinely run 7-8 seconds, and competitions like Drag Week have competitors driving these same cars a 1000 miles from track to track.

But this is just the beginning of the EV development. It may take a few years for battery energy density wh/kg to improve sufficiently for them to compete with ICE equivalent but it will come.

An EV now has the Goodwood hill record.

Why so quick to defend EV's? I was just saying that an 8 second car isn't overly impressive in the grand scheme of drag racing and wouldn't require any special training.

[Nomme de Plum]

RumbleOfThunder said:

Why so quick to defend EV's? I was just saying that an 8 second car isn't overly impressive in the grand scheme of drag racing and wouldn't require any special training.

I was not particularly defending EV but stating that their performance is likely to improve greatly over the next decade or so.

Are traditional Drag cars seeing significant year on year performance improvements?

[Robertb]

Something rather 'Back to the Future' about the rear view of that. I approve.

[Bobby Lee]

Nomme de Plum said:

An EV now has the Goodwood hill record.

The fastest ICE cars have been banned from competing for over 20 years.

[Nomme de Plum]

Bobby Lee said:

Nomme de Plum said:

An EV now has the Goodwood hill record.

The fastest ICE cars have been banned from competing for over 20 years.

I do not know the exact regulations. Do you mean F1 or are there others?

[Hammersia]

Nomme de Plum said:

RumbleOfThunder said:

Why so quick to defend EV's? I was just saying that an 8 second car isn't overly impressive in the grand scheme of drag racing and wouldn't require any special training.

I was not particularly defending EV but stating that their performance is likely to improve greatly over the next decade or so.

Are traditional Drag cars seeing significant year on year performance improvements?

I don't follow the sport closely, but the answer is yes, traditional drag cars, at least top fuel, have kept getting considerably quicker, necessitating shortening drag strips to 1000ft, current record last November 338mph.

[Nomme de Plum]

Hammersia said:

Nomme de Plum said:

RumbleOfThunder said:

Why so quick to defend EV's? I was just saying that an 8 second car isn't overly impressive in the grand scheme of drag racing and wouldn't require any special training.

I was not particularly defending EV but stating that their performance is likely to improve greatly over the next decade or so.

Are traditional Drag cars seeing significant year on year performance improvements?

I don't follow the sport closely, but the answer is yes, traditional drag cars, at least top fuel, have kept getting considerably quicker, necessitating shortening drag strips to 1000ft, current record last November 338mph.

I don't follow it either but assume that's a full on dragster rather than one based loosely on a real car. Very spectacular though.

[RumbleOfThunder]

Nomme de Plum said:

RumbleOfThunder said:

Why so quick to defend EV's? I was just saying that an 8 second car isn't overly impressive in the grand scheme of drag racing and wouldn't require any special training.

I was not particularly defending EV but stating that their performance is likely to improve greatly over the next decade or so.

Are traditional Drag cars seeing significant year on year performance improvements?

You're literally arguing with yourself lol. I made a response to someone asking if special training would be required to drive the EV Mustang, I didn't comment on EV's in motorsport or even generally speaking. But here you are keeping this going. Trying to argue....something, because I didn't just universally praise the article? I wonder what is driving this behaviour?



Oh you're an absolutely EV obsessed loon . Don't worry, EV's are indeed coming and will be everywhere soon. I myself will be looking to get one next time around. You don't have to seek out posts and irrationally argue for them though. They don't have feelings.

[Augustus Windsock]

Nomme de Plum said:

cookie1600 said:

article said:

a totally overhauled, lighter batter system

Mmmmm lovely and crispy then. Can you supersize mine please?

Cobra Tempura.

Sounds fishy to me..

[British Beef]

Nomme de Plum said:

Bobby Lee said:

Nomme de Plum said:

An EV now has the Goodwood hill record.

The fastest ICE cars have been banned from competing for over 20 years.

I do not know the exact regulations. Do you mean F1 or are there others?

I suspect any F1 from past 10 years could easily set a new record, the risk no one would take is driving Goodwood at 9/10ths requires the sort of commitment, that could easily end with one wheel off the narrow track and a huge crash.

Even the previous track record (was it Heinfeld in an F1 car?) was only driving at maybe 7/10ths the cars limits around the corners.

Although you can argue same applies to all cars and all drivers......

[RB Will]

Nomme de Plum said:

Bobby Lee said:

Nomme de Plum said:

An EV now has the Goodwood hill record.

The fastest ICE cars have been banned from competing for over 20 years.

I do not know the exact regulations. Do you mean F1 or are there others?

F1 is only allowed to do demo runs these days, the last F1 (and overall) record being set in a 24 year old F1 car on grooved tyres. The McMurtry beat it by 2.5 sec. A modern F1 car is about 5-8 sec a lap faster than a 1999 model that set the Goodwood record. So should match or beat it.

Proper hillclimb competing cars are also never invited to compete and these are very fast too.

[DodgyGeezer]

technically impressive? Absolutely no question. Exciting to watch & listen to however, ermmmmm....

[Nomme de Plum]

RB Will said:

F1 is only allowed to do demo runs these days, the last F1 (and overall) record being set in a 24 year old F1 car on grooved tyres. The McMurtry beat it by 2.5 sec. A modern F1 car is about 5-8 sec a lap faster than a 1999 model that set the Goodwood record. So should match or beat it.

Proper hillclimb competing cars are also never invited to compete and these are very fast too.

I did a bit googling and its appears a crash and two deaths triggered the F1 ban and now the organisers manage the entries and drivers.

If they allowed F1 again, which team and in any case may contravene F1 rules.

It would be very easy for it to go horribly wrong so maybe the restrictions are understandable.