Battery-powered and drag racing aren’t two terms you’d usually hear together, but Ford has crushed pre-conceptions with the one-off Mustang Cobra Jet factory drag racer, which is forecast to smash the quarter-mile run in just eight seconds, reaching speeds in excess of 170mph. You read that correctly, 170mph in eight seconds.
The Cobra Jet 1400 is an electric Mustang that’ll do 170mph in eight seconds – FOS Future Lab
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The all-electric Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 prototype will make in excess of 1,400 horsepower, with a huge 1,491Nm of torque on tap from 0mph. Currently undergoing testing, it has been purpose built by Ford, with support from vehicle tuner MLe Racecars and chassis experts Watson Engineering. AEM EV, meanwhile, has provided software and motor calibration and controls, while Cascadia is behind the inverter and motor.
Mark Rushbrook, Global Director, Ford Performance Motorsports said: “This project was a challenge for all of us at Ford Performance, but a challenge we loved jumping into.
“We saw the Cobra Jet 1400 project as an opportunity to start developing electric powertrains in a race car package that we already had a lot of experience with, so we had performance benchmarks we wanted to match and beat right now. This has been a fantastic project to work on, and we hope the first of many coming from our team at Ford Performance Motorsports.”
It’s not the first electric Mustang to emerge from America – the production Mustang Mach-E SUV took that title earlier this year – but it is the first all-electric attempt the manufacturer will make at the dragstrip. And they will certainly do it in style, with the Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 honouring the original 1960s Cobra Jet that dominated drag racing more than half a century ago.
Of the innovative model, Dave Pericak, Global Director at Ford Icons added: “Ford has always used motorsport to demonstrate innovation.
“Electric powertrains give us a completely new kind of performance and the all-electric Cobra Jet 1400 is one example of pushing new technology to the absolute limit. We’re excited to showcase what’s possible in an exciting year when we also have the all-electric Mustang Mach-E joining the Mustang family.”
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The Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 prototype will make its dragstrip debut later this year, but if you can’t wait that long, tune in to MotorTrend On Demand’s ‘Hard Cell’ on Sunday April 24th, where you’ll spot it among a legion of ground-breaking EVs.
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Welcome to FOS Future Lab where we report on the latest visions of future technology. We'll be boldly covering flying cars, hoverboards, jetpacks and spaceships with plenty of down to earth topics in between.
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