FIRST LOOK: FORD MUSTANG COBRA JET 1400
Electrifying
Story by Benjamin Yong, photos courtesy of Ford
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“Why not?” quips global director of Ford Icons Dave Pericak in a telephone interview.
nly two years after the Ford Mustang Cobra Jet made headlines with the release of the 50th anniversary edition, “Because as you look to developing new technology and new the tarmac-ripping drag car born in the 1960s is back — this control systems, we want to leverage our performance team and our racing in order to push the limit and see how far we can go. time, minus an engine. Really push things way further than even a production vehicle What the newest version, dubbed the Cobra Jet 1400, does might do so that we can learn and then bring that learning back have are four (!) electric motors pushing more than net 1,400 into our production vehicles,” says Pericak, who also led the development of the GT road car as well as both the fifth and horsepower and 1,100 lb-ft of torque. sixth generations of Mustang. Electrification is nothing new at Ford, having made plug-in hybrids and EVs for over a decade, the latest being the Mustang What’s interesting about the 1400 is how much it’s got in comMach-E SUV slated for release in late 2020. But why a one-off mon with its internal combustion cousin. The body, three-speed automatic transmission and torque converter all stay the same, muscle car model? albeit everything has been beefed up to handle all the massive amounts of additional power. The blue oval company enlisted the help of some industry professionals to achieve this impressive feat. Partners include MLe Racecars for build and tuning, Watson Engineering for chassis and roll cage, AEM EV for software, and Cascadia for the motors, which Pericak says, while not high-volume units, are still considered “off the shelf.” There isn’t any public data available on powertrain or battery specifics, other than the motors are set up in a two16 MUSCLE CAR PLUS MAGAZINE JUNE/JULY 2020
