Ford's Mustang Super Cobra Jet 1800 Is An Electric Drag Star
Electric vehicles are staggeringly fast. The plethora of instantly accessible torque available to electric motors, coupled with a few other mechanical advantages, means there are currently battery-powered minivans that can leave decade-old-supercars in their dust from a standing start. At the higher end, things tend to get a little ridiculous.
Ford is hoping to see how far things can be taken with the Mustang Super Cobra Jet 1800 prototype: an all-electric, drag-focused muscle car that may be one of the fastest things ever to hit the tarmac. As the name suggests, the new Mustang is an iteration on the Mustang Super Cobra Jet 1400, which made its debut a few years back. Ford has developed the 1800 prototype in collaboration with MLe Racecars, AEM-EV, Cascadia Motion and Watson Engineering.
The 1800 has seen major upgrades in a number of departments. The motor configuration is basically the same, with four PN-250-DZR inverters combined with two "double-stacked" DS-250-115 motor pairings providing the grunt. However, a lightened battery pack means that power will go a lot further. The suspension geometry at the rear has been improved, and launches should be better due to the new Mustang's larger Mickey Thompson drag radials.
It's not just the components that have received an upgrade. Ford's Performance proprietary control software has also been tweaked to include "a new data acquisition system, dash and power distribution system." Ford's tweaks mean the vehicle now has a tire-shredding 1800 horsepower, and is hundreds of pounds lighter than its predecessor.
Ford wants to put the Super Cobra Jet 1800 in the record books
While specs can be interesting, it's more important to see what happens on the track. Ford recognizes this, and is setting its sights as high as possible with the Super Cobra Jet 1800 prototype. The company doesn't want impressive performance from the vehicle, it wants to show everyone that this prototype is the best in electric performance. To achieve this goal, the Michigan-based manufacturer has set its sights on a few world records, and enlisted some expert help to achieve just that.
MLe Racecar's Pat McCue is scheduled to take a seat in the Super Cobra Jet 1800 later this season. McCue is MLe Racecar's cofounder, the program's official test driver, and has been vital to the development of the Super Cobra Jet 1800.
The main NHRA world record that the Super Cobra Jet 1800 is targeting actually belongs to its predecessor, the Super Cobra Jet 1400. That vehicle set a quarter-mile time of 8.128 seconds back in June 2021, while it was in the capable hands of Bob Tasca III. Ford is hoping the vehicle will set a couple of 0-60 mph records, too: one for the overall fastest 0-60 time from an electric vehicle, and another more specific record for fastest two-wheel drive electric vehicle 0-60.