“It was like one of those classic, old-time drag-racing poses, like Linda Vaughn in the 1960s,” says Jesse Kershaw from Ford Racing’s Performance Group. “It was great seeing a young couple, the kind you haven’t seen down in the Sportsman pits all that much in recent years, checking out the cars. Maybe we’re doing something that’ll get young people interested and involved in Sportsman racing again.”
Drag-racing old-timers will recall that in the late 1960s, Detroit’s Big Four automakers ruled America’s quarter-miles. Each of the factories built cars made especially for drag racing—the Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt and 428 Cobra Jet Mustang, Chevrolet’s Z11 427, Pontiac’s Catalina with the “Swiss cheese” frame holes, the Hemi ’Cuda and Challenger from Mopar, and the COPO Camaro. Even little American Motors had the AMX. From about 1963 through 1969, these drag-pack specials engaged in an ever escalating horsepower war of historic proportions. By the early 1970s, though, factory interest in the horsepower party quickly wound down because of tougher emissions and safety standards, spiking insurance premiums, and the Arab oil embargo.
The 5.4-liter, supercharged Cobra Jet V-8 is rated for 425 horsepower but can easily be tweaked for more.The factories exited, but they left behind cars that privateers would continue to race for decades. In fact, some of these machines, such as John Calvert’s ’68 Cobra Jet, are still in Sportsman competition winning eliminations, national meets, and championships.
“I still have the record in SS/G—139 mph, 9.57 seconds,” Calvert notes proudly of his 2007 record run.
Now, after 41 years, Ford is leading Detroit’s return to drag racing. And at this past February’s Winternationals in Pomona, California, there was a happy blending of new cars and echoes of a golden age of American iron.
“There are still a lot of little guys who are running Fords from the ’60s, ’70s, and even a few from the ’80s,” says Brian Wolfe, director of Ford North America Motorsports. “But those cars aren’t necessarily relevant to what we are producing today.”
Trunk-mounted batteries help weight distribution and compensate for the lack of a spare.So, late last year, Ford Racing reintroduced the Cobra Jet Mustang in a very limited run of 50, as a 2008 model, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the original Cobra Jet’s debut. The Cobra Jet, technically an FR500CJ, was priced at $69,900. The 3300-pound machine is a couple hundred pounds lighter than a Mustang GT and features a supercharged 5.4-liter V-8 (detuned to 425 horsepower in order to comply with its racing-class regulations), either a six-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmission, and a drag pack of go-fast goodies. Omitted are production-car standards such as wipers, mirrors, heater, air conditioning, radio, airbags, and oh, yeah warranties. Cup holders, however, remain.
The Cobra Jet is NHRA-approved and -certified to a 10.00-second elapsed time and has Stock Eliminator–legal interior.
It’s the latest in a series of race-ready Mustangs, including the FR500S, the FR500C, and the FR500GT, which we tested in December 2006. All are “turnkey race cars” available as complete cars through Ford dealerships or as kits, or parts and pieces thereof, via Ford Racing Performance Parts. The body and major subassemblies are produced at Ford’s plant in Flat Rock, Michigan; final assembly is done at Roush Industries in Livonia.
The FR500C (still available at $125,000), in its 2005 Grand-Am series opener, was unloaded at the opening race in Daytona on a Wednesday, and it won the race on Friday. It went on to lock up a championship that first season.
The $75,000 FR500S competes in the Mustang Challenge series. Other variations race from Lime Rock to Le Mans.
“All 50 of our CJs were built over a four-week period,” Wolfe says. “The first 48 sold in three days, and the remaining two were gone two or three days after that. They were delivered just after Christmas. We could’ve probably built 400 and sold ’em all.”
For now, Ford is content to let that which is in short supply remain in great demand.
“We might build 50 a year,” he continues, “or 50 every other year. We’re having a meeting soon about what we might do with the 2010 model.”
Meanwhile, Dodge has also announced plans to build 100 “Drag Pak” Challengers, each priced at $35,000. “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, now 77, said he was first in line to buy one. “I did buy one, No. 1 in fact, ID number 2009-001,” Garlits said in an e-mail. “As soon as it is approved (by NHRA), my team in Detroit will quickly finish the car and I can race it.”
The Challenger, which offers a choice of 5.7- or 6.1-liter Hemi engines or a “Magnum Wedge” 5.9-liter V-8, is not the complete race-ready package the Mustang is, according to Wolfe. “I don’t think anyone’s going to be able to go down the track for less money than us,” he says. “All you need to add is fuel.”
Chevrolet had a 2010 Camaro drag car, but an insider tells us, “It was whacked in the last big round of budget cuts.” Still, GM Performance Parts will offer a body-in-white Camaro for $7000 starting this spring. What might have been? Check out the 550-hp LS7 concept shown at last November’s SEMA show.
Later in 2009, Dodge Challenger "Drag Pak" cars, with Hemi and Magnum V-8s, will make their quarter-mile debuts. "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, now 77, has already bought the first one.But at the start of the 2009 season, the Cobra Jet was the only one of this new class of drag-pack specials ready for the green light.
For the NHRA’s season-opening Winternationals in Pomona, the enthusiastic team owner Brent Hajek, an Oklahoma corn farmer, showed up with four cars prepped to race, for drivers Jim Waldo, Gary Stinnett, Jimmy Ronzello, and Calvert.
“I love ’em,” said the jovial Hajek [pronounced HI-ak]. “That’s why I bought 10 of ’em! Actually I bought 11, because I bought the prototype at the Barrett-Jackson auction last month.”
Hajek, who also has a collection of 62 historic race cars, thought it would be nostalgic fun to adorn his Pomona entries in the original designs of Ford’s 1960s-era drag sponsors: Rice-Holman Ford, Russ Davis Ford, Paul Harvey Ford, and Hot Rod/Performance Associates. Plus, Hajek invited their original drivers: 1968 Winternationals Super Stock/E winner Al Joniec; Gas Ronda, the 1964 SS/S champ; Hubert Platt, a 1967 Winternationals winner; and Randy Ritchey, son of the late Les Ritchey, 1966 Winternationals A/FX winner. Fittingly, Calvert was driving the Joniec-liveried car when he won.
The new Cobra Jet defied all odds by moving through a 128-car Sportsman bracket to take the victory at the Winternationals.
Mechanically, the new car is far more sophisticated than those original drag-pack cars, which were little more than horsepower grenades with cave-man handling and scary brakes. Platt, recalling how difficult it was to get the horsepower down on the track, said he put his toolbox in the trunk in an effort to get some bite in his rear tires.
Ready to rumble, with racing seats, five-point harness, roll cage, competition gauge pack, optional shift kit, and cup holders.“When I took off, the toolbox fell over and scattered my tools all down the track behind me,” he laughs. “The next time I tried it, I locked the box. But when I launched, the toolbox slammed backward and my front wheels came up. I did the whole run with my front wheels in the air!”
“All the old guys are crazy, and the young guys so corporate,” Hajek says, grinning. “Having ’em together on the same team is like juggling a two-headed rattlesnake.”
The ’60s-era drag-pack cars were homologation specials, built in small numbers to satisfy sanctioning-body requirements that the cars being raced were also—wink, wink—the same cars available for customers to purchase.
Calvert, who bought his ’68 Cobra Jet in 1974, noted that his car is still licensed and registered.
“I wouldn’t drive it on the street, except maybe to a cruise night,” Calvert says. “It’s not very practical.” Not unless someone needs to get to the corner grocery store in less than four seconds.
A new Cobra Jet comes with a bill of sale and a serial number but no vehicle identification number (VIN), so it cannot be registered or licensed as a street vehicle. (It also wouldn’t pass an emissions test.)
But Kershaw, the Ford Racing engineer, figures less than half of the first batch of 50 will ever be raced. Most likely, he says, they will wind up in private collections or museums.
Calvert, who owns CJ chassis No. 11, says he plans to store his new Cobra Jet for now. “I really like it. Ford did a nice job on it, but the old one is still capable of winning races. And if I decide to retire anytime soon, I have twin teenage sons; I may turn it over to them.”
Any surviving ’60s-vintage drag specials are now hot collectibles. Two 1969 “Central Office Production Option” Camaros sold at auction in January for sums of $297,000 and $319,000. A ’64 Thunderbolt has been auctioned for as much as $165,000. Hajek bought the prototype 2008 CJ for $415,000.
For those missing out on the 2008 Cobra Jet, there are remedies one of which can yield a version with a real VIN.
The CJ is, in fact, based on a 2005 Mustang V-6. Kershaw estimates that a do-it-yourselfer, after stripping the donor car, would need to order about $40,000 worth of parts to assemble his own drag special. An enterprising and knowledgeable mechanic, willing to invest a few hundred hours of sweat equity, could theoretically create a reasonable facsimile.
Here’s a partial list of what a DIY special would need: a 5.4-liter CJ engine with cold-air induction kit and throttle-body assembly, a bulletproof bell housing, a six-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmission, stainless-steel long-tube racing headers, a nine-inch rear axle assembly, a one-piece driveshaft, adjustable racing dampers, a drag-pack spring kit, CJ wheels (4.0 x 15-inch fronts, 10.0 x 15-inch rears), 26.0/4.5-15 front racing tires, 30.0/9.0R-15 rears, a CJ hood scoop, a five-inch pedestal tachometer, an SVT Mustang short-throw shifter with black shift knob and handle, a CJ seat package, and a competition-approved roll cage.
“There would also be a few nuances that would be pretty hard to duplicate,” Wolfe cautions.
But it is doable.
“Oh, yes,” Kershaw says. “To us, it’s not a car. It’s just a part number.”
It’s easier to understand the whole drag-pack concept when considering that rather than being a car, it’s just a very fast collection of parts.
“This is a damn cool project,” Hajek says. “In no way is it politically correct. It’s gonna piss off a lot of people. But, damn: It’s the fastest American-built production quarter-mile car ever made. It’s an instant collectible—and then some.”
“I think this one is headed straight to the museum now,” said Calvert as he climbed out of the simple white CJ after its Winternationals win. “This is a history-making achievement.”
Boris the Cobra is generally mellow. “At idle, he just purrs,” says Brent Hajek, who owns Boris—as well as Natasha, Moose, and Squirrel. Those are the code names Hajek assigned the four new Cobra Jet Mustangs that he prepped to enter the 2009 Winternationals drag races in Pomona. “But kick ol’ Boris, and he starts makin’ a ruckus.”
Natasha, Moose, and Squirrel got eliminated in an early round, but Boris was determined to repeat history for Ford and again put a new Cobra Jet in victory lane, just like the last new one did in its Winternationals debut 41 years ago. Boris is even decaled in the same Rice-Holman livery as the 1968 winner.
When John Calvert, the veteran drag racer hired to drive Boris, climbs in, sits in his highly contoured Cobra Jet racing seat, and buckles his five-point harness, he slides the key into the ignition and starts Boris like a regular Mustang. But the response is startling: The 425-hp V-8 barks loudly, before settling into a warm burbling.
“It’s really quite mellow at idle, but with that supercharger on the engine, when you open it up, it gets really loud,” says Calvert, putting his fingers up to his ears and grimacing.
When Calvert pulls up to the line to stage for his races, he minds the tachometer in fact, he’s got it mounted right on top of the dash, smack in front of his face.
John Calvert's 1968 Mustang Cobra Jet, which still races and wins, and Calvert's new ride, the 2008 Cobra Jet.“You gotta be careful staging it,” explains Calvert, who nonetheless provokes Boris sadistically during his burnout. Revved up near the 7000-rpm redline, the engine snaps and pops like a bag of firecrackers in a campfire. Clouds of smoke erupt from the rear wheel wells.
During staging, Calvert brings the engine revs up deliberately, waiting for the yellow lights on the starting-line Christmas tree to track down to the bottom light—GREEN!
Then hell is unleashed. Boris’s nose springs skyward. The front wheels leap into the air, and the nine-inch Hoosier racing slicks bite hard into the starting-line stickum.
“Watch those front tires!” shouts crew chief Mike Hernandez. “On his first run, they were four feet off the ground.”
Boris leaves the line turning about 5000 rpm; Calvert is ready to shift just short of the rev limiter at 7000. He’s only a few feet from the starting line. As fast as he can clutch and shift, it’s time to do it again.
Shift, shift, shift, and he’s in fourth gear. All down the track, Boris is popping with the ferocity of a Chinese New Year celebration.
110 . . . 120 . . . 125 mph . . . and in the span of 10 seconds, the run is over.
To win the Stock class at the Winternationals, Boris had to perform this ritual seven times—in seven side-by-side passes—flawlessly. And that’s exactly what Boris did.
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