Electric Ford Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 dashes quarter mile in just 8 seconds – Roadshow [CNET]

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Chevy eCOPO Camaro who? The Ford Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 is the latest electric king of the drag strip, and on Thursday the Blue Oval showed off what kind of performance the zero-emissions dragster is capable of. We’re talking a quarter-mile time of 8.27 seconds and trap speed of 168 mph. Who said electric cars can’t be cool?

With four electric motors onboard, and development help from Cascadia Motion, the electric dragster now makes 1,502 peak horsepower, which is up from the 1,400 hp figure Ford quoted back in April. These days, the motor-inverter packages run 800 volts and up to 700 amps. That’s not to say the car hasn’t presented its challenges, though.

Chassis tuning has been a different type of ball game for Ford and partner MLe, and the sheer amount of power requires a data and control system with a bespoke algorithm to keep everything running like clockwork in the Cobra Jet 1400. At the end of the day, Ford thinks it’ll take away a lot of lessons from the car as it plans future high-performance electric cars.

Fans will be able to watch the Cobra Jet 1400 make its first public run at the NHRA US Nationals this weekend, which you can watch online via the nhra.tv livestream.