Long before the Ford Motor Company began producing the S197 Cobra Jet factory Ford Mustang race cars that are all the rage in Stock and Super Stock these days, there was the original 1968 1/2 Cobra Jet, or “CJ.” In the early 1960’s, the concept of, “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” paved the way for a plethora of factory backed race teams with factory-prepared race cars, and FoMoCo was right in the thick of it. Customers saw a Ford automobile blast down the quarter mile and would proceed to drop their hard-earned cash on one of their own.

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Ford had dabbled in the A/FX-turned-Funny Car arena for a few years, but realized that advertising their product had more return when campaigning cars that more closely resembled their road-going counterparts. And thus, the ’68 Cobra Jet was born. Prior to the release of the CJ, the best options one could purchase was the pricey GT 500 and the 320 horsepower 390 GT. The Cobra Jet, however, wasn’t the brainchild of engineers at Ford, but the service department of one of the largest Ford dealerships in America: Tasca Ford in Rhode Island, owned by Bob Tasca, a drag racer himself. His dealership created the Mustang KR-8, or “King of the Road,” that sported the 428 engine and is considered the very first Cobra Jet, although it wasn’t renamed until later. Tasca’s creation was a Mustang with an exploded 390 that was replaced with a 428 PI short block, 427 low riser heads, and a 735 Holley carb.

Ford wasn’t interested initially, but an article on the car published in the November 1967 issue of Hot Rod sealed the deal, as readers wrote letters to Henry Ford II himself en masse. The public interest sold Ford, and the green light was given to produce the Cobra Jet. In December of 1967, Ford put together a batch of 50 lightweight 428 CJ’s built to compete in the NHRA. Each of the cars were Wimbledon White, non-GT fastbacks with a aluminum Police Interceptor intake manifold, 390 GT exhaust manifolds, drum brakes, radio delete, and power steering delete. While intended for the drag strip, they were actually sold as street cars. Many did become race cars, but a select few headed for the street. The road version of the CJ was released on April 1, 1968 and walked all over the competition on the street and at the strip.

Ford arrived at the NHRA Winternationals in 1968 with eight CJ’s, part of Ford’s 1968 Drag Team. The list of drivers was a who’s who of drag racing legends, with “Dyno Don” Nicholson,  Gas Ronda, Al Joniec, Hubert Platt, Jerry Harvey, Carl Holbrook, Bill Ireland, and Phill Bonner making up the roster. These cars, however, were not part of the original slate of CJ’s, but were in fact 390 fastbacks that had been pulled from production and sent to the Holman & Moody – Stroppe shop in California, where they were outfitted with 428 Cobra Jet power. Each of the cars featured a different Ford dealer logo on the doors, and were outfitted with Cragar S/S and chrome reverse wheels.

The Super Stock contingent was decimated by the debut of the CJ’s at Pomona, as Joniec and Platt met for the SS/E final – won by Joniec with a 12.49 pass – who then went on to take the Super Stock Eliminator title over Dave Wren’s Mopar.

To read more on the ’68 Ford Drag Team and the Cobra Jet, visit http://www.dearbornflashback.com/68dragteam.asp