With a brand new generation of Mustangs looming on the horizon, you would think Ford would start pulling back when it comes to the power and performance of the outgoing Mustangs. But you’d be wrong. Take the 2013 Mustang Cobra Jet, which clicks off a 0-60 mph of 2.57 seconds and can run the quarter-mile in the high 8-second range at over 150 mph. That’s going to be a hard act to follow.
At the heart of the Cobra Jet’s success is a 5.0 liter V8 that comes in naturally aspirated and supercharged flavors. Ford Racing recently took one of the naturally aspirated models and strapped it to an engine dyno. If you’ve ever wanted to hear this engine in its most raw and primal form, here’s your chance.
Tested on Ford Racing’s 17G dyno, you would think we’d get dyno numbers to go along with this video. Alas, that is not the case, as the dyno numbers are not yet being released (most likely due to the highly-competitive nature of this vehicle). However, we can infer from previous passes at the drag strip that the naturally aspirated Cobra Jet 5.0 is making in the range of 600 or 700 horsepower at the crank.
The video itself is rather revealing as well. For a full 30 seconds, the 5.0 liter Cobra Jet engine revs higher and higher. Eventually the headers even begin to glow red from all the spent horsepower exiting through its pipes. The sight is at once inspiring, awesome, and a little scary. We wouldn’t want to run up against any Cobra Jet-powered car at the drag strip. That’s just an embarrassment waiting to happen.