8 Quickest Factory Mustangs To Roll Over the Earth
So many Mustangs fall into the designation of fast, but these examples stand out from the rest for being just that much quicker. Let's take a look at some of the Mustangs that made things right in the world from each generation.
8. 1971 Mach 1 Cobra
The styling of this classic Mustang came from the then Ford President Bunkie Knudsen who had taken over the company in 1968. Ford-lore says that when shown the prototype for the new Mustang approved it right then on the spot! People complain about the length of the nose on the car but that was for two reasons, a larger engine and a desire to make the car more upscale. The biggest problem Ford ran into with the nose was tighter emission requirements that put a halt on the bigger powerplants in the car, so now you had this long bay with a 302 looking lost in it. The most powerful engine was a 429 V8 that put out a godly 375 horsepower and would run the 0-60 mph in a seat of the pants 5.8 seconds.
7. 1993 SVT Cobra R
When Ford wanted to make something a bit more potent than the regular Cobra they took a cue from competitive racing and dropped any excess weight they could from the car. Once that was done, they upgraded the handling with special MacPherson struts, Koni shocks, and a front strut tower brace. The SVT Cobra R really was fast with a Windsor V8 armed with 235 horsepower putting the Mustang at 5.7 for its 0-60 time. Production of the car was limited and only 107 examples rolled off the production line with red being the only color choice.
6. 1995 SVT Cobra R
This more sedate looking car was for all intents a sleeper that would scare the bejesus out of many unsuspecting significant others and anyone else who was foolish enough to underestimate what it was capable of. The Cobra R made use of 5.8-liter V8 that was loaded with 300 horsepower and was capable of doing the null to sixty runs in 5.2 seconds!
5. 2008 Bullitt
To honor the iconic Steve McQueen film Bullitt and the San Francisco-based chase between McQueens's 1968 fastback Mustang GT 390 and the villain's Dodge Charger. This new model was a stripped down purpose built vehicle that came with a 24-valve V8 that reined in 315 horses. The result was a car with a 0-60 time of five seconds flat which for the time it came out wasn't too shabby at all.
4. 2011 GT California Special
The GT California from 2011 had an all new at the time V8 that made it one of the fastest Mustangs ever made. The California Special had a 0-60 time of 4.3 seconds and carried a variety of unique upgrades to help it stand out from the normal run of the mill Mustang. The name of the Mustang came from the special 1968 car of the same name, but this one had modern 2011 performance and engineering.
3. 2007 Shelby GT500
This car may seem like just another Shelby to the average person, but Ford enthusiasts know that this particular model holds a special place in history. This generation of Shelby Mustang is actually the first one in almost 40 years to bear the name of the man who started the lineage at Ford; Carroll Shelby. The car had a 5.4-liter V8 that cranked out 500 horsepower to push the car to sixty in 4.5 seconds. The car was limited in quantity with only about eleven thousand units being produced over the life of the vehicle.
2. 2016 Shelby GT350R
You take one part Mustang, one part Darth Vader-like mechanical enhancements and you have the GT350R that will say hi to 60 in just 4.3 seconds. If you're wondering just what sets this Mustang apart from a regular GT350, it is that the R features an exterior optimized aerodynamically for extra performance. Just take a look at the front of the car and feast your eyes on the front splitter. Around the back, you'll find a cool carbon-fiber wind to help push the car down onto the road. As for the other go fast bits, Ford made every performance option offered on lesser Mustangs standard on this variant.
1. 2013 Shelby GT500
Developed by Ford's SVT division, the car carries a 5.8-liter supercharged V8 that does 0-60 in a blistering 3.5 seconds to blow the doors off of anything lesser than an European supercar. The Eaton supercharger in the engine spins faster than the last GT500's blower and puts out 14 psi of boost to make the landscape turn into a blur very quickly. The car has a hood intake that's so big that you have to wonder what manner of flying creature might get lodged in there during a worse case scenario?
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