STUNNING COBRA JET 1969(0-60 in staggering 5.5sec)

The 428 Cobra Jet engine made the 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 one of the world's fastest cars.

Mach 1 428 Cobra Jet

Developed by Ford's Light Vehicle Powertrain Department under Tom Feaheny, the 428 Cobra Jet made the 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 one of the world's fastest cars.

Even saddled with automatic transmission, Car Life magazine's CJ Mach 1 took just 5.5 seconds 0-60 mph and flew through the standing quarter-mile in 13.9 seconds at 103 mph. "The best Mustang yet and quickest ever," said the editors, who also declared it "the quickest standard passenger car through the quarter-mile we've ever tested (sports cars and hot rods excluded)." Yet Car Life found the CJ Mach 1 to be "a superb road car, stable at speed, tenacious on corners, with surplus power and brakes for any road situation…. By choosing the optimum combination of suspension geometry, shock absorber valving, and spring rates, Ford engineers have exempted the Mach 1 from the laws up momentum and inertia up to unspeakable speeds."

The Mustang Mach 1 came standard with the Grande's pseudo-teak interior accents.

That last statement partly references a new suspension wrinkle for big-block Mustangs devised by chassis engineer Matt Donner. Starting with the 1967 heavy-duty setup, he mounted one shock absorber ahead of the rear axle line and the other behind it, which reduced axle tramp in hard acceleration. Though gunning hard around corners still induced the same hairy oversteer as in previous high-power Mustangs, the '69 was more easily controlled with steering and throttle. "The first Cobra Jets we built were strictly for drag racing," Tom Feaheny recalled. "The '69s had a type of the competition suspension we offered in '67. Wheel hop was damped out by staggering the rear shocks. It was not a new idea, but it worked. Another thing was the [Goodyear] Polyglas tire. I really can't say enough about this.... In '69 every wide-oval tire we offered featured Polyglas construction."