Move over Bugatti, there is a new leader atop the leader board for the world’s fastest production car. The 2012 Ford Mustang Cobra Jet shattered the 2012 Bugatti Veyron Super Sport 0-to-60 mph time of 2.57 seconds by knocking a full second of the record. Bo Butner’s factory production racer hit 0-60 in a mere 1.52 seconds!
Incredibly, Butner was unaware of just how fast his Mustang truly was.
“As drag racers, we look for different numbers to tell us how the car is performing,” said Butner after claiming the first American Drag Racing League’s SuperCar Showdown title. “We’re much more concerned with the car’s first sixty feet of travel and we always use elapsed time, rather than speed, as the reference. The only actual speed reading we’re concerned about comes at the finish line and, even then, we’re more concerned about the elapsed time.”
Officials from the ADRL were granted access to the onboard telemetry of Butner’s event-winning Cobra Jet and found the Ford was unknowingly shattering records almost every time it ran down the dragstrip. On his best eighth-mile run at the fabled Texas strip, the past World Champion launched from a standstill and hit sixty miles per hour in a mere 1.52 seconds! During the event, Butner also clocked a 0-to-100 mph time of 3.26 seconds to eclipse any known claim for the same performance by an auto manufacturer.
0-to-60 mph in 1.52 seconds (68.61 feet)
0-to-80 mph in 2.491 seconds (159.06 feet)
0-to-100 mph in 3.26 seconds (283.94 feet)
0-to-120 mph in 5.80 seconds (649.82 feet)
“I’m truly stunned!” exclaimed the Hoosier state campaigner as he discovered the results embedded in the acceleration graphs displayed from the readout of the onboard data. “I had no idea these cars were reaching these speeds so quickly. We honestly didn’t realize we had the quickest zero-to-sixty production car on the planet!”
Butner’s Mustang utilized the production 5.4-liter, (330 cubic inch), V8 engine equipped with a 2.4-liter supercharger, a production automatic transmission and a factory-produced chassis. The Ford weighed in a 3,550 pounds was also required to compete on drive tires no wider than nine inches, (228 mm). The 900 horsepower Cobra Jet Mustang might be a blow to the wallet at $91,990 for a base version and $103,980 for the model with the bigger blower, but it is still a bargain Veryon. The All wheel drive Bugatti’s 8-liter, sixteen-cylinder engine with four turbochargers which produces 1,180 horsepower, tips the scale at 4,162 pounds and carries a list price of $2.4 million dollars. Some $2.3 million more than the purpose built pony car.
“The fact the weather conditions at Houston weren’t really conducive to developing maximum power makes me really wonder just how quick these cars can eventually run,” said Butner. “We really haven’t applied all the power-making techniques, such as changing gear ratios, to these cars yet. I have to believe they’ll be quicker and faster in the coming SuperCar Showdown events.”
Earlier in the season, Butner became the first drag racing competitor to pilot a production car to a quarter-mile performance under nine seconds, (8.993 seconds). At the ADRL Houston event, his Mustang clocked an eighth-mile best of 5.83 seconds. Here are some other interesting figures which came from the onboard data during Butner’s first SuperCar Showdown title.
Former drag racing World Champion Butner, who operates his family’s half-century old auto sales company in Clarksville, Indiana, displayed astonishing consistency during actual competition. In three rounds of eliminations, his Mustang ran between 5.83 and 5.86 seconds and each winning effort was clocked at over 119 mph. In the semi-finals, Butner outran three-time World Champion Kevin Helms in another 2011 SRT Dodge Challenger V-10 while Holbrook defeated past National Championship runner-up David Buckner whose Texas-based Evolution Custom Auto-sponsored 6.1-liter Dodge Challenger was the only naturally-aspirated V-8 entry to qualify for the field.
“Throughout the race, we were receiving text messages from Jesse Kershaw and Brian Wolfe at Ford Racing,” noted Butner during winner’s circle ceremonies. “They were watching us all weekend and we knew it was really important to the guys in Detroit that we do well in this new series. We made the right tuning decisions and ran as hard as we could. The fans loved it, we loved it and I really think this SuperCar Showdown is going to be big. It was just a great race!”
Kershaw, Ford’s Drag Racing Competition Manager, was equally enthusiastic about his team’s victory.
“Bo and Chris are extremely tough racers and both are committed to the Ford brand and its fans,” said Kershaw after the event. “They both jumped at the chance to showcase the Cobra Jet Mustang in front of the ADRL’s prime-time audience and Bo’s win was a huge accomplishment.
“At Ford, we are truly excited about the SuperCar Showdown and firmly believe it will be a drag racing category which will show continuous growth throughout the year and into the future. The ADRL has given us a venue to race these cars as hard as they can be raced. We know there is plenty of tough competition out there and we’re not taking lightly our involvement but to win the first event with two Fords in the final round was a fantastic accomplishment. It will only get better from here!”
Although open to all production vehicles, the ADRL’s SuperCar Showdown requires strict adherence to factory equipment and modifications are not permitted. The next event in the 2012 SuperCar Showdown Series will be the American Drag Racing League Spring Drags III to be held at Bristol (TN) Dragway on April 20-21.
(Photo Credit: ADRL/Richards)
2 replies on “2012 Ford Mustang Cobra Jet the World’s Fastest Car 0-60 or 0-100!”
[…] 2012 Mustang is leaving its competitors in the dust Mustang is tearing up the drag strip, but lags behind the Chevy Camaro when it comes to launching off the salesroom floor. With fewer […]
Ill take the veyron…Mustangs have been done to death…