Rob Kinnan Brand Manager, Mustang Monthly October 5, 2017 Photos By: TEN Archives

The Cobra Jet Mustang debuted to huge fanfare at the 1968 Winternationals when Ford built 50 Mustang fastbacks with a 428ci big-block. All 50 were earmarked for drag-racing use. The history books (and NHRA records) have been speaking for themselves for the last 50 years about the Cobra Jet’s impressive win record. Before there even was a Cobra Jet, a performance-minded Ford dealer built his own to show Ford the boat they were missing when it came to OE street performance. Bob Tasca of Tasca Ford in Rhode Island had heard too many stories of the 390 Mustangs he was selling getting their butts handed to them on the street by the likes of big-block Chevys and Hemi Mopars. So he built his own hot-rod Mustang using Ford parts that he had on the shelf. The Tasca KR-8 was much more brutal than the base 390 cars. Ford was so impressed Tasca’s creation, they considered manufacturing it. When Eric Dahlquist at Hot Rod magazine ran a story asking readers to write Ford and request that they build the car, the Dearborn Boys were so inundated with mail, they pulled the trigger. The 428 Cobra Jet Mustang was born.

Eric Dahlquist’s engine photo shows the 427 Tunnel Port with twin Holley four-barrel carburetors that Bob Tasca, Sr., had obtained from the Ford Experimental Garage after showing the car to the execs.