Halfway through 1968 Ford came up with the idea of selling a non street legal dealership purchased pure drag racer. They called them Cobra Jets but many people known that or call them the 135. It is known as the 135 series because the consecutive VIN numbers starting with the digits 135. They only came in 1 color which was Wimbledon White with black interior. They had the 428 engine in it and produce exactly 50 which was required to qualify for NHRA stock racing classes. There were not GT’s but they were fastbacks 63A’s. They came with a 3.89.1 rear axle ratio. 30 of them were built strangely with seam sealer and sound deadener while the other 20 were not.
The program was announced to dealers in a telegram from Jacque Passino to regional and district sales managers on December 26, 1967. Note that the telegram describes the DSO option numbers as 84-5660 and 84-5661, not 84-4660 and 84-4661. There were 6 of these cars that landed in the hands of race teams.
I first saw one of these in a barn find book about lost and found Mustangs. A guy had passed away in California and had all kinds of cars and one of them the brother thought was strange because the VIN and everything about it did not seem like a normal 68 model. After making calls he learned that thee 135 was special. However it was missing its block but I did think they found the heads for it. He ended up selling it for just about $105,000. The new owner traced it back to a race team and he is keeping it the way it looks because the paint really was not that bad and since it was a drag racer it only hand a few hundred miles on the odometer.
“The idea for this car was born from Bob Tasca who was disappointed in Ford’s performance with the 390ci; he went through the Ford Parts Catalog and modified his test car “KR-8” with a 428 “Police Interceptor” with 406 heads, GT390 camshaft and other components readily available from dealership parts bins. Together with his engine builder, John Healey, they built what Ford should have. His point, Ford already had the pieces to offer a Mustang that could compete with GTOs and SS Camaros. The publicity awoke a sleeping giant. In January 1968, Ford sent five Wimbledon White Mustang fastbacks to the NHRA’s Winternationals. Specially built as “lightweights” without seam sealer or sound deadener and equipped with a 428 that incorporated many of Tasca’s modifications; the Mustangs ripped through the Super Stock field with Al Joniec defeating Hubert Platt in a Ford vs. Ford final.
Bob Tasca drove his first car from Rhode Island to Dearborn, MI to Ford to show the reliability and to have Ford test the car. The next year, Ford Motor Co. adopted his recipe and the new performance Mustang was dubbed the “428 Cobra Jet”.
This car was then purchased by another top tier muscle car collector who performed a full rotisserie restoration with all of receipts included.
This car has full documentation. It is accompanied by the Deluxe Marti Report, Full Owner History, Previous Registrations, Restoration Receipts. Ford Certificate of Origin.
This is a true investment grade Muscle Car.” This is the car on in the photos that was sold recently. I do not know for how much but I imagine it was probably around 200K is my guess.
Americanmusclecarz
https://www.americanmusclecarz.com/vehicles/2871/1968-ford-mustang-428-cobra-jet-tasca-lightweight
Notice on the Marti Report it does not have the correct gears.
