1400HP Mustang Mach-E
Ford has unveiled Mustang Mach-E 1400, a one-off vehicle with seven electric motors (five more than Mustang Mach-E GT and high downforce, developed in collaboration with RTR. The vehicle is built from a Mustang Mach-E GT body and targets 1,400 peak horsepower.
“Now is the perfect time to leverage electric technology, learn from it, and apply it to our line-up,” said Ron Heiser, chief program engineer, Mustang Mach-E. “Mustang Mach-E is going to be fun to drive, just like every other Mustang before it, but Mustang Mach-E 1400 is completely insane, thanks to the efforts of Ford Performance and RTR.”
Ford said the Mustang Mach-E 1400 is the result of 10,000 hours of collaboration by Ford Performance and RTR aimed at bridging the gap between what an electric vehicle can do and what customers tend to believe it can do.
“Getting behind the wheel of this car has completely changed my perspective on what power and torque can be,” said Vaughn Gittin Jr, RTR Vehicles founder and motorsport champion. “This experience is like nothing you’ve ever imagined, except for maybe a magnetic roller coaster.”
The Ford design team and RTR used many of the same tools Ford uses for its race cars and production programs. Aerodynamics are optimised for shape and location, with a focus on cooling ducts, front splitter, dive planes and rear wing.
Three of Mustang Mach-E 1400’s motors are attached to the front differential and four are attached to the rear in pancake style, with a single driveshaft connecting them to the differentials, which have a huge range of adjustability to set the car up for everything from drifting to high-speed track racing.
“The challenge was controlling the extreme levels of power provided by the seven motors,” said Mark Rushbrook, motorsports director, Ford Performance. “Mustang Mach-E 1400 is a showcase of the art of the possible with an electric vehicle.”
The chassis and powertrain are set up to allow the team to investigate different layouts and their effects on energy consumption and performance, including rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive and front-wheel drive. Drift and track setups have completely different front-end configurations like control arms and steering changes to allow for extreme steering angles in drifting. Power delivery can be split evenly between front and rear, or completely to one or the other. Downforce is targeted at more than 2,300lb. at 160mph.
The 56.8-kilowatt-hour battery (installed) is made up of nickel manganese cobalt pouch cells for ultra-high performance and high discharge rate. The battery system is designed to be cooled during charging using a di-electric coolant, decreasing the time needed between runs.
An electronic brake booster is integrated to allow series regenerative braking combined with ABS and stability control to optimise the braking system. Mustang Mach-E 1400 features Brembo brakes, like the Mustang GT4 race car, and a hydraulic handbrake system designed for drifting that integrates with the powertrain controls to enable the ability to shut off power to the rear motors.
Mustang Mach-E 1400, which is set to debut at a NASCAR event soon, serves as a test bed for new materials. The hood is made of organic composite fibres, a lightweight alternative to the carbon fibre that comprises the rest of the vehicle.
Ford is investing more than US$11.5 billion in electric vehicles worldwide, with the first global vehicle, Mustang Mach-E, available to order here now. The all-electric Mustang Mach-E starts hitting the streets in the US at the end of this year.
