Chris Holbrook, who competed in the inaugural season of the NHRA’s Factory X drag racing class, is bringing out a newly-revamped machine for the 2024 season. Holbrook and Ford Performance this week unveiled Holbrook’s 2024 contender, which now wears 2024 Mustang GT Dark Horse bodywork and a lively scheme from Ford Performance.
“They want the newest cars out there possible,” Holbrook says of the NHRA’s initial concept for the Factory X class. “I tried to make it a 650 at the beginning, but they didn’t have the body parts.”
Factory X rules state that the body components must be of stock dimensions, but can be made out of carbon-fiber. Extra factory steel parts were initially hard to come by as the S650 platform was still very new, and no one had been able to make a mold of them.
As the Cobra Jet has not been greenlighted for the S650 Mustang platform, racers looking to have the newest Mustang body for their racing program will have to build their own cars — that is, unless they opt for the new Ford Performance body parts that Holbrook’s Mustang now wears.
“They want to come back and concentrate more on drag racing,” Holbrook tells us of Ford’s involvement.
Around November of 2023, Ford Performance met with Holbrook, who has been involved with the parts and racing division for most of his life, and whose father was, as well. “I think it’s awesome,” Holbrook says. “Anything you can do with Ford Performance and with the Ford Motor company is great. My father was a true diehard Ford guy, so am I, and so is my son. I am very excited about it. My dad was in Hot Rod in 1975 and they named him Captain Cobra Jet.
We were at U.S. Nationals with the first and only Ford in Factory X. I was in my motorhome working on my computer on the next round’s tune and my crew guy said there was someone outside wanting to talk to me. It was Mark Rushbrook, a big corporate Ford Racing guy. The NHRA was debuting the new Factory X class at that event and it was very cool for him to personally walk over and check out our program. He was asking me at that time if there was anything he could do to help. Acknowledging our program meant a lot.”
Holbrook stayed in contact with Ford Performance’s Brian Novak to continue the conversation about cutting up his brand new car to rebody it as a 2024 Mustang GT.
“I think the biggest thing is that Pro Stock was kind of stale. A new class like Factory X that represents an actual car that they sell…
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