Jay Leno Drives Custom '68 Ford Mustang GT Cobra Jet, Says It Sounds Like Money Well Spent

Tom Scarpello is the founder and CEO of Revology Cars. He says he doesn't like the term "replica.” It does not define what his company builds. So, "reproduction" would be way more appropriate from his perspective.

And it does make sense. A replica is an exact copy. The reproduction comes as an evolved version of the original. Just like the car that we are looking at in the Latest Episode of "Jay Leno's Garage," flaunting a fastback silhouette painted in blue and modern features like LED lighting and power everything.

The car is powered by the 5.0-liter V8 that currently goes under the hood of the Mustangs that roll off the production line at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Michigan.

Integrated into a factory engine package designed by Roush, the supercharged version that runs under the hood of the 1968 Mustang GT Cobra Jet pumps out 710 horsepower. The car is also 320 pounds lighter than a 2022 Shelby GT 500, so that oomph makes it a land rocket.

The Revology team links the engine with either a six-speed manual or a ten-speed automatic instead of the classic Mustang's four-speed manual or three-speed automatic. They take up way more space than the original boxes, so making room for the modern transmissions is quite a challenge.

To cool down the engine, they use the modern cooling system of the Mustang GT. They send cars to the Middle East as well, where temperatures are high even in winter, and there is scorching heat in summer. So they need something efficient that would prevent overheating.

They build the body in-house and build the cars to spec in their factory in Orlando, Florida. They try to follow the original design as much as possible and only deviate for functional reasons. For instance, to use a modern brake package from Wildwood, they need larger wheels compared to the original 14-inchers. So they use 17-inch units instead.

Revology has just delivered car number 190 in ten years. They are doing 60 cars per year now.

Revology can register the car as a 1968 if they build it around a donor vehicle from the era, retaining its identity. But if they build the whole car, they can register it as a replica.

Whoever wants a Mustang Cobra Jet will have to wait around six months to have it completed.

Jay Leno, who was 18 when this car came out, brings up young people who want to get a classic but face a major setback: they can't understand that 60 or 70 years ago, the driving reference was totally different. The steering was hard, the pedals worked differently, shifting gears was actual roaming into the manual box.

The dashboard looks very much like the one of the original 1968 Mustang. But there is LED lighting on board. There is no plastic inside the cabin, everything is covered in leather and leatherette or wood. All the cars that drive out of the Revology shop have air conditioning and power windows.

Jay Leno drives the car out of the garage and says that it feels like money well spent.