Ford Mustang Cobra Could Return Soon

A new trademark filing from Ford seems to back up claims that the Cobra is returning for the S650 Mustang lineup for the 2026 model year. While that’s not shocking news to us, it seems some people doubted if a Cobra variant of the pony car would be coming for this generation, even though in one form or another that’s become a staple since the Fox Body.

These Ford Mustang concepts are dog water.

The “Cobra” name was filed as a trademark by Ford Motor Company with the European Union Intellectual Property Office back on April 22, according to Ford Authority. While it’s true that automakers file trademarks for names they then just sit on, sometimes never using, if we were gamblers we’d bet an S650 Cobra is coming.

After all, someone on Reddit leaked what looked to be a genuine document from a UAW branch which provides some details about an upcoming S650 Shelby GT500 that will use a V8 engine codenamed “Legend.”

Since that post was taken down, replaced by a message stating “Sorry, this post was removed by Reddit’s Legal Operations team” the legitimacy has only increased. After all, why would legal be involved in taking down a wholly false, undamaging document?

These two pieces of evidence seem to reinforce each other, but nothing is certain about the future of an S650 Shelby GT500 Cobra. It’s even possible, and we shudder at the thought, that Ford will apply the legendary Cobra name to a version of the all-electric Mach-E crossover.

In the meantime, Ford has filed trademark documents for the “Boss” name here in the US and “Dark Horse Boss” in the European Union, Ford Authority points out in its report. With rumors of other Mustang model families other than the Mach-E, we just don’t know what Ford might be planning.

Image via Ford