Ford Mustang Cobra Jet
The 2014 Ford Mustang Cobra Jet prototype will be sold at a charity auction on Sept. 28 in Las Vegas. Ford

It has a 5.0 liter supercharged V-8 married to a T4 racing transmission with a wheelie bar and a safety cage. It can do a nine-second quarter mile and is approved for competition by the National Hot Rod Association, and some lucky speed fanatic with deep pockets is going to get the keys to this one-of-a-kind muscle machine by the end of the month.

It’s rare when a car manufacturer’s prototype makes it into the marketplace –- companies tend to keep them –- but Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) decided to release the 2014 Ford Mustang Cobra Jet to a charity auction that will take place on Sept. 28 in Las Vegas to raise cash for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based collector car auctioneer Barrett-Jackson is keeping mum on how much cash it thinks the car will raise –- bidding starts at zero –- but if past auctions are any indication we could be talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. A 2014 Ford Shelby GT500 Convertible went for $500,000 last month in a similar charity auction in Reno, Nev., for the Brain Injury Association of America.

The winning bidder will get the car –- which isn’t street legal –- as well as hot rod training at Roy Hill’s Drag Racing School in Sophia, N.C., and a tour of Ford’s product development and design centers with Mustang’s top engineer, Dave Pericak.

The event is clearly promotional for the Dearborn, Mich.-based company, but fans of the carmaker’s macho machines will get a chance to see a full display of Ford’s performance vehicles, including the Shelby Focus ST, an enhanced version of the Focus compact that is only the second four-cylinder car Carroll Shelby International has even turned into a high-performance vehicle.

Check out the video of the Cobra Jet and picture yourself behind the wheel of a real one-of-a-kind American drag racer: