Evolution Performance’s Whipple-Blown Dark Horse Dips Lower Into The Eights

Rumbling up to the tree, the Grabber Blue Dark Horse is staged and ready. As the tree drops, the engine’s rpm soars. In the tunnel, the prepped 10R80 10-speed automatic transmission delivers shifts as precisely as an ultrasonic knife and soaring well beyond 8,000 rpm. In the blink of an eye, the scoreboard lights up with a mid-8-second pass, and the bar is raised for what a power-adder S650 street machine can accomplish. 

Ardent followers of the progression of 2024-and-later Mustang performance milestones are, no doubt, aware that Evolution Performance was the first outfit to put a seventh-generation stallion in the 8-second zone with a series of 8.9-second passes in the fall of 2024, and later ran even quicker to the tune of an 8.65 at 158 mph in March of this year. What is more impressive about the shop’s Gen 6 3.0-liter Whipple-supercharged machine on those runs is that they were accomplished before the aftermarket cracked the code to custom-tune the latest pony cars.

We’re trying to replicate what a customer can do that has good drivability and is enjoyable to drive… — Fred Cook, Evolution Performance

Since the S197 era, Evolution Performance made a name for itself by achieving performance milestones with everything from GT500s to S550s, and that continues with today’s pony cars. Having achieved impressive results with Ford’s current top-dog 5.0-liter Mustang, the shop set out to leverage its expertise and the custom tuning acumen of Lund Racing to run even quicker with its Whipple-boosted Dark Horse.

“We’ve done lots of testing and R&D on the dyno to find the optimal range before we head to the track. It’s all about efficiency, not just throwing the kitchen sink at it and hoping it works,” Cook said of the development since the car’s last milestone run.

With plenty of Sunoco EPX oxygenated fuel delivered by 1,750cc injectors and a triple-pump return-style fuel system, the Gen 4 Dark Horse Coyote was primed to maximize its Whipple boost, which had its temperatures tamed by an upgraded intercooling system with a high-volume single pump and streamlined and free-flowing -12AN plumbing. The near-literal icing on that cake is the IC Chiller, which taps into the factory air conditioning system to cool the boost. As a result, the car’s discharge températures never exceeded 55 degrees, which almost mirrored the ambient températures during this most recent session at MIR.

To make use of those upgrades, the team — including Nelson Whitlock, Fred Cook, and Steven Schechterly, lead technician and in-house hot shoe — headed to Maryland International Raceway in Mechanicsville, Maryland, which had just hosted the massive World Cup Import vs. Domestic Race, for a private track rental. With that solid foundation and a full quarter-mile prep in place, the team worked with Lund Racing to dial in the tuning and focused on improving the car’s shifting.

“It is such a team effort. Steven, who builds and races the car, and I think of ideas and execute them. I put together ideas, and we bounce them off each other, and it comes together,” Cook explained. “Then Nelson provides the old-school drag racing knowledge to make sure we get the car down the track.”

The consistent fuel and cool boost allowed Lund Racing to dial in a safe but effective engine calibration to maximize that combination, while focusing on optimizing the shift strategy for the racetrack. Those commands were carried out by a Billy-built 10R80 10-speed automatic, which recently benefited from a prototype torque converter by Circle D Specialties and a few other trick transmission parts. When the mechanical mods and tuning met, the shifts were sharp and quick.

The result was an impressive 8.46 at 163 mph rip as time was running out on the track day, and the surface began to cool. To get to that level, the 3,900-pound stallion galloped out of the gate with a 1.19-second 60-foot and covered 60 to 130 mph in just 3.9 seconds. As impressive as that run was, Cook believes it doesn’t represent the complete story of the car’s capabilities.

“We could throw a twin-turbo setup on the car and could already be deep in the sevens, but that would be easy, and we like a challenge,” Cook explained. “…We’re trying to replicate what a customer can do that has good drivability and is enjoyable to drive.”

That said, once the Evolution crew squeezes every bit out of Whipple’s vaunted Gen 6 3.0-liter blower, the shop plans to move to the forthcoming 3.8-liter supercharger, which should push the car to another single-digit milestone.

“…We would love to try to put it in the sevens with the 3.0-liter, and power-wise, and it’s gonna be close,” Cook added. “When you look at the 60-foot, it can definitely be done…”

The Evolution Performance crew plans to return to the track in the near future to see just how low it can go with the current combination, so stay tuned. We haven’t heard the last from this record-setting combination. The only question is: how low can it go?