Twin-Turbo 2024 Mustang Shatters The 7-Second S650 Barrier 

When we last checked in on Midnight Performance’s 2024 Mustang project, it had quadrupled the factory Gen 4 Coyote engine output, and main man Manuel Gomez was ready to see what it would do at the track. On its first outing with the new combination, the Daylight Performance-turbocharged stallion became the first S650 Mustang to run in the 7-second zone, which was enabled in part by the availability of custom tuning.

“…I’d argue I’ve been developing S650 calibrations since 2017 when the Gen 3/10R80 came out!” the car’s tuner, Jon Lund Jr., of Lund Racing, joked. “A lot of the logic is similar and familiar. With each new ECU iteration, some new logic is added, and we have to spend time understanding and manipulating it. But, the brunt of the work is done, and most of it carries over.”

The hardware benefitting from that tuning experience is a stock Gen 4 5.0-liter Coyote block fitted with rugged rods and pistons from Fast Forward Race Engines and paired with a Daylight Performance bottom-mount twin-turbo system featuring Precision 64/66 turbochargers and an intercooled configuration designed for sustained high-boost operation and reined in by a boost controller from NLR Systems.

“The AMS2000 is the best standalone boost controller on the market and makes life easy when targeting boost for racing, especially with stock-ECU combos,” Lund said.

With Lund behind the keyboard, the combination previously produced eye-watering 1,628 horsepower at the rear wheels on 28 pounds of boost.

Making power requires the proper supporting hardware. As such, fueling duties on this record-setting combo are handled by a Velocity Performance fuel system feeding an octet of  Injector Dynamics ID1750 squirters. The power fueled by that system is transmitted through a Midnight Performance-built 10R80 10-speed automatic fitted with a Suncoast Performance billet torque converter. The team is still dialing in the right stator and shifting strategies for this combination, but the early results are impressive.

“…Half the battle with stock-ECU stuff isn’t the actual tuning, it’s undoing what OEM puts there to limit torque, etc.,” Lund explained. “Making power is easy.”

With the hardware and tuning in place, Midnight Performance’s staked its claim in in the Internet record books with a 7.93-second rip at 174 mph, and this likely isn’t the last S650 record we have seen set. As development continues on the seventh-generation Mustang, the real question is: How low can it go?

“Once it’s all ironed out, at this power level it’s got a 7.7X in it,” Lund predicted. “That’ll probably be close to the end of the three-bar MAP sensor trying to hit that number. After that, we’d have to go to four or five-bar MAP, along with more injector, and keep pushing.”