During our race around the the trade show circuit, we spied a beautiful vintage Mustang holding court with Holley Performance Products. In and of itself, a Mustang at a trade show is not unusual, but this one was adorned with a sticker on the rear window that read “Holley EFI Coyote TiVCT Test Car,” which had us slamming on the brakes to take a look and find out more.

It turns out this car is an all-out project car, dubbed Project Corner Horse, that Holley is using to develop its new controller for the Coyote engine’s Twin Independent Variable Cam Timing. The company has long had a harness to run the latest 5.0-liter engine with its EFI systems, but they lacked the ability to control the camshafts.

“As you know, Holley EFI released at plug and play version for the Coyote TiVCT engine. However, our first offering was a locked camshaft situation more suited for drag racing or high-rpm applications,” Robin Lawrence, Director EFI Business Development at ‎Holley Performance Products, said. “As promised we are within months of completing our TiVCT configuration so that people who are looking for that low-end torque characteristic of the variable cam timing in the Coyote can take full advantage of the cam phasing.”

The factory PCMs reference up to 15 different tables of programming to independently move the camshafts to deliver improved performance and efficiency based on the rpm, load, etc. It can swing the cams as much a 50 degrees of crankshaft movement in just .02 of a second. In practice, this allows meaty torque down low and scintillating revs up high, all while meeting fuel economy and emissions standards.

• 
• 
• 

When available, the company promises it Holley EFI Coyote TiVCT controller will plug into its current Dominator and HP EFI systems and offer superior cam control below 4,000 rpm.

There are other aftermarket solutions for harnessing the Coyote’s variable cams, so Holley engineers put a lot of effort into developing the company’s new controller.

“The one thing about our TiVCT control versus a lot of others—which we have tested—is this one has superior control of the camshaft location below 4,000 rpm,” he said. “So we are very, very excited about the time and effort we put into this application and we are looking forward to doing more testing and playing with the Coyote.”

• 
• 
• 
• 

Project Corner Horse is a fully realized project car built as a test bed for the new Holley EFI Coyote TiVCT controller. Inside it features Holley gauges and Recaro seats. Meanwhile it rolls on Evod wheels with BFG tires. It was, however, the sticker in the rear window that caught our eye.

That development is the reason for the existence of Project Corner Horse, as the Holley TiVCT controller is still under development. One of the challenges to overcome is developing a system that works with both flavors of Coyote engines.

There is no official release date for the controller yet, but expect it to be ready to howl when it does arrive. Robin said that it will first come as a piggyback controller for Holley HP or Dominator EFI systems, but it may one day be incorporated into the EFI systems themselves.

“Ford has two versions of the TiVCT engine. One is the 2011 to 2014 Coyote and in 2015 they actually changed the phaser type and the limits of that phaser,” Robin said. “That design limits the phaser to a different position than the standard (pre-2015) phaser when it shuts off. So, we are now completing our study and analysis and we are having to verify everything on the later model engine so that we will cover the breadth of the line.”

“A lot of other companies out there have very lackluster cam control below 4,000 rpm, which is where you want to have your cam control,” he added. “We worked very, very hard on getting that right. It will be superior to some of the other aftermarket options with regard to cam control.”

We definitely look forward to seeing what the combination of Holley EFI and this new controller can do for the world of Coyote performance, so stay tuned.