The excitement that accompanies a new pony’s arrival might be tempered by the digital fortress that Ford erected around the 2024 Mustang’s powertrain control module. Yet, the desire to stake new claims and record new milestones remains undeterred amongst the aftermarket’s usual suspects.

Once tuning is available and you can run straight E85 these cars will drop a half a second in the quarter mile. — Scott Boda, Steeda

Among them is Steeda, which made big moves with its 2018 Mustang GT, known as Steeda’s Silver Bullet. With the arrival of the S650, the company reloaded with the Silver Bullet 2.0, a 2024 Mustang GT equipped with the 10R80 automatic transmission. They quickly put the car deep into the 11-second range by deploying a host of in-house suspension upgrades and a smattering of other aftermarket gear.

However, the next goal was a 10-second run. Recently, the Silver Bullet 2.0 did just that. With the company’s Director of Manufacturing and in-house drag strip hot shoe Scott Boda behind the wheel, they achieved that goal at South Georgia Motorsports Park running the stock tunning, 93-octane pump gas in the tank, and no power adders onboard. The naturally aspirated Silver Bullet 2.0 clicked off a 10.959-second pass at 124.64 mph.

“It felt like a Sunday cruise and was super composed. We took some heat for throwing the entire Steeda suspension catalog at the car when it was basically still stock. Of course, it doesn’t need a 7-second suspension on it, but we did that for a variety of reasons,” Boda says. “The first was to test-fit our parts on the new S650 and we never wanted traction to be an issue, and it hasn’t been. This allowed us to focus on the little things, like weight reduction, aerodynamics, and gear ratios.”

While the car has a robust set of modifications despite its lack of custom tuning, it all comes down to the basics on the drag strip. Boda and the Steeda team emphasized the all-important 60-foot time and balanced that with keeping the car in the sweet spot of its powerband at the top of the track. The car responded with the right converter, gear ratio, and new tires.

“I think it was a combination of things. One, getting the car to leave hard enough to run a low 1.6x 60-foot, we went a 1.62 with the help of a Circle D converter and some fresh Mickey Thompson tires,” Boda explains. “Second was having enough rpm going through the traps to allow the S650 to make the horsepower it needed to get the 10-second time slip. That was the hardest part as the 10R80 shifts out of Sixth gear at only 6,700 rpm, while it shifts the other gears above 7,000 rpm.

As well as the Silver Bullet 2.0 isn’t without challenges, as the lack of tuning affects more than just driveability and power output, it extends to the all-important shift schedules on an automatic car.

Believe it or not, people confused the Silver Bullet 2.0 with its 8-second predecessor (behind Steeda driver and Director of Manufacturing, Scott Boda), hence the flashy blue accent wrap on the Steeda S650.

“It was a big challenge considering the short shifting of the 10R80 in sixth gear. That’s what was our biggest struggle. We have tried every gear but the 3.15s, as the car just doesn’t make enough power without tuning or E85 to use them. It liked the 3.31s as it trapped 128 mph with them, but it was lazy out of the hole, 1.67 60-foot. With the 3.55s it would make the shift into seventh at the 1,310-foot mark, which isn’t ideal,” Boda details. “With the 3.73s, we embraced the gear change and it allowed for slightly higher rpm so it would be making more power through the traps. In a perfect world, where you could tune this platform, we would lock the 10R80 in sixth gear so we could cross the stripe as close to 7,400 rpm (peak power) as possible. I honestly think, once tuning is available and you can run straight E85 these cars will drop a half a second in the quarter mile.”

Until tuning arrives, you can expect the Steeda crew to keep increasing the caliber of the Silver Bullet 2.0, so stay tuned.