When it comes to what qualifies as “stock,” there are as many definitions as there are for “street car.” However, when a bolt-on Mustang Dark Horse topped by a Whipple supercharger belts out four digits on a hub dyno while spinning to 9,000 rpm, you have to walk away impressed.

Now, from the moment that Ford engineers told us the Mustang Dark Horse would share the same rugged connecting rods as its 760-horsepower Predator 5.2 cousin, we wondered just how much boost these bad boys would be able to handle. However, it wasn’t until the aftermarket unlocked tuning that tuners and shops could unleash the full potential of the Dark Horse variant of the Gen 4 Coyote 5.0-liter V-8.

To find out what the Dark Horse-spec Gen 4 5.0-liter engine could do with a Whipple supercharger, Evolution Performance turned to Lund Racing to calibrate the combination. They tested the results on the shop’s in-house Dynocom hub dyno. (Photo Credit: Evolution Performance)

One of those leading the charge in four-digit development for the S650 era is Evolution Performance, which recently pushed its fully built Dark Horse into the deep four digits with an impressive 1,369-horsepower pull on the dyno, set out to see what the stock engine could do with a proper supporting cast (see sidebar below). Topped by the aforementioned Whipple 3.0-liter GEN 6 supercharger delivering undisclosed boost, its only internal mods were a set of Boundary Dual Rotor Oil Pump Gears and a Boundary Anti-Cavitation Backing Plate, which are only in place for the sake of durability.

Sturdy Stallion

“This engine has consistently undergone rigorous testing, including numerous high-boost dyno sessions and in excess of one hundred boosted quarter-mile passes,” the shop said.

Let loose on the dyno, the Whipplecharged Dark Horse let it rip to 9,000 rpm and delivered peak outputs of 1,346.9 horsepower and 873.3 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels.

To extract maximum power from this bolt-on combination, Evolution worked with longtime partner, Lund Racing, which calibrated the Dark Horse using HP Tuners hardware and software. The results were flat-out impressive, as this S650 put down nearly as much power as its fully built stablemate. The final numbers clocked in at 1,346.9 horsepower and 873.3 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels.

The idea that a modern car with the engine it was born with still under the hood can easily and consistently deliver more than 1,300 horsepower at the rear wheels, as seen in this blown Dark Horse, is a concept that would have seemed insane just a few years ago. We are just at the outset of the tuned S650 era, so it will be interesting to see what the Gen 4 Coyote, particularly the robust Dark Horse variant, is capable of in the future.