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Sneak Peek: A Look Inside Modular Mustang Racing’s Drag Mustang
By Khiem Dinh
Photos Courtesy of Garrett by Honeywell
Khiem Dinh is an engineer for Honeywell Turbo Technologies at the time of this writing. All statements and opinions expressed by Khiem Dinh are solely those of Khiem Dinh and not reflective of Honeywell Turbo Technologies.
To go fast in the quarter mile, it’s hard to beat some good ole American muscle. Greg Seth-Hunter hailing from Simi Valley, CA drives this Mustang built by Modular Mustang Racing out of Camarillo, CA. This drag car might feature traditional domestic power, but it eschews the old mainstays of the drag strip of superchargers and nitrous for turbo power. Here’s a peek at a six second quarter mile dragster representing a new trend in domestic power.
The basis of the car is a Jerry Hass built 2007 Mustang GT500 chassis that was purchased in the middle of 2011. The car was built in short order and made its first full pass in February, 2012 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway; on this very first pass, Greg Seth-Hunter was able to run a 6.52 at 217mph. Being that this was the car’s first full run down the strip to shake the car down, everything was kept fairly conservative. With more development time and testing, expect the car to significantly drop the ET and increase the trap speed.
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| The heart of this monster is a 5.4L, 32V, modular Ford V8 built to produce roughly 2,400hp. To handle the massive cylinder pressures generated by multiple atmospheres of boost pressure, Manley 300m rods and custom Manley pistons are used in the bottom end. Actuating the valves are MMR spec Stage 3 turbo cams. Greg Seth-Hunter is not only a driver, but also a fabricator. He created the intake manifold sitting atop the engine. The silver cylinders on the passenger side of the engine bay next to the firewall are the breather and overflow tanks for the engine oil. |
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| Compressing and forcing the air into the engine are a pair of Garrett GT4718s. The turbos are mounted on manifolds fabricated by Greg Seth-Hunter with the exhaust flow regulated by a pair of Tial wastegates. Controlling the pair of wastegates is a MSD boost controller. |
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| To make 2,400hp out of a 5.4L requires very high boost pressures. Higher boost pressures mean higher temperatures (here’s a refresher if you need it). To bring the charged air temperatures down, a Garrett air-to-water core is used as the base for the intercooler. Here you can see the two compressor outlets neatly routed to the intercooler. The black Earl’s hose and fittings contain the water flow while the Tial blow-off valve mounted to the intercooler vents off the excess pressure. |
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| A MSD HVC-2 Coil helps create the massive spark required when running very high boost pressures. A big K&N filter performs the oil filtering duties and V-band clamps are found at many of the compressed air and exhaust pipe joints. The twin exhausts dump out just in front of the front tires. Noticed how they are angled upwards. The engine creates so much flow that the exhaust creates very effective downforce. |
