1985 Ford Mustang - Test and Tune

Sunday, Sunday, SundayHaving a 9-second timeslip without the aid of a power adder was pretty cool (we even used 91-octane pump gas to boot!), however, we weren't satisfied. After learning that LACR was offering an open test-and-tune session on Sunday, we spent Saturday looking over the motor and chassis and evaluating our data from Friday's outing.

The weather was better, with ambient temperatures in the 70s and no wind. The air-density-adjusted elevation was slightly higher at 5,000 feet compared to Friday's 3,000-foot conditions, and it showed on our first motor pass. Our 9.89 slowed to a 10.33 at 133 mph, but unlike the earlier outing, the chassis stuck to the ground and drove like it was on rails. Feeling pretty confident, we set fuel pressure on the nitrous side to 9 psi and placed the 100-shot pill into its perch. Leaving out of the hole at idle, the Mustang laid down a 1.38-second sixty-foot and ran a 9.40 at 144.88 mph! There was no drama on the top end and the car even looked boring at the starting line. The Mustang barely squatted and shot out with the front tires still hugging the ground.

If a 100 shot is good, then the 200 shot would certainly be better, right? We swapped out the nitrous jets and tried again. Just like the initial nitrous pass, there was very little drama and everything looked great right up until the 1,000-foot marker. RV was slowing down at a significant pace and we gritted our teeth thinking the 408 had pitched some rods or driven over the crank. The timing board lit up a 9.03 at 149 mph, but we had no idea what happened.

Despite our panic attack, it simply turned out that the wide-open-throttle nitrous-activation switch had gone south and shut down the solenoids. After a quick request over the loudspeaker, we were back in business thanks to Car Craft reader Al from Santa Clarita, California, who stepped up and handed us a new throttle switch. Back in the game, RV lined up in the staging beams and we watched as he accelerated out of the hole with a 1.27 sixty-foot time and crossed the traps with a mind-boggling 8.69 at 161 mph-not bad for a crate engine. The only question now is where do we go from here?