In the world of drag racing, some records are more important than others. And sometimes, it pays out to keep track of what the community calls micro-records. Case in point with the adventure that brought us here, namely the first S650 Ford Mustang to pull a 9s quarter-mile run, all with the help of nitrous.
While not all that different from the car it replaces, the 2024 Mustang can be a tough nut to crack for tuners. No, really, with Ford having locked the S650 ECU, only select aftermarket developers get access, and none has released tunes so far.
Of course, this hasn’t stopped drag racers from pushing the seventh-generation Mustang further. And now a Maryland-based shop called Justin’s Performance Center Racing (JPC Racing) has delivered the first 2024 Mustang in the 9s. And this is no upper-limit time shenanigan. Instead, after a few attempts, this nitrous-fed S650 Mustang GT with the 10-speed automatic did a 9.57s quarter-mile run at 141 mph. This makes it the quickest (ET) and fastest (trap speed) S650 Mustang to date.
Plus, that’s quite a long way from the factory numbers of the S650 Mustang, which place the GT at 12.5s and the Dark Horse at 12 seconds flat. It’s also worth noting that a bone stock 2024 Mustang on 295/40 Mickey Thompson ET Street SS rear tires did a 12.3s quarter-mile run, matching the performance of its predecessor.
How to make the S650 Mustang quicker/faster when drag racing
The modifications required to turn the 2024 Mustang into a 9s car kicked off with a 175 shot of nitrous (via Nitrous Express), which means the Gen IV 5.0L Coyote V8 jumps from 486 to at least 661 hp. Other custom parts involve the exhaust (long tube headers, Steeda parts), a piece from the Driveshaft Shop, TBM brakes, and suspension supplied by KellTrac.
Then there’s the 2024 Mustang’s so-called Drag Pack wheels and tires. This includes Weld beadlock rear wheels shod in Mickey Thompson rubber at the back and skinnies up front. And with a 60-foot time of 1.459s, you can clearly see the nitrous S650 takes off like a rocket.
As you can notice in the drag strip clip below, the 9.5s quarter-mile run of the 2024 Mustang on nitrous didn’t do the 10-speed automatic transmission any favors. However, the shop explains this will all be sorted out once a tune can be installed.
“175 shot, still no tune, the car is shifting very erratically at this power level and required manually commanding shifts with the paddle and also still short shifting out of 6th gear. With tuning this will be once again greatly improved,” the specialist states.
With SEMA 2023 just around the corner (thanks to an extended take, this year the event takes place between October 31 and November 3), we could see the first S650 Mustang ECU tune at the Las Vegas event—hey, SEMA is bringing a Coyote V8-powered sixth-gen Ford Bronco to the game!