Mustang Makes God-like Horsepower, Kills Its Own Tranny on the Strip
Youtubers fall short of their eight-second goal when their pony exceeds the power its 10R80 transmission can handle.
There’s nothing worse than putting a lot of time and effort into a car, only for something to immediately go wrong. Unfortunately, this happens more often than not when upgrading a car’s performance. Additional power puts a lot of stress on drivetrain components that weren’t necessarily engineered to take them.
Mexico Racing League fell victim to that exact scenario. In a recent video, their S550 GT was aimed at running an eight-second quarter-mile but seemed to be running into some issues.
The video starts off with some light-hearted smack talk and a walk around their shop, with an overview of all the cars and projects they are working on. It becomes clear that the owner of the Mustang has put another drag car, a trans-am, on hold. Evidently, the trans am runs 8s already. However, it seems our video host would prefer the mustang chassis. When challenged to run sevens, he stated that he would do exactly that in the mustang, eventually.
Unfortunately, towards the end of the video, we see the Mustang at the track trapping in the low 9s. While that is quite a feat on its own, it is just a hair shy of their goal. As it would turn out, the power they are running is a bit more than a stock 10R80 is willing to put up with. While the transmission didn’t have a major mechanical failure, it wasn’t shifting as smoothly or as quickly as it should be. In the video, the crew discusses a slow, slippery shift from second to third gear.
This failure is not going to keep the Mexico Racing League team down, though.
“Here’s what we’re going to do: We’re going to pull this 10-speed out, refresh it, and sell it. Then we’re going 400” Said the owner, referring to a built TH400 automatic transmission.
This car is going to be one to keep your eyes on. It would seem these guys aren’t going to let anything get in the way of putting a Mustang into the 7s.
Photos: Screenshots