8-Second Stick-Shifted Turbocharged Mustang
With a Full Interior and Working A/C, This 8-Second Door Slammer Really Has the Slick-Shifting Moves
These days in drag racing, it seems like every car is the same. Everyone runs an automatic transmission to keep their turbos spooled. They all sound the same. They all look the same. This Fox Mustang is a bit different, though, as it has a Tremec T5 Magnum manual transmission to go with its wrinkle-wall slicks and anti-lag. This monster Mustang pops and cracks while waiting for the lights to go green, then bolts away faster than any manually-shifted car we’ve ever seen. It’s incredible!
The interior view of this high-8-second run is phenomenal to see, showing just how fast acting the driver has to be to slam that next gear home. It also shows how stout the transmission and synchros have to be in order to take that kind of jolting stress.
CHECK OUT: What Forum Members Are Saying About This Slick-Shifting ‘Stang
At the beginning of the video, the owner/driver explains what the car has under the hood, and it sounds like a screamer. It’s still a 3200-pound street car with a full interior and working A/C! This is a car you could comfortably drive on the street, and then run 8-second passes at the strip all day.
In our eyes, it is so much more impressive to run a fast time like this with a manual gearbox than with an automatic. On one of the runs, you can see he pops the clutch a little too fast on the launch, and gets a bit of wheelspin. When the wheels finally hook up, the front end picks up a few inches before really putting the power down and setting a 9.1-second run. With a manual transmission, it’s really more on the driver to get that great time. It separates a decent driver from a really great one.
