11 Seconds in Heaven

Revolution Automotive puts its 2015 Mustang GT solidly in the 11s—at full weight!

By Steve Turner
Photos by Rob Rabon Photography

If you are into Mustang performance, you live in an intoxicating time. Seemingly moments after the 2015 Mustangs arrived on dealer lots, these cars instantly hit drag strips and dynos across the country. One shop in particular, Revolution Automotive, started pushing the new Mustang GT’s naturally aspirated performance right from the jump.

With less than 200 miles on the clock of the company project car, Revolution Automotive’s Adam Browne headed right to the drag strip to get a feel for the car and record a baseline.

“First impressions at the drag strip were mixed. I ran it last Wednesday, the 15th, 100-percent stock on the factory 19-inch Pirelli Performance Pack tires. It wheel-hopped really badly,” Adam explained. “No matter what launch rpm or air pressure, it would hop on the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts. Other than that, the car drove awesome. I was able to power-shift every gear with no issues. Also, the days of rearend sway are gone with the IRS.”

You can watch the car’s baseline runs right here:

“Fast forward to Saturday the 18th. With the rear hop, we decided to use a bias-ply slick for the rear. It worked flawlessly. We ended up using 28×10-inch R17 Hoosier Drag slicks with the D06 compound on 17.9.5 Weld RTS wheels,” Adam added. “The fronts are 17×4.5-inch Weld Aluma Stars. On a side note, the ’15s use 14 x1.5 mm wheel studs now, instead of ½x20 of the previous years. So using conical-seat wheels relieves a lot of issues.”

Other than the wheels and tires, the car’s mods were a base SCT Performance tune, a JLT Performance CAI and a JLT Performance oil separator. It was at full weight with ¾ of a tank of 93-octane fuel.

“I was definitely cautious launching it for the first time. With the tires set at 14 psi and me riding the clutch out from 5,000 rpm, it ran a 12.4 at 114. It felt real lazy out of the hole,” Adam explained. “I went back to my datalogs and saw there was some torque-limiting going on during the run. So, I went into my SCT software and made some changes.”

Apparently Adam’s tweaks worked. The car responded well, and he dialed in the driver mod too.

“Things got better, my next launch was a little more aggressive but the tune changes helped it run a 12.06 at 116.46. After going over the datalog of the run I made more changes in the SCT software. My final run of the day I aired the rears up to 16 psi, launched at 5,500 rpm and power-shifted every gear at 6,500 rpm. I was short-shifting a bit but it worked. It ran an 11.87 at 117.38 with a 1.701 60-foot time.”

Naturally, these runs are just the beginning of Revolution Automotive’s S550 project. Like most other shops cars, there are big plans for the car, but Adam plans to stay the all-natural course.

“As far as future plans, we have American Racing Headers long-tubes and an FRPP cat-back going on the car this week. We will do before-and-after dyno testing to see the results. With just those parts I really think we have a shot at getting it into the 10s naturally aspirated. We are trying to do that this weekend.”

That is a bold statement, and we will definitely stay tuned for the short-term developments. Down the road Adam plans to expand the car’s horizons.

“Long-term we will be testing IRS upgrades (halfshafts and bushings) weight reduction, shifter upgrades, driveshaft and look to see some RTR products on the car. We will be road racing the car in the spring as well,” he added.

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