In the relatively short amount of time that has elapsed since the arrival of the new 5.0-liter Ford Mustang GT on dealer lots, these cars have dominated the headlines as speed shops and Ford aficionados have engaged in an all-out race to become the first to surpass a multitude of performance barriers. We’ve seen the Five-Oh’s break into the tens, and subsequently, into the nines. Stock engine with a tune, stock engines with a single power adder, bolt-ons with stock tires; you name it, someone has put that variation on the race track and run the bejesus out of it. And so it would only be logical that the next step for this venerable new Pony is an eight-second time slip. And if the guys at Evolution Performance have their way, that slip will soon be framed and proudly hanging on their office wall in Aston, Pennsylvania.

The 8-Second Pass Video

Evolution Performance, known as one of the premier performance shops in the Mustang community, purchased their 2011 5.0L GT – one of the very first to roll off the production line – from a Maryland Ford dealership in April and set off on their mission to become the first 5.0L to hang an eight-second lap on the scoreboards. The car was taken from the dealer right to the race track, where it produced low 13-second elapsed times in fully stock form. Following some minor changes to the car along with a custom tune, they quickly found themselves in the elevens. They then proceeded to chip away at those precious ticks of the timing clocks upon installing a two-stage nitrous setup, producing a best run of 10.22 at 137 MPH with that combination and the stock engine.

While all of this was transpiring, a new long block was being prepared for the car at L&M Race Engines in nearby Hatboro, PA that would produce the power necessary for powering the Mustang to single digit elapsed times. The new powerplant would utilize a stock cubic inch, 5.0L block with 10:1 compression, housing a set of forged Diamond Pistons and Oliver billet rods, and sporting the stock camshaft, cylinder heads, intake manifold, and throttle body. The heart of it all, however, is the F1C ProCharger feeding through a front-mounted water-to-water intercooler that produces upwards of 24 pounds of boost, along with a methanol fuel system tuned by Jon Lund. A set of 1 7/8-inch open headers with 3.5-inch collectors rounds out the combination. The power is transferred via a ProFormance prepped C4 transmission.

Up front is a set of Strange Engineering double adjustable struts, and a fabricated Evolution Performance 9-inch rear end housing with a fabricated anti-roll bar out back.

With just three passes on the new engine combination prior, the main men at Evolution Performance, Fred Cook and Nelson Whitlock, hauled the car to Bowling Green Kentucky for the NMRA World Finals with one goal in mind: an eight-second pass. With all of the horsepower they were making, traction issues plagued their efforts throughout the weekend. On Saturday, the boost was cranked from 20 pounds up to 24 in hopes of making up for the tire spin through the latter part of the racetrack. This netted what Cook and Whitlock would have to settle for as their best pass of the weekend at 9.10, as in the final session under the lights, the traction issues were clearly cured as Whitlock powered into a massive, bumper-dragging wheelstand that caused enough damage upon return from orbit to put an unfortunate early end to their weekend. Despite that, the Evolution Performance team turned a lot of heads whilst put their name at the forefront of 2011 5.0L and GT performance before Mustang racings’ largest audience, and with more then ample amounts of horsepower to get the job done, it’s only a matter of when, and not if, they get that eight-second pass.