Steeda Changes Silver Bullet’s Caliber And Attacks 1/4-Mile

There comes a time when you get tired of chasing the rabbit hole of records to stay on top. This was the case with Steeda’s “Silver Bullet” Mustang, which had held the title of fastest N/A Coyote for many years. The car was built with the intention of showing what can be done with a naturally-aspirated street car, and this was to be done without hacking up the body. When the record started getting crushed by extremely lightened cars, it was time to move on.

The goal of keeping the car in formal street gear stayed in place, but for this year a forced induction unit had worked its way under the hood. Silver Bullets driver, Scott Boda sat down with us to discuss the company’s car, its future and how we got to this point.

Director Of Drag Racing

Steeda’s main passion is road racing. So, when drag racing came into the picture it became a friendly work place rivalry between a few employees. While participating in different events, the entire Steeda team works together. This team centric environment has allowed them to grow into new markets.

“We’ve always been a company that wants to be relatable to our clients,” Boda continued. “When people started making 100 horsepower more based on fuel alone, we decided to give it a shot. On the third pull we stuck a high pressure injector open and took the passenger side bank out. We knew our clients didn’t want to be on the level of changing short blocks and melting pistons frequently just to set naturally-aspirated records, so we decided to go with boost.”

Let The New Build Commence!

“We had a few low mileage 2019 Mustang short blocks laying around the shop, so we decided to go ahead and run what we have, instead of waiting on backordered pistons,” said Boda. “Then, we installed a set of Comp Cams and good heads on top. After the motor was finished we mounted the new Edelbrock Mustang GT E-Force Stage 2 supercharger kit. We got a little aggressive and swapped in a 2.5-inch pulley, instead of using the 3.25 that came with the kit. The motor was backed by a Circle-D Specialities torque converter. At this point we wanted to recognize our true goal of becoming an 8-second car while still retaining reliable street car manners.”

Instead of chopping up a chassis to knock tenths from the drag strip, Steeda only lightened the car marginally. “The car is far from a lightweight weight at 3,635 pounds. We did knock off a little bit with the help of Optic Armor windows, carbon-fiber hood and trunk lid, along with seats,” Said Boda. “However, we ended up adding 350-lbs back with the blower, Watson Racing six-point roll bar roll cage, Steeda six-point safety harness, and Bret Barber 7-gallon ice tank in the trunk. I almost threw up when we rolled it across the scales!”

The previous naturally-aspirated build had already covered all the suspension nuances and company product promotion. This left Steeda to finish tuning, converter, and gearing before the car was race ready.

Steeda’s Georgia location has an on-site dyno, which allowed them to tune onsite with Lund Racing to make sure everything is working properly.

“After the car was tuned, we worked on finding the perfect converter to cut our 60-foot times down. This car has been through over 15 converters in the past, but thankfully the new supercharger setup wasn’t as difficult with the help of Circle D Specialities,” said Boda. “We found the most testing going towards gear ratios. We tried every darn ratio in the world with this car. I loved the 3.15, but once we went above 139 mph the car wanted 3.31. After adding 3.31 we could add a taller tire on the back and hit a little harder out of the hole. Plus the 29.4 grows a little more going through the traps.”

Proving Grounds

Boda stated that Steeda’s ultimate goal was to run 8.50s in True Street form for the Mod Nationals at South Georgia Motorsports Park. While they had the home-track advantage, time was not on their side. The build was barely finished with only 15 days remaining before the event. This would, however, be the perfect proving ground, as modular cars and trucks from around the United States would be in attendance. The newly supercharged motor would be put to the test.

When Mod Nationals rolled around the car was facing stiff competition. However, with Boda behind the wheel they still managed to knock out a personal best of 8.69 at 157 MPH. After several more rounds the average time slip was 8.775, which earned the car the title of overall fastest vehicle in Modular True Street…on a stock block engine! Boda managed to hole-shot almost everyone with 1.3-second 60-foot times — a testament to the Steeda products used.

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Steeda has created a street-able, well-mannered Mustang. At only 16 psi, the car will still run 8-second 1/4-mile times, and it can also drive home from the track and not need a new block! Steeda’s plan to stay on course with their customer base turned out perfect. Customers can duplicate this build with off-the-shelf products proving that high dollar custom builds aren’t required to make results happen.

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James Elkins

Born into a household of motorsport lovers, James learned that wrenching takes priority over broken skin and damaged nerves. Passions include fixing previous owners’ mistakes, writing, and driving.
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