When Erik and the gang at MSD sent me the link to video of Luis Gutierrez’s 8.22 at 169 mph pass in his street driven Fox Body Mustang, I was impressed. Like a lot of good drag radial cars, this thing left nice and then started putting down serious power on it’s way to a killer ET and MPH. He’s so thrilled, he’s aiming for the 7’s now because there is so much left in it. And with less than 25 lbs of boost going through this little sucker right now, we believe it! But how do you control a boosted car like this so that it doesn’t just put the tires up in smoke, especially on a local track that hasn’t been prepped to perfection? Well, thanks to their willingness to share some data, you can see just how.

Luis, aka TurboLuie, works in MSD’s Customer Service Department and took his newly built street legal Mustang out to the local track in El Paso in order to get some much needed seat time. Using the MSD Power Grid to control boost and traction, the little Fox Body ran 8.22 @ 169 mph. Since the car has shown such promise, Luis is now aiming squarely for that 7 second timeslip. The video below looks super tame down low, and really starts hauling the mail once the boost comes in hard. Below the video you’ll find graphs and information about the run and how the Power Grid controls the traction to let this car do what it does so well.

Using the MSD Boost Control module (PN 77631), Luis was able to bring the boost in at a slow rate which helps keep the drag radial tire hooked up and moving without spinning. You’ll note in the graph below that the boost target is the blue line, and the actual boost level is the thin red line. This shows how close the Boost Control module allows the boost to get to target, without spiking over it.

 If the tire does start to get loose, the ARC module goes to work. The ARC module (PN 7761) is capable of retarding the timing, initiating the rev limiter, or both, to control wheel speed and therefore traction. The graph below shows that even at the big end of the track the tires are trying to spin bu the ARC put it in check.

This is the data acquisition from the Power Grid, which shows the ARC module controlling the tire through ignition timing. ARC Active, the purple line, indicates when the driveshaft speed is above the target. It then pulls timing, the red line, in order to get it back under control. If you look at both the graph above, and the one below, you’ll see the driveshaft speed spiking. This is when the ARC comes into play.

 FOR MORE INFORMATION ON MSD PRODUCTS, AND HOW TO USE THEM, VISIT MSDPERFORMANCE.COM