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2018 Mustang GT Steeda Drag Car, Part 1: Beginning the Build

Early last week, just in time for Thanksgiving, we received our 2018 Mustang GT down here in our Pompano Beach, FL location. A silver, bare-bones base package GT, featuring Ford's new 10-speed automatic transmission; we can't think of a better Thanksgiving present! Right off the bat, we got it in the shop to start its transformation into one of Steeda's ferocious 'Stangs.

With our signature Sidewinder and Windshield decals in place, we pulled the car onto the dyno to get an idea of what we had to work with. The 10-speed automatic transmission felt solid and laid down some solid power. Fresh from the factory with no mods, we posted 399 rwhp and 392 ft.-lb. of torque in 7th gear. Not bad for the bare bones Mustang, but those numbers were quickly forgotten in place of the potential we envisioned for this car!

In a month or so we'll be receiving a red 2018 GT, which we'll be converting into a road-racing monster. In the meantime, we're going to turn this silver fastback into a drag racing machine! With base numbers recorded, we installed our Cold Air Intake and began tweaking the tune. Our dedicated tune guru, James, spent the day Wednesday testing and evaluating different settings, trying to really dial in the shift points on this 10-speed transmission. By day's end, the new tune + CAI setup made a sizable increase in horsepower and torque (author's note: We're still dialing in the tune and will put the car back on the dyno to get you the final results, stay tuned for dyno graphs). With a solid day's work and some extra power in the 2018, our team headed home to enjoy Thanksgiving with their families. BUT, not before data logging some burnouts...because...ya know, SCIENCE!

This week our VP, Glen Vitale, put some miles on the car, driving it up to our Valdosta, GA manufacturing facility. Since its arrival up there, the car has been poked and prodded, tried and tested, all in the name of product development so we can get you guys the parts you want and need as soon as possible! With the car in our engineering team's hands, we'll have more high-quality, perfectly fitting parts for your 2018 Mustangs in no time!

This weekend they'll be taking the car to SGMP for some 1/4-mile fun, so stay tuned for more updates to come! We'll be sharing short blog posts like this as both of our 2018 builds progress, so if you're modifying your own 2018 be sure to stick around. Our ultimate goal with this 2018 Mustang is to show you just how fast you can go without breaking the bank!