Street-legal 961-horsepower Mustang GT runs 9.51 seconds in the quarter mile.
Brian Devilbiss lays a patch down on the way to a mid-9-second run with his new stock-block Edelbrock-supercharged 2018 Ford Mustang GT. SCROLL DOWN to see video of the first quarter-mile pass with Stage 2 mods.

Fans of NMRA Street Outlaw drag racing know Brian Devilbiss as the owner of the first Shelby GT500 to hit the 6-second bracket. “Devil’s Reject” is the name that most of us know his 2013 Grabber Blue Mustang by, and according to the car’s builders at Evolution Performance in Aston, PA, it was also the first Shelby GT500 on 275 tires to run in the sixes.

For the past several years, Evolution has been hitting us with a deluge of late-model Mustangs making big numbers on the dyno and then backing up those numbers with some impressive passes down the drag strip. So, when it came time for Devilbiss to start modifying his newest 2018 Mustang GT to prowl the streets of his hometown of Gettysburg, PA, there was no question as to who would be handling the engine-building chores.

Edelbrock Supercharger kit for the 2018-2019 Ford Mustang GT
Ready for installation at Evolution Performance, the new Edelbrock Supercharger Kit #15832 for the Gen 3 Coyote engine is 50-state emissions-legal in Stage 1 trim. (Photo courtesy of Front Street Media)

Our friends at Front Street Media were present during the Stage 1 and Stage 2 building processes of Devilbiss’ 2018 Mustang GT at Evolution Performance and you can follow the detailed steps of the installation in this story called “Forcing the Issue: Edelbrock’s R2650 Supercharger Makes Crazy Power On 2018 Mustang.” As the story’s author Jason Reiss stated, “…you will be shocked by its capabilities on a completely stock engine outfitted with long-tube headers and an exhaust system, because we sure were!”

Mustang GT supercharger installation
The initial Stage 1 installation is nearly complete on the Evolution lift. (Photo courtesy of Front Street Media)

The premise of this build was simple: stock block, ultra-reliable operation for street driving, and stout performance with forced induction in the form of a new Edelbrock R2650 Twin Vortices Series (TVS) supercharger kit. As Reiss pointed out in his Front Street story, “What makes [the TVS-style supercharger] so attractive to the end-user is that there’s no waiting for the boost to come in—it’s virtually instant. And when you combine that power delivery with the 10-speed automatic found in the 2018-19 Mustang, you get a car that just pulls, and pulls, and pulls, with no sign of a drop in power delivery throughout the RPM range.”

“Your traditional centrifugal supercharger needs RPM to build boost, but with the Edelbrock R2650, there’s no waiting for that power to come on,” says Nick Purciello, Product Manager for Edelbrock’s supercharger systems. “You put your foot to the floor, the bypass valve closes, and an instant 10 PSI or more is available from very low RPM. That means faster acceleration from the moment you want to accelerate, to the moment you want to stop accelerating, if that ever exists.”

“Ultimately, this kit touches on a number of important factors that set it apart from the competition. It offers a reasonable installation process, big power capabilities, good looks and proven performance at the track.” – Jason Reiss, Front Street Media

When asked why they chose the Edelbrock kit for the Mustang, Evolution Performance Sales and Marketing Director Fred Cook replied, “We chose this kit for its unique design and excellent fit and finish. We’ve noticed that the intercooling system does an excellent job of maintaining consistent temperatures, and installation is probably one of the easiest in the industry.”

The kit for Devilbiss’ street ‘Stang uses the latest R2650 rotor assembly that forces 2.65-liters of air into the engine with every revolution of the rotors, which is 15-percent more than what other R2300 superchargers are capable of. The Edelbrock R2650 rotors feature an additional 10 degrees of twist that improves the efficiency of the system and translates to an ultra-smooth and linear torque curve with more usable performance across the entire powerband.

We’ve noticed that the intercooling system does an excellent job of maintaining consistent temperatures, and installation is probably one of the easiest in the industry.” – Fred Cook, Evolution Performance

Another integral part of the Edelbrock R2650 supercharger powering Devilbiss’ Mustang GT is the high-capacity DP-3C air-to-water intercooler system. With the highly efficient design of this dual-pass (DP) intercooler, the intake air charge passes through the system not once but twice. Pass one comes up directly from the rotors and flows through the center cooling core. Pass two moves the air charge down through the left and right outer sections of the cooling core directly into the runners. “The dual-pass, three-core intercooler is something really special. It’s perfect for the street, but also high-boost, high-horsepower racing applications,” says Purciello.

The Edelbrock Supercharger Kit for the 2018/19 Mustang GT requires no modifications to the Mustang body or hood. This also means that you do not have to get out the grinder to cut away part of the timing cover to install the bracket for the new tensioner. The entire kit is designed to bolt onto existing mounting locations of the stock Coyote engine. This is an extremely important feature for the do-it-yourself installer who doesn’t plan to involve a professional shop to perform the installation.

Evolution Performance built this particular Coyote engine in two stages with Lund Racing’s lead calibrator Jon Lund, Jr. handling the custom-tuning duties each time. The Stage 1 version is the basic street-legal build that the majority of Mustang owners who do all of their driving on the street would be interested in. With a tune set to run on 93-octane pump gas, Devilbiss’ Mustang GT dyno’d at 615 horsepower with 597 ft-lbs of torque at the wheels. The dyno chart is viewable in the Front Street installation story and shows a seriously smooth curve.

Stage 2 Edelbrock supercharger
Here’s a look at the completed Edelbrock Stage 2 supercharger installation. Evolution Performance dyno test resulted in 961 horsepower with 869 ft-lbs of torque at the wheel. (Photo courtesy of Front Street Media)

VIDEO: Watch the YouTube video below as Brian Devilbiss runs his Stage 2 Edelbrock-supercharged 2018 Mustang GT to an early-lift mid-9-second pass at Maple Grove.

A quick jump ahead to the Stage 2 phase of the build features Edelbrock’s 103mm throttle body, 8-rib belt drive with a 3.25-inch pulley, and high-flow intake system. This Stage 2 upgrade was set up to run on E85 fuel and took just a few hours to complete (see the complete Stage 2 modifications in the FS installation story). These upgrades made a massive performance improvement on the dyno resulting in 961 rear-wheel horsepower and 869 ft-lbs of torque at 16 LBS of boost. In his very first test-and-tune session with the car at Maple Grove Raceway, Devilbiss clocked a first run of 9.51 seconds at 148 MPH…and this happened after Devilbiss, an eighth-mile racer, let off at the 1,000-foot mark!

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