How fast will Gotta Have It Race go in this weekend’s final race of the year?

The Gotta Have Builds team has learned a lot about Gotta Have It Race during the last few outings and feels they are headed in the right direction, and ready for this weekend’s final race of the year!

Gotta Have it Race on the dyno at one of it’s recent tuning runs.

Before the 5.0 Shootout at Maryland International Raceway in late September, the team added a new Ford Racing throttle body and Boss 302 intake. While Gotta Have It Race had been running in the high 11.80s with the current tune, written in house by Bill Tumas, the new throttle body was going to require a custom touch on the dyno, so the team loaded up the car and took it down to fellow NMRA racer and current Truck and Lightning Champ, Johnny Lightning, at JLP Performance.

Johnny spent several days working on the car, getting it to run right with the new setup, helping it to pick up 8 peak rwhp, and to pull to 7500 RPM cleanly. The team picked the car up two days before the shootout and headed right to Cecil County for some testing. When they arrived, the air was good and Bill’s first hit was an 11.81@118 MPH, which was the fastest pass to date, but did have a little hesitation on the shifts. After some further investigation, the throttle body seemed to be the culprit, so they removed it and went back to the stock setup.

After removing it, Bill took the car for a test drive on Allentown Boulevard and noticed the local dyno shop, InTune Autoworks, was open. Since Gotta Have It Race had dyno’d there before, the team could compare to their previous runs with the Boss intake and the stock throttle body. They strapped it down and made a few pulls and compared.

The results: Power from 3500-7000 RPMs was pretty even, with the Boss intake picking up over 7000 RPM. It lost a little torque down low, but that was to be expected. There was no time for a retune, so they weighed their options and decided to go back to the stock intake for the shootout. The team threw the original stock intake back on, loaded the stock tune, with a few changes, and had time for a few quick drives before loading up for the shootout.

While you will have to wait a couple more months for the full 5.0 Shootout feature in Mustang 5.0 Magazine, we can tell you that the track was hooking, the air was great, and the car ran well into the 11.50s for the first time ever. The event was run by Adam Browne, who owns a tuning shop, Revolution Auto, in Nottingham, MD. Adam has a high 10 sec NA 2011 GT and does all of the tuning for Vaughn Gittin, Jr.’s Monster Energy drift cars, so he knows his way around the 5.0 Coyote engine. He was impressed by how quick Gotta Have It Race was running and offered to throw the car on his dyno and see if he could throw a few tricks at it. The Gotta Have Builds team agreed to take him up on his offer after the NMRA Bowling Green event. That race went well, with the car running in the 11.50s pretty much all weekend with a new best of 11.51. However, the best MPH was only in the 116-117 range, so everyone felt there was more power to be had.

After the race, Gotta Have It Race was dropped off at Adam’s shop, so he could get to work. His first pull using Bill’s in-house tune made 420 rwhp and 400 rwtq. These numbers were pretty stout, but Bill intentionally was aggressive with the timing to try to get into the 11.40s at Bowling Green and ended up hitting the knock sensor, which was likely costing us some MPH. Adam worked his magic and was able to get us to 425 rwhp and 407 rwtq, with solid gains across the board. He worked a few other tricks into the tune that he will not share but will surely make the car quicker at the track.

Needless to say, the entire Gotta Have Builds team is pumped for this Saturday’s ABM Nats at Cecil County and to see how fast Gotta Have It Race will run.

So, how fast do you think Gotta Have It Race will go on Saturday?

Make a guess by Friday, November 9, 2012 at 11:59:59 p.m. and you could win a $25 CJ’s Gift Card!

To be officially entered for the $25 CJ Pony Parts Gift Card, just LIKE us on Facebook, and leave your comment on our “Guess the MPH” post with your guess, in Miles Per Hour.

*No purchase necessary to enter or win. Employees of CJ Pony Parts Inc. and immediate family members are not eligible to enter or win. Entries will be accepted starting at 5:00 PM Eastern Time (ET) on November 7, 2012. No entries will be accepted after 11:59:59 p.m. on November 9, 2012. Limit one entry per person or household. One grand prize winner will receive a $25 CJ Pony Parts gift card. No transfers, cash awards or prize substitutions are permitted. One guess per customer. In instances of customers submitting two guesses, only the first guess will be counted. Winners will be notified by November 14, 2012. In instances of two entrants submitting the same guess, a winner will be selected at random. Participants agree to comply with these Official Rules. Non-compliance with any of these Official Rules or an inability of CJ Pony Parts to contact a potential winner within a reasonable time period may result in disqualification and an alternate winner with the next closest guess being chosen, at CJ Pony Parts’ discretion.