Spetter dropped the boost back down to the 13-14 psi range and then spent another hour or so on the dyno to fine-tune the driveability portion of the program. The turbo Mustang required a bit more attention to get things right than the supercharged car.
On the street, the Saleen was predictable when tipping into the throttle, as the 20-inch wheels spun hard and the tires went up in smoke. That happened in Second, Third, and Fourth gears. The long, flat torque curve is obvious, and thankfully Nitto Tires is working on a set of 20-inch drag radial tires. This Saleen desperately needs them!
S197 Fuel Requirements
Everything about the S197 Mustangs is great, from the looks to the performance. As soon as these cars hit the streets, there were turbo and blower kits readily available for them. The increase in power was great, but it had people wondering what to do with the fuel system. We were in a similar situation with the Hellion turbo kit as Sorby wanted to turn up the power and push things to the limit. He also talked about eventually upping the turbo size and replacing the engine with something stronger and better.
There were a lot of rumors floating around about the capabilities of the stock system, but we decided it was easier to call Justin Burcham of JPC Racing and get his opinion on upgrading the fuel system. There were several options that included new fuel pumps and a set of injectors all the way up to a complete return-style fuel system like the ones offered by Aeromotive.
Going after the 550- to 600-rwhp range with a turbo car would require a pair of Ford GT pumps that JPC Racing sells as a complete drop-in assembly. Spetter had Sorby install 60-pound injectors to help feed the system and keep the fuel pressure lower, which in turn enables the fuel pumps to keep up with the fuel demands. A high fuel pressure with smaller fuel injectors taxes the returnless style fuel systems harder.
A blower combo that has a similar horsepower goal will require a bit more fuel, and for that Burcham recommends adding -8 feed fuel lines on top of the twin Ford GT pumps and appropriated-sized fuel injectors. He also suggests upgrading to JPC fuel rails and an MSD fuel-pump booster in the blower cars to up the voltage and increase the output of the fuel pumps. That setup is more than capable of going well beyond 800 hp. Burcham has made 1,000-plus hp to the tires with a shot of nitrous on top of his ProCharger-blown engine with that fuel-system setup.
Our Paxton supercharged testbed runs a stock in-tank pump with a Ford GT booster pump that is wired into place. Paxton supplied the GT fuel pump and detailed instructions on how to add it onto the factory assembly. Also included in the kit were 39-pound injectors, but Spetter chose to swap in a set of 60-pound units-once again helping keep the fuel volume up when the engine is at higher rpm and increased boost levels. If Franco decided to up the boost by three or four more psi and add long-tube headers, then a second Ford GT pump should be considered to keep up with the extra demand for fuel.
 We attached the exhaust pipe...  We attached the exhaust pipe to the turbo before lowering it into the engine compartment. It was easier to bolt it to the turbo out of the car rather than in it. |  The turbo sits in front of...  The turbo sits in front of the engine and is secured by a bracket that mounts underneath the alternator bracket and intake manifold. |  The crossover tube is made...  The crossover tube is made from stainless steel. It connects both shorty headers, merges into one, and then feeds the turbo's exhaust housing. |
 The dump tube is lowered into...  The dump tube is lowered into place and connects to the turbo. Notice the stainless piping diameter. |  After the crossover pipe is...  After the crossover pipe is installed and the dump tube is hooked up, a maze of tubes brings the spent gases around some suspension components and finally out to the factory exhaust pipes. It may look confusing, but it all fits quite nicely. We encountered two prob-lems with the exhaust tubing, attributable to the Saleen-added hardware. The pipe had to be moved away from the SFI balancer, and to do that Sorby kinked it slightly. The other problem was interference with the oversized sway bar. Hellion relocates the sway bar, but a bigger bracket was required to drop the thicker-than-stock sway bar down a little more to clear the exhaust. |  An air-to-air intercooler...  An air-to-air intercooler is located behind the front bumper, much like the mounting position of the Paxton unit. |