The 2018 version of the Ford Mustang GT is one that can be had with items that you’d normally leave for those that never touch the track. While you can have a manual gearbox, this car is offered with a ten-speed automatic transmission that brings you the benefits of “Drag Mode” to make this car, when equipped with the Performance Pack, able to reach faster speeds. At least, that’s what Ford claims will take place, but what we want to know is whether or not the Drag Mode actually makes a difference on a dragstrip.
For those that want to find out and are amateur drivers, there’s no better place to put Drag Mode to the test than at a track that offers an open test and tune night where you can make runs and see what works and what doesn’t for the run. This is where the Mustang was taken to find out if it could do better in Drag Mode on a dragstrip, or if this mode was meant for the straightaways found the track and meant to be used when making the laps desired on the course.
Ready, Set, Go
The first run of the Mustang GT was performed in Sport Mode at a dragstrip to find out the results and see just how fast a novice of the track could perform in a car that’s designed and tuned to be ideal for a driver of this skill level to make the run. The lights turned green and the car was off making the ten-speed automatic find its own way to the optimum speed to push for the fastest time possible. For this quarter-mile run, the Mustang GT was able to complete the race in 12.849 seconds at 111.68 mph which seems pretty good for a stock car.
For the second run at the track the drive mode is changed to Drag Mode and the car is expected to make some changes in the way it performs. Right off the line, the car feels like it launches harder and shifts faster and harder to push this car as fast as it will go. This is certainly more exciting than the Sport model with the rough edges to the driving feel. The results of this run come to a time of 12.979 seconds at 112.63 mph.
The driver of the car made one final attempt at the run, considering the Drag Mode time was slower than the Sport Mode run and was able to shave some time off the run to reach a time of 12.828 seconds at 112.10 mph for the race. This was the fastest of the three races for the car, but not a lot faster than in Sport Mode. While the speed may not make much of a difference between Sport and Drag Mode, the Drag Mode is certainly a lot of fun, and it would be a hoot just to find out how fast you can be as a driver at the dragstrip in the Mustang GT.
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