1,900-HP, manual Ford Mustang beats the world quarter-mile record

With the advent of automatic transmissions, they had gradually phased out the stick shift in extreme drag racing applications – after all, human reflexes are never as fast as a well-tuned automatic box… or are they?

The owner of this heavily tuned Ford Mustang dragster begs to differ. The car features a plethora of forged drivetrain components and takes advantage of polished/perforated cylinder headers. Thanks to a dual turbo setup, the wheels receive around 1,900 metric horsepower (1,400 kilowatts), a record-high number for the first-gen Coyote engine. A Tick Performance four-speed gearbox enables features a slipper clutch and supports clutchless shifting.

The car hit the drag strip for its very first time last week and immediately proceeded to set a world record by zapping though a quarter of a mile (402 meters) in 6.81 seconds. The driver then noticed a minor technical defect, fixed it and requested another run – only to end up with the same exact time.