FAST™ Powers Potent Aeromotive Drag Car To Record Setting Performances

[CPG Marketing]

When Steve Matusek, President of Aeromotive Fuel Systems decided to build a new race car, he realized it needed to represent both the technical superiority of his products and the technical expertise of his employees. Because it’s not just his car, the competitors and the fans in the stands know it as the Aeromotive car, and his company’s reputation is at stake every time he enters the burnout box. Because of that, he had to be very careful choosing of every part that it took to build the first-class, very competitive, and award winning 2007 Shelby Cobra Mustang he has now.



Steve spent much time and deliberation in selecting the best people and best parts for the job. He started by tapping Brett Clow, Aeromotive’s Director of Technology to be the crew chief and team manager. It would be Brett’s job to see that everything is put together correctly and stays together. For the chassis, Steve picked visionary builder Larry Larson of Larson Race Cars. One look at the profile of the body and overall stance of this 2007 Shelby Cobra Mustang tells you that this isn’t some cookie cutter kit car. This thing screams Pro Mod. Steve’s an engineer and innovator at heart, so the engine had to be as unique as the car. The foundation for this would be a Ford Modular engine—specifically, the 5.4 liter, four-valve all-aluminum powerplant out of the Ford GT. And then two big turbos were fitted up capable of providing enough boost to help the car reach its mid to low six-second quarter mile goal. Of course, big turbos or not, getting a Modular to reach the power numbers necessary to go in the six-second range would be a challenge. It doesn’t take but a few fingers on one hand to count how many people have tried to wring that kind of horsepower out of a Modular motor. To build this unique powerplant Steve chose Ken Duttweiler. Ken has spent years perfecting turbocharged applications on a wide variety of engines and was the perfect candidate for the job.

What may have surprised some is the engine management system Steve went with to control this monster. Believe it or not, he chose an off-the-shelf XFI™ system from FAST™. You might be asking yourself why would Steve go to the trouble of building such a cutting edge car and engine combination only to try and control it with an off-the-shelf engine management system? There are actually several very good reasons.

Steve Matusek, President of Aeromotive

First is the fact that the list of XFI™ features is exceptionally well suited to handle everything the turbocharged 5.4L requires. The XFI™ has many features found only in ultra-high dollar engine management systems, such as a built-in wide band oxygen sensor (also known as an O2 sensor) that can read the exact air/fuel ratio making it much easier to tune. Air/fuel ratios are immensely important to know if you want to truly tune for maximum horsepower. It also has a boost control table and several stages of timing retard that can apply this engine’s massive horsepower gradually, helping get the car down track. Individual cylinder control of both fuel and spark allows the tuner to find every last bit of horsepower the engine has to offer by letting the engine tuner tailor each cylinder with a little more or a little less fuel or spark. And the XFI™ is one of only a few aftermarket ECU’s that offer internal data logging, allowing the user to store data from each run without having to have a laptop or other external device in the car during a run.

Second is ease of use. Steve and Brett knew they would need to be able to tune the engine without having to take computer science classes, and they didn’t want to require the assistance of a ‘factory tuner’ around every time they went to the track. They wanted something that could be tuned easily and quickly, so they could make changes when they wanted to make changes, not whenever the tuner was available. The FAST™ C-Com XFI™ software is exactly what they were looking for. It was developed for engine guys, not guys with PhD’s in computer engineering. C-Com XFI™ is Windows-based software that works with both XP and Vista. It also includes a complete Help section and instruction manual that can be accessed by one simple push of a button at anytime for easy-to-get answers to just about any installation or tuning question.


Last but not least is the fact that Steve knew FAST™ has the best customer support in the industry. How would he know that? Steve and the Aeromotive crew have made fuel system parts for FAST™ for several years now. He’s seen how FAST™ has literally developed the XFI™ from a clean sheet of paper to the point that it is now the leader it is in the marketplace today. And that came not only through technical innovation but also through good old fashioned hard work and treating customers with respect and honest answers. Great technical support can be a very important part of the overall puzzle when you’re putting together something for the first time—especially when it is something as unique as Steve’s combination.

When asked what special hardware or software modifications were made to fit such a different application as the Ford Modular engine in the Aeromotive Mustang, Jay Rohrback of FAST™ had this to say, “We made no changes to the hardware or software to be able to handle the power levels of the race car. Our systems have always been known for being easy to work with, and it adapted easily to their needs. What we supplied was our standard XFI™ package.



“We have direct plug-in packages that use the factory pickups and sensors for the Modular motor as well as GM’s LS based engines and even Chrysler’s late model 5.7L and 6.1L Hemi’s,” he added. “Quite honestly, I believe we are the only manufacturer that is able to do that with all three of those engine families. But it is also a very universal system that with our wide range of harnesses can fit practically any four, six, or eight cylinder engine.”

Rohrback went on to explain that the XFI™ system also has many other features that can’t be used on the Aeromotive Mustang. One of those features is their trans-brake control. The Aeromotive Mustang uses a manual transmission, but turbocharged cars that use an automatic transmission can use this feature to help stage and consistently launch the car from the starting line. It works by programming in a boost level that you want to launch from and then programming two parameters that predetermine how far and how FAST™ the car moves into the beams. Once you’ve programmed this feature, it works by rolling the car into the first beam, then applying the trans brake and applying full throttle. Once the XFI™ sees the prescribed boost, the car will then roll into the second beam and stop, holding the car at the pre-set boost level until you release the trans brake to leave. That’s something no other manufacturer offers.



Another XFI™ feature FAST™ has just released is Intelligent Traction Control. Since some sanctioning bodies do not currently allow traction control, FAST™ is only offering this as a completely different ECU in a unique black anodized color and specific part number. Many of the 10.5 heads-up type racers have found quicker times and more speed with this XFI™. There are two methods of traction control that are both based off of driveshaft speed. FAST™ feels that basing their traction controls off of driveshaft speed is far superior to those based on engine rpm. Engine rpm can be affected by torque converter or clutch slippage as well as gear shifts, while driveshaft speed is much more relevant to what the vehicle and tire are actually experiencing. The first method, called PA Mode is simply based off of actual driveshaft rpm and cuts both fuel and spark. This method is very accurate but can actually limit the speed you’re able to achieve. The second method, one FAST™ calls Heuristic Mode, is based on the rate of change in acceleration of the driveshaft. This method will not limit speed, which is fairly unique when it comes to traction controls offered in the aftermarket. Yet another feature that XFI™ has is the ability to retain four complete tune-up files in the actual memory of the ECU. It’s called Qwik Tune™ and it’s catching on with both drag racers and street/strip users as well. Drag racers can have four different tune-ups’ for varying track conditions or different dial-ins. Or, imagine having a tuneup for everyday street driving with maximized fuel economy, then with the flip of a switch having an all out maximum horsepower monster!

So far, XFI™ has helped Aeromotive’s Mustang reach an elapsed time of 6.49 seconds in the quarter mile and speeds in excess of 221 miles per hour. Both companies feel that they’re just scratching the surface. If that’s true, I sure wouldn’t want to be in Matusek’s competitors shoes…


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