The shift already happened. If you’ve been anywhere near the lanes lately, you can feel it. The old “Coyote vs. LS” bench-racing talk is over. The Coyote crowd quit arguing and started outrunning people.
That’s why Del Holbrook’s move matters. He’s not just unloading a new car and just trying a different class. He’s bringing an S650 into IHRA Bratz with a twin-turbo Coyote and a very clear message: this platform is now the front line. Factory X was one kind of fight but small-tire turbo racing is another. More violent. More technical. More honest. And for Mustang fans watching where the real momentum is heading, this is the stuff that matters.
The Hardware: 327 Inches of Werewolf
This isn’t some parts-bin experiment. Del’s S650 is packing a 327-cubic-inch Coyote from Holbrook Racing Engines. At the center is the Ford Racing Werewolf block, which exists for one reason: survive the kind of cylinder pressure these modern Coyote combos keep throwing at it.
Up top, it’s running Ford GT500 cylinder heads & an AlloyWerx intake. This thing is still rooted in Ford hardware, and that’s exactly why the combo gets people worked up. The platform keeps getting faster without needing a complete rewrite of what a modular Ford can be. Air comes from a pair of Precision 86/85 turbos, with Turbosmart wastegates and blow-off valves keeping the whole deal in check.
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And yes, the switch to turbos is a real swing.
Del Holbrook put it plainly: “The transition to the small tire Bratz series at IHRA is a huge learning curve for us for sure. We have never been on this small of a tire especially with this more horse power, and let alone never have ran turbos either! But we thought it would be a fun class and a very cool experience!”
The Learning Curve: Small Tires and Big Boost
IHRA Bratz puts this thing on a 28×10.5 tire. That changes everything. Four-digit power on a small tire is not a chest-thumping dyno sheet game. It’s a knife fight. You manage boost wrong, miss the track, get lazy with the ramp, and the run is over before it starts. In Factory X, the play was big supercharged power and a different kind of grip. Here, the Holbrook team has to make the car smart, not just a horsepower monster.
The setup is new, and there is a lot for the team to sort through. The turbo system, plumbing, and welding came from ZWN Performance, giving the car a purpose-built foundation for this move into small-tire racing. For Holbrook, this is not just a new body style or a fresh wrap. It is a completely different combination, with a different power adder, a different tire, and a different way of making the car work.
That is what makes the S650 angle interesting. Ford’s newest Mustang is already being pushed into one of the tougher corners of drag racing, where the car has to be more than powerful & It has to be controllable.
Why IHRA Bratz?
For Del, the move to IHRA wasn’t just about a new rule set. It was about the feel of the place.
Del Holbrook on why this matters: “We are also very excited for running IHRA because that series and the people who run it treat you like family and try’s to make sure everyone has a good racing weekend!”
That tracks. Stand in the pits at one of these events and you get it fast. This is the side of racing Mustang people still connect with. Fast cars. Open trailers. Guys chasing a number with a laptop on the roof and a crowd leaning over the fence. Less corporate polish. More real racing.
Is the Coyote Officially the Platform to Beat?
At this point, yes. The hardware is there. The elapsed times are there. The pattern is there. Whether it’s LaSala in LDR or Holbrook bringing a fresh Twin Turbo S650 into IHRA Bratz, the Coyote is not some underdog combo looking for respect anymore. It’s the combo making other people nervous.
And that’s why this S650 matters to Mustang fans. This is not just another seventh-gen car with a nice body and fresh badges. It’s the newest shape in the middle of the same war Mustang racers have been fighting for years, and right now it looks like the platform to watch. The rulebook noise that affected Snot Rocket only makes that clearer. Nobody rewrites paper mid-season for stuff that isn’t scared.
Watch Del Holbrook Put It To Work
At the end of the day, none of this matters until the car is on the track.
The specs are serious. The hardware is there. The S650 looks the part. But small-tire racing does not care what is on paper. It only cares what happens when the button is bumped, the boost comes in, and the car has to make it all work on 28×10.5s.
That is what makes Holbrook’s move so interesting. This is a new combination, a new tire, a new power adder, and a new challenge for the team. The learning curve is real, but so is the potential.
Now we get to watch it play out.
Check out the video below of Del Holbrook putting the Varsity Ford S650 to work, and let us know what you think. Is this the next Coyote-powered Mustang to shake up small-tire racing?
