For some the idea of a ghost might be a frightening prospect. Likewise running 7-second e.t.’s in a full-weight S550 complete with an independent rear suspension might be as daunting as facing an apparition in the night. However, for Straight Performance Racing’s Sheldon Lewis pushing his 2017 Mustang GT street car, known as Ghost 3, into the 7-second zone was simply a challenge he was determined to overcome.

“The first Ghost 3 flooded in the great flood of Baton Rouge last year along with our house and everything in it,” he said. “After getting everything back in order I decided to purchase the new car, which I vowed to make it 10 times better than the last one, but just I’m just calling it the new G3, as it’s still the same body.”

If the Ghost moniker rings a bell, you might recall that the original version of Ghost 3 ran into the 8-second zone on the stock engine before the factory parts gave up the, well, ghost. From there Sheldon was determined to run even quicker, but the aforementioned flood proved a serious setback to that progress.

“Getting it in the sevens was definitely my goal with this one, as I already ran eights with the previous Ghost cars, so it was time to raise the bar a bit,” Sheldon said.

Like the previous iteration, the redux of Ghost III is enhanced by a CPR turbo system and tuned via HP Tuners gear by Sai Li of Li Tuning. Of course making the hardware and software work together is one challenge, but applying the resulting power to the track in a manner that will propel a 4,000-plus-pound S550 into the sevens is another thing.

“I traveled to about seven different tracks in five different states testing this thing, but it all started coming together at Justin Young’s Mod Nationals at South Georgia Motorsports Park this past November when Sharad Raldiris of UPR Products came over and actually turned wrenches on the car to get the rear alignment right,” Sheldon said. “That’s saying a lot about this guy’s character even though I’m not running their parts — on this car anyway.”

Having run as quick as 8.08 before snapping the snout of Ghost’s crankshaft, Sheldon thought of giving up, but his wife Eboni encouraged him to soldier on and his daughter Rhianna helped him put together a new Coyote engine in time for the next race on his schedule.

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Sheldon and his daughter put together this fortified Coyote engine, which is fed by a custom CPR turbo system that delivers boost through a ported Holley Sniper intake. Paired with a Turbo 400 automatic transmission and a Gforce 9-inch IRS, this turbo Coyote propelled the S550 known as Ghost 3 to a 7.94 at 179 mph.

“We drove her on the street for about nine miles and loaded it up,” Sheldon said. “The first pass was a soft pass going a 8.10 at 177 and the second pass finally getting the record 7.94 at 179 was a very awesome feeling. So I’d say the entire process was one of my hardest ever!”

It was difficult for a reason. He wasn’t just trying to push a lightweight race car into that rarified territory. He was putting a full-weight street car into the sevens through an independent rear suspension, albeit an upgraded version from Gforce.

“This car is totally streetable as I have not taking anything — A/C, navigation, subwoofer or any of the 401a package options — out of it for weight reduction, which is why she has a porky, 4,025-pound race weight.”

Of course, now that he has joined the 7-second club, Sheldon doesn’t plan to rest on his e.t. laurels, but he may eventually have to move on from this car to pursue those quicker times.

“I plan on knocking down 4-second eighth-mile times and perhaps going 7.70s or better,” he said. “I’m stopping there with it as I’ll have to build a dedicated race car for times faster than that, which is still up in the air but I am considering doing it — just not to this particular car.”

So we may just see an even more frightening Ghost from Sheldon in the future, but for now this is one scary street car.