First time out in over a decade! Well, I had a blast, but times were VERY dissapointing.

It was unbelievably hot at 90 degrees and everyone was running slow, so I'll keep telling myself that was it, but I know I should have been able to run a faster time.

I made 16 runs over about 3 hours, give or take. The first run of the day netted a 14.3 at 97 (2.1 60ft), then after that, everything else went to 14.7 to 14.8 at 93 with 2.5 sec 60ft being the order of the day :thumbsdown: . After it started to cool off in the evening, I managed to pick up a 14.5 on my last run, and was darn happy with it by then.

I raced a multitude of cars. There were 3 guys out with their SVT cobras, and they were all in the mid 13's. All the garden variety mustang GT's were easy enough prey, at 15.1-15.5's. I did get edged out by a subaru SVX at 14.4 though.. Grrrr!

Thing is, my car normally runs about 160 degrees around town. Out on the strip, she went to 220 and stuck there. I can't help but to think I should be doing significantly better. Could this have that much of an effect on it?

On the happy side of the house. I was constantly, and I mean every time, netting .550-650 reaction times, so I at least got that going for me

Errrm...launching. On the Toyo's, deflated to 25psi, I found that it didn't really seem to make a difference whether I did a burnout or not. Most effective launch seemed to be to run the motor up to about 1600rpm while standing on the break, and then mashing it to the floor on the 2nd yellow. I'd still squeal them for the first 40ft or so, usually, then get another good patch into second.

I dunno. I'm a little frustrated by the times, and am somewhat wondering if there's something wrong with the car, or whether it was just a "slow day".

Either way, it was great fun!

Danno

 

I am assuming that you have an auto? If so a lot of guys that have an auto and are having traction problems dont stall it up so much. Actually a lot of guys I know just come out at idle and go from there. It might help you on your 60'. Also I dont know much about Toyo tires so if they are street tires then your best bet would be to just spin the tires over to get the debris off of them and not try a burnout. If they are drag radials then of course you need to do a burnout There is much debate on deflating street tires and there is people that have actually went out and tested the tire patches on the street. It was showing that with deflated street tires the tires were only patching on the outsides because the tire was cupping and this would definetly not help you on the traction issue. As far with the mods that you do have on your car I would expect you to at least be right around 14.0 or maybe even dip into the high 13s but this is just my opinion. Get that 60' time down and you will have a better idea on how your car runs. What was your fastest mph?

 

Only thing to worry about the car would be why it went to 220.

As far as the weather goes,90 is damn hot and will slow cars down,also get that 60' time down,and times will improve.
Plus hotlapping the car like you were keeps a LOT of heat everywhere,which isnt good for times.

Just wait for cooler weather,redo the launch to try and eliminate the spinning.

 

Yeah, but it was SO fun! What was kind of strange was the little clique groups that got going around the staging lanes. For the most part, the import guys wouldn't run against the american iron, and weren't very friendly when you did try to talk to them. The three guys on the Cobras were really cool and gave me some good pointers about launching. EVERYONE was blaming the heat for having their times way down. some guys were saying .4 off normal, some guys were saying they were .8 or more off. I dunno if that's true or if it's tradition to complain about how you're going slow on any given day...

I really think the car could do better on a cooler day too, or if I could get it cooled down. I don't think my first fan was coming on at all, and I thought that stupid jet chip was supposed to have reprogrammed the fan sets anyway. I may spend some time today looking at my fan relays.

Man, I'm hooked on this stuff now. There goes the paycheck, I guess.

For the time being, I'm not going to be able to get out and get some drag radials in the near future, so I'm going to go ahead and try not deflating the tires next time, and forgoe the big, showy burnout in the box. The toyo's are Z rated street tires, and are really not appropriate for the strip, is what I'm starting to think. I just don't like the idea of driving the Nitto's around in rainy Seattle in the off season. Are they really bad in the rain? If so, I guess I'm going to need another set of rims so I can run the Nitto's just on the track.

By the way, there was a 93 Z-28 out there with me, with just CAI and a borla cat-back. He was running exactly the same times as me, until I showed him the hole I cut in my plastic moulding under the driver's front where the CAI dumps down. He got out a cutting wheel and made the same hole, and instantly dropped .2 for the rest of the night, so it seems that hole really IS worth the effort.

Danno

 

I'm officially classified as "Credit Card Racing Inc." , but yea I'm totally hooked and it is fun.

 

Depends on how much traveling you do around town and how much you are going to the strip. To be honest with you I had some Firestone Firehawk SZ-50s and the Nittos outperformed them in the rain hands down. Actually the Nittos are a great rain tire if you look at the tread pattern but once they get worn down to the indicators I wouldnt suggest driving them too much in the rain cause they do get slick. If you are getting a drag radial for just the track you might want to check into the BFGs. I have never used them but from what I have seen and heard they hook better at the track and you can tell the design is more for the track than the Nittos.

 

You've got the most important part whipped. You're having tons of fun. Me too, I started 5 years ago at 45 years young. I'm having a blast And winning some too!

 

The heat kills times. I have never run the 1/4 with the temp less than 89 degrees. When I get the car back together in a few weeks I would like to see some cool Michigan weather for good times.