TRP 11/5/16

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MostMint
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TRP 11/5/16

Post by MostMint »

It was a nice day and I mentioned to Kurt that the track was open. He wanted to go and race my Saturn with his Impala - so we went.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdJcoeO5kAA

Lots of learning/relearning going on. Kurt had never been to the dragstrip before so there was a lot of new things to see, plus the mechanics of making a pass. At the end he moved enough up the tree to get into the red - which is what you see in the video. My reaction time was still eternally slow at .4 he was only -.15 so it looks worse than it is. The Impala does not spin the tires, will shift to second at 6500 even if you leave selector in 1, and finishes in second gear.

I have not been to the track in 5+ years and never ran a FWD stick shift car on the 1/4 mile. I never did get the tree down but it was just Kurt and I racing each other so the focus was on winning grudge matches. I relearned the importance of tire pressure, engine temperature and speed shifting.

First round:
Impala: 15.75
Saturn: 16.09
I treed Kurt by .25 (both bad lights) but it was not enough to overcome the wheelspin. I pedaled the throttle but still had 2.67 60 ft time. I think I was on the rev limiter for at least one gear. At this point I am fairly disheartened with the ET of the Saturn, but the Impala is faster than I expected. Kurt 1, me 0

Second round (25 mins later):
Impala: 15.88
Saturn: 15.56
Again I won the tree battle. This time I let some air out of the front tires, did a little dry burnout to put some heat in the tires, lowered the starting RPMs and it hooked so there I was at really low RPM but hooked. I stayed in it and still had 2.53 60 ft time. And we are tied 1-1

Third round (30 mins later):
Impala: 15.93
Saturn: 15.25
60 ft time down to 2.33. Just a little more starting RPM really helped the start. Still had a bobble near top of second gear not really sure why as I was not on the rev limiter. Kurt lost a little at the line as he let go of brake early then re-braked. By now the temp gauge is almost down to C when I start the car to pull into staging. I am starting to feel much better about the car as this seems like a respectable time. I now have a 2-1 lead

Fourth round (40 minutes later)
Impala: 15.49 @ 92.13
Saturn: 14.79 @ 92.55
2.15 60 foot time. For this round I added speed shifting into the mix, plus the engine is way cooler. Drag racing generates heat but not the soaking heat from driving 90 minutes to get to the track. As that heat dissipates it gets easier for the car to cool off between rounds. We were basically out of time so we had to get back. This pass is the video clip

Kurt was happy to get some baseline numbers and I was impressed that his car made it to the low 15's. This car has 187k miles and a 3.5 V6. He has freed up the exhaust and put a cold air intake on it. The car runs good - better than anything I had in high school. I expect he will be back.

The Saturn really responded to cooling off, and I was satisfied with a 14-anything ET from the car. It also got some attention due to its race car badging and decals.

Rachel was jealous she could not go because she was at college. Hoping for nice weather on Thanksgiving weekend to remedy that.

So this was the first time at a dragstrip since I started road racing. Watching cars run the 1/4 mile in person brought a smile to my face. It reminded me of what I like about drag racing. 1) Because each race is short you get to see who wins relatively quickly 2) the boards display reaction time, ET and mph each pass so you can compare what you saw to what happened - maybe guess some ETs when watching 3) its cheap. There were a lot of really fast cars there too.

So Kurt's question now is how much faster will his car be with 3 lbs of boost?
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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Basement Paul
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Re: TRP 11/5/16

Post by Basement Paul »

I'm really surprised at how fast Kurt's car is. That exhaust and intake helped a ton I think. And 14's in a N/A Saturn is really good too. Tells you that there might be more free power if you can keep that engine cooler the whole race. Louver the hood maybe?

Sounds like a good time. I'll be out next week praying for cooler weather and no rain.

-BP
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MostMint
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Location: planning a race

Re: TRP 11/5/16

Post by MostMint »

Basement Paul wrote:Tells you that there might be more free power if you can keep that engine cooler the whole race. Louver the hood maybe?
I was thinking the exact same thing. Get some cold air on the intake manifold.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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MostMint
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Re: TRP 11/5/16

Post by MostMint »

Some pics
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[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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