Nothing crazy done to the car since I last went to the track but I recently had a set of 4.11 gears put in with a new tru-trac. Based on the last time at was at most 70 degrees and low humidity, today had to hit 95-100 degrees with low humidity. It was brutal to say the least. JL-ws6, lilsteph, IntenseSS, and Chef could certainly agree with me.

I love 4.11 gears in the car, they are reletivly quiet, you can hear them with the windows up on deceleration, Eastside did a great job setting them up!

My M/T ET street radials are basically toast, and I spent the day trying to learn to launch the car, I had mixed results. Last time the car bogged every time, even at 5k it bogged with 3.42's. The 1st two runs I slipped the clutch, that did nothing but heat the clutch up and put up low 13's. Tire PSI was mid 20's to start but then on the 3rd run I aired them down and revved to 5k and dumped it, it actually spun the tires. Which I couldnt do.

So long story short that I will need a clutch before I go back, mine is fine but I am definitly beating the **** out of it, I will need line lock and a new set of racing rubber.

I hope with line lock I can really heat the tires up, the new tires will have better compound being that my tires are over 2 years old, and I will be practiciing the launch, I think 4k with letting it slip slightly will do the best.

In the end, if I want to go fast, it'll need a auto and I want to cruise with this car. So we will see how far this one goes, maybe a cam, maybe not, maybe a blower, maybe nothing.

Either way 4.11 are a blast to drive and I got decent milage too.

Oh for the results, I never cracked a 12 but the mph stayed near my best, it was so hot everyone seemed to be off by 2-3 tenths.

 

not a bad day yesterday.. spent the first 1/4 of the day trying to get the car to leav off the brake, which was NOT happening. Footbrakign netted about what I did lasat year, a bunch of 10.9 to 10.8 runs, but nothign fantastic... babying the car out of the hole is NOT gonna get the car where it shoudl be that's pretty much a given at this point. I think beign able to repeat what the car ran last year in 45 degree weather on a 95 degree day is a good sign that it is running stronger, but the suspension has a LONG way to go before it's working that I'm sure of.

 

Sounds like you guys had an ok day. No track trip is wasted because you learn something everytime, even if it doesn't work.
JL-tell me about your suspension set up a little. Tires and gears too. We have such similar set ups maybe I could be of some help.
I wanna see that thing on the back wheels.

 

I'm trying a differnet tire, yesterday was a real learning exp with them. I know they work, sonic snake ran 9.58 with a 1.36 60 foot on them, he's racing at ned today I think so there should be more info to throw into the mix after today. they are the goodyear SS drag radial. 275/60/15 size, JUST fits in the wheel well without any modification except a little love tap at the lower front inner fender.

4.10 gear, 5000 converter, th400 with brake, hal 12 way rear shocks, r series fronts, I had a stock style spohn swaybar on yesterday but a wolfe drag bar is going on next week, bmr stock style tq arm attached to a bmr th400 crossmemebr with relocation, bmr relocation brackets on the rear, control arms down one hole from stock, stock springs all around, front of the car is lowered about an inch and a half, rear spring isolaters are out to drop the back about 1/2 an inch or so. pinion angle when I checked it looks like it's at -1 going by the madman method with the guage right on the bottom of the tq arm bracket with the car on level ground with a similar weight person in the car.

Off the footbrake with a 2000 to 2500 launch the car went 1.53 60 foot, 10.89, but every run I tried the transbrake it BLEW the tires off, the front coems up and the tires just go up in smoke.. it's like the tires are spinning before they even get any weight on them. I ended up with the front shocks on 2 and the rears on 3/4 staggered so the car wouldn't roll over (wolfe drag bar will fix that)

The 2nd to last run I tried leaving off idle and flashing the converter, but that ated like the transbrake and spun the tires, so the very last run I put the front shocks at 1 and left the rears alone, tried goign off about 1500 rpm and it spun again.

It just feels like the front comes up but no weight gets on the rear tires and they just spin, the front tires will come a few inches off the ground for a couple feet and that's it. But, if I roll into it quick instead of stabbing it from about 2500 rpm, the car hooks decent and it feels like there's a ton of transfer.... it's really odd.

 

All in all after chasing some issues and doing all the last minute **** i had a good time, although i think i might need someone to draw me a map to 3rd gear... but i havent raced my car in 3-4 years and never with this shifter, i never had any problems with the old shifter so maybe a swap is in the near future, or even a driver swap to rule out my possible driver error
but my car does pull the wheels, so that was kool

 

You've got good stuff under there the only items that I don't have and I really don't think is helping you any are the relocation brackets out back and that the back is dropped the 1/2" and the front the 1 1/2". I've got the spohn drag bar and it lets me leave straight. I recently lowered my car in the front and it wouldn't hook for **** so I raised it back up. I have my front springs set on 0 (iron block )and my rears on 6.

 

At what ET does a T-top F-body require a roll bar at LVD? Do they enforce helmets?

Thanks....

 

yes they enforce helmuts everywhere does

and its 11.50 for t top cars

 

That was a fun day yesterday, but I'm going to start a new thread as I have a lot to talk about with my experiences. See comments below.

99Andrew - Yes, they enforce helmets. Somone else might be able to chime in on the rollbar, but I believe it is 11.499 or quicker (and probably like a 130 trap speed or something...).

Aaron, you definitely need some new tires. Those MTs seemed to be pretty shot. GO WITH NITTOS!! Haha, they hooked up well for me at the track and I'm making quite a bit more power. They also last much longer. I don't think with your power you will need anything stickier than a Nitto in the near future. Also, I'm glad that your car is running well with the new rear parts. We'll get back to LVD soon and you'll get your times down when it's cooler and you have some new tires.

JL, Sounds like you need to work on some suspension stuff, but in that heat you were STILL running as well as you were last time in much colder temps. Sounds good to me. And not that I know much about cars, but common sense seems to tell me that a lowered front end (especially without lowering the rear) is going to make it much harder for the car to squat like you want it to. I would put money on the fact that that is at least a part of your problem when you say it felt like the car would spin but not sit back on the rear tires.

Chef, sorry to hear you were having some troubles, but glad to hear you had fun. What shifter are you running? I too have some major problems shifting into third that don't seem to be completely driver related. I have a Pro 5.0 with a short stick and have been thinking about switching (at least the stick to a full length to get some more leverage). The problem I experience, and anyone who drives the car experiences, is that it doesn't shift straight into any gear (but mostly third) in one fluid motion. Shifting into a gear is like a two step process as the shifter pushes forward, hesitates about halfway through the shift, and then continues into gear, sometimes not going into gear at all. The tranny was just rebuilt and I always seemed to have this problem even before it was rebuilt. I'm thinking with a full length stick, maybe I will have more leverage and it won't be as much of a problem (or maybe that IS the problem).

 

Thanks for the information!

 

possible it could be part of the problem, but the tq arm has some instant center adjustablilty that can be changed due to the front mount of the crossmember, probably by changing the position of that the lower front ride height should work. The rear is lowered about 3/4 of an inch today, I looked in my book from the before and after measurments of pulling the spring isolaters out... so the front's really only sitting about 3/4 of an inch lower then the back as far as rake goes. I suspect the nose is just too heavy to come up and stay up the way it needs to... but that issue is about to get addressed, at least 40 lbs off hopefully this week. After calculating the DA, it was actually about 3000 yesterday, the temp's at the weather station were way colder then the track's thermometer was reading, I calculated it with the same humidity, and it came out ot 3000.... that's 3400 higher then the runs last year. So to lose nothing really with taht much a weather change, really isn't all bad.

 

congrats guys, i checked the weather for back home the other day and i knew it was gonna be hot... might not have been personal bests, but not bad for the first time of the year for most of ya i know i cant wait to get home and see what my car can do with its new setup come july, even though it will be even hotter and more humid LOL. it was good to hear that no one really had a bad break as well

 

humvee what are you having done... I know you were talking about a few things, did you decide one way or another?

 

nothing too too crazy, just finishing up the bolt ons, new tranny/converter, and a cam. gonna upgrade the fuel system so i can still run the dry kit on it. just keeping it a fun street/strip car.

 

Sounds like a plan!

 

Hey Chef, what tires do you have on it and what was your lainch technique? I saw your car in the video and it launched like a beast.

 

a TINY set of et drags (26x8x15) and he was side stepping that bitch at 5000 rpm

His car launched really hard, I was impressed!

 

I wasn't running too too bad (after I stopped shifting from 3rd to 2nd), but my car was definitely feeling the heat at the end. Funny though, my bf had his best of 12.62 @110 in the heat of the day, on a stock turbo. I am kind of afriad to see what it does on the upgraded turbo because he will definitely be running mid-high 11s. Either way, I ran close to my best. Hopefully next trip to the track will be luckier.

 

I was running the small slicks like JL posted i got them used from NOYZEEs buddy, i wasnt sure how they were gonna work, but i did leave hard and the car launched REALLY well for the heat of the day, i set my shocks a little different than alot of the other guys, and it worked out really well, got the wheels up
i wanted to make some runs on the NX but i was rushing around and forgot to open the bottle and when i realized that i opened the bottle and had a NOID leaking and said #$%^& but thats my fault for rushing around and not being totally prepaired for the track, i want to get to a rental in a few weeks after i got everything tested and some things addressed and see if my tranny is shot

but thanks to Jannetty Racing for having the rental it was a good time just please next time dont let his kid in the tower near the mic, all his yelling was driving everyone nutz

 

AMEN, brother...