Ran my car at the track for the first time last night and the fastest time i ran was a 14.6. Now all i have done to my car is a K&N intake and your local neighborhood friendly muffler shop exhaust. Got my *** kicked by a SRT8 Charger...did manage to beat a Mustang and a SRT4. But i really thought id be in the low 14's maybe high 13's. Was I being delusional? Is the cheapo exhuast set up holding me back? Or do i just not know how to launch? Should I have the traction control on or off? I ran the 14.6 with it off. With it on I consistantly ran 14.8's

I also drove about 30 miles to the track and didn't let the car cool off before i ran it. Would that have made that big of a difference?

 

Dont feel bad my car stock first time out ran about that. its all about launching. I personally leave traction control on. when it was stock after and about 6 runs with cool down i was doing 14.1 average. these cars are hard to learn to launch. currently i run 13.8 with some mods.

 

Take your engine cover off. and Give it a good cool down. Maybe drop a few psi out of the tires. I like to have my TC- off. AND practice practice practice your launch. What were your 60 times. Basically if your betting mustangs your doing good. lol. Where are u at whats your elevation. car and driver got a 14.3. So your only .3th off them.

 

I would like to know elevation too. That can make a huge difference.

 

Put some M/T tires on and practice. I would think that could drop your RT and 1/4 mile time down but .5 or more

 

Heat hurts. I run with traction control on most of the time

 

I've ran my car at the track a total of 3 times. My best was also a 14.6, but Im not very good at launching.

 

My 60 times were 2.3446 and 2.3925. I am in killeen tx...bout 60 miles north of Austin. It is ridiculously hot here....todays high is 105. Been about the same all week. I think next time I go I'll turn the car off for at least a good hour to let it cool. Didn't think to take the engine cover off...makes sense. Either way it was a blast...really thought I'd be closer to 13s though. What are M/T tires?

 

The first and only time I took my wife's stock 06 Impala SS to the track, it ran a best of 13.75 @ 101 with a 2.25 60 foot time on the original tires. That was at close to sea level (Fayetteville' NC) and ~75 degrees with the air filter out.

 

What I have been told is every .1 in your 60' time is worth .25 in the 1/4. I'm having trouble getting my 60' times down, but I am still managing 13.8 now.

 

Work on your launch. I've seen anywhere from high 13's to high 14's for these cars stock depending on driver skill and track location. Mid 14's is a common time it seems for these cars so I wouldn't feel too bad.

 

The track prep is important and unfortunately you have no control over. Cool weather is your freind, hot weather will kill your times. That's why I usually only go to the track in spring or fall. But your mods don't really help performance, but will make it sound good. That metal K&N heat box hurts performance by feeding the engine hot air, in my opinion. And unless you get rid of the huge restriction in the down pipe, a louder exhaust isn't gonna do much of anything. Get a tune, that would probably help the most.

 

Bring some ice in a bag to put on the intake manifold and TB to cool it . Also, when racing, remove the drivers side headlight assembly in front of your cold air intake, it comes out fairly easily. That allows more cool air inwith some ram effect. You may want to cover up the top of your air cleaner assembly too to keep out hot air. Some octane booster or a couple gallons of race gas wouldn't hurt. Oh and find a race track that slants down hill!!!

 

Dont post here much but have a gxp. I have hp tuners for primarily a gto but just started logging the gxp just for grins.

Heat soak is a killer. The iat sensor gets heat soaked no matter where a K&n is. I consistantly read 30F-50F higher than ambiant with just "some" stop and go. The KN is in the fenderwell right now. This along with the "stock" thermostat creates too much knock as the car is always on the verge on knock with the stock thermostat, 91 octane E10 and very high iat. For simplicity I'm going with hsrk, 160 thermo and retuning my fans.
Just because you have a 160F thermostat does NOT mean the EJWT is going to be 160F. It will typically run around 176-185F depending on speed and ambiant temps along with fan settings reprogrammed.

So to answer your questions.

Always allow the car to cool before a run. Bring a sprayer with some water and spray the inlet , throttle body and manifold to enhance cooling this time of year. Dont get crazy. Pull off out of the staging lanes to cool off. If you drip water on the track they will be upset.

It will make up to a half second of difference letting the car cool off completely. 45 min.
Try to avoid idling in the staging lanes.
Traction control off by all means. Your muffler is not the problem.

Quarter tank of gas-premium only. It would not hurt to put some Lucas octane boost to knock some knock out this time of year.

Get some sticky tires. The OEM's are pretty sticky.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

Also you need to do a search for density altitude correction.

Good luck

 

Thanks for all the info fellas. Good stuff! So if I buy a Hogan Downpipe do I have to buy a new cat conv or does it replace that as well? And I think my K&N is plastic...or at least I thought it was. The tuner is next....I WILL BE RUNNING 13s! It really pissed me off that the SRT8 walked all over me like that.

 

Gixper, it's the heat! Trust me, I'm here in Houston so I know what kind of whether you're dealing with. When it was cold out I was a consistent 14.3 stock, as soon as it was hot I couldn't break 14.5 and everyone I went to the track with was about .3 slower than "normal".

You should talk to CenTex he's out there in Killeen too if I'm not mistaken.

 

You could get a down pipe with a high flow converter, or get a down pipe with no converter and have the secondary o2 senosr codes tuned out. The K&N intake tubing is plastic, but the air box is metal which heats up and lets hot engine air in. The stock box works just fine. You figure a stock 395/390 hp Trailblazer SS sucks air through a 3 inch hole, that should be plenty for even a modded 303hp engine. And, the stock air box gets it's air from a nice cool spot behind the headlight.

 

Heat and 60 foot are your two main killers. My best 60' is down in the 2.1. Remove that cover and let these cars cool down. In one night i have droped .5 of a second with a combination of the cooler night air coming in, and Letting the car cool off for a good hour.

 

Yeah I don't think I'm gonna run again until it cools off....which should be long while here in the Lone Star State! By that time I'll have my tuner and downpipe too...hell new tires and plugs too! Maybe that'll put me in the mid 13s then...ya think??

 

my best was 14.05 i dont knw how i pulled it off but i did it, launch is a good thing u need to worry about.