skelly

Hey all,

This is my first posting here. I bought an '04 GTO in Oct-04. Quicksilver, 6-speed. I'm absolutely loving it.

I'm racing a buddy on the quarter mile track at Joliet Speedway this coming saturday. He has an '03 vette, 6-speed. Now, this is just a friendly race and I'm pretty sure he'll beat me, what with the weight and traction advantage of the corvette, and I'm more or less cool with that, but part of me still wants to put up a good fight.

Back when I was a teen we used to do little tricks like pull the air cleaner off our 70's camaros to make them breathe better. I read in one of the car mags that they were able to get a stock 04 GTO to run a faster quarter mile by deflating the rear tires a bit for better traction.

Having said all of this, does anyone know of any other little tricks I can pull on my bone-stock gto to get an edge on a bone-stock 03 vette? Pull out the spare tire?

Also - is it any danger to my engine if I run racing gas or octane boost?

YlwGTO4m3

Deflate rear tires a few pounds will help
Taking out spare tire and any extra weight, aftermarket subs...etc
fill gas tank to only about an 1/8 of tank max
If you're not worried about your tranny then power shift that bitch
keep your engine cool by turning on the fan and opening the windows in the line for the strip, if you're at a track
Do not do a burn out, go around the water if they have it
the stock 245's are a *****, you gotta use a lot of clutch to get a good 60ft time.
bottom line he is lighter and has bigger tires and should beat you by about .5 seconds or so, driver dependent of course.
Practice.
good luck

Chivo

DO NOT run racing gas or octance. Ran that stuff and ran 14.4 in my goat. Went back the next week without the gas and ran 13.3. DONT DO IT

Matt SS

Definatly take out any extra weight. But the bottom line is he is lighter, more areodynamic, and has wider tires. You might put up a good fight.

burbman

If he's in a 6 speed too, you might have a chance, as shifting can be the great equalizer. Maybe you could put your spare, and any other weight you can find into his car to even things up a bit.

WAHUSKER

iTrader: (4)

Well if it means that much to you, for 1 run you could disconnect the air tube from the filter box. "They say" that a cold air intake box adds 20hp to these GTOs, so that would make a noticeable difference. But I'd stop at the end of the track & hook it right back up. You remember how that would destroy the rings on a motor pretty quick.....the air didn't get any cleaner since the 70s!

BlueSix

Drop the rear tires to 25 psi, up the fronts to 45 psi. Pull out all the excess weight you can, only have about 1/8 tank of gas. Drive around the water box. Do a burnout to clean off the tires. I'm still experimenting with how much is too much, but i hooked better after a 10 second burnout than after a 3 second one. Slip the clutch at 3000. Shift at 5900-6000 and never take your foot off the gas.

V-seriesTech

iTrader: (5)

You can try nitrous

If thats too drastic, try the pit manuver.

skelly

Thanks y'all. Sounds good. I'll post the results and possibly an mpeg if I don't get totally smoked.

Snafu

iTrader: (1)

Remove your driver's side headlight...seriously.

The openings that funnel the air to the filter box come from behind the headlight, when you remove it, you get a ram-air "effect". It's a trick the Aussies showed us...never tried it personally, but it's said to be good for some time/power.

Do not remove the air tube...from idle to WOT, you'll be all messed up. The MAF needs to read something to adjust your fuel tables...if you bypass it, it can get pretty screwy.

SDB

iTrader: (7)

put on a wet kit and jet it to 100 shot, change plugs to TR6's gapped at .038, use 93 octane, shift nie and easy, go aroudn the vette at mid track...

xp3nd4bl3

Two words:

Sneaky Pete!

OR:

Red Light

skelly

It's going to be hard to look all nonchallant/"I don't give a **** if I win" after I pull the spare tire, remove a headlight, flattern my tires and drive around the wet-spot, and have a pre-race colon-flush to drop weight.

However, it's mostly great (sounding) advice and I'll probably use all of it.

Rob

iTrader: (6)

I got the best short times when stock running 30psi, driving around the water box, and just spinning the tires by nailing it in first gear...no burnout. Bring rpm up to 3000 or so and release the clutch fast, no dumping, while doing the same on the accelerator. This technique got a few 1.9x short times.

This was with 1/2 tank of gas and a racing weight of 3960 with me in it. Got it down to 13.2x, probably could have done a little better with more practice. Started doing mods after that

2Cool

Let the air out of the rear tires...



His rear tires...



Heh...

maximental

Pull the valves out of the valve stems on his tires, forcing him to forfeit until he finds some replacements. j/k
I heard about the taking out the headlight thing from a guy at work, and then a couple of days later, someone else told me about it, so apparently there is something to it.
I was going to go dragracing tonight, but got rained out.
I hope you have better luck.

Maximental

Tom@SpeedInc

iTrader: (5)

Your gonna have to launch at 4000 and powershift at 5200-5400rpm. By powershift I mean wide open throttle and shift with your foot to the floor, if you shift any higher then 5400 you will go over 6200+rpm in the next gear, may hit the rev limiter and slow you down. practice powershifting. Be carefull not to miss 3rd gear! I used to aim for 5th gear till I got the ripshift

You may want to go to speed inc. in schamburg and pic up their GTO cold air induction, its been known to add 15rwhp.

Take out the fuel tank guard, remove all the clips from the middle trim pieace in the trunk. And take the 18mm (?) bolts out from the bottom and 13mm bolts from the top and you save 25-30lbs. Removing spare tire and jack will add another 15lbs weight loss.

Tom@SpeedInc

iTrader: (5)

In order to remove any front headlight from the GTO you have to remove the bumper cover.

Tom@SpeedInc

iTrader: (5)

You can run unleaded racing fuel, the street just before rt 66 on the north side of the track you go down that road their a road pilot gas station there that sells 100 unleaded, don't buy their 110 gas its leaded

octane booster does jack ****.

ps, make a few passes before you race, it took me about 6-7 runs to get a better time in the GTO. A buddy of mine took estimated 45 passes till he could get low 13s.

xp3nd4bl3

Race gas on a stock GTO probably won't do anything for you.

I also don't think short-shifting at 5200 RPMs is very sound advice. You'd be giving up a bunch of power.