Went to the track today to try out my new wheels. I recently got a set of Millenia wheels to mount my D/R on. Dropped the weight from 40 lbs. a piece with them on the steelies to 32 lbs. with them mounted on the Millenia wheels. Everything was cool until I took a break to let the car cool down and didn't put the pins back in to hold the hood down. (For those of you who don't know, I only have hood pins holding down my stock hood. I totally removed the hood latch cause I didn't like the way it looked through the mesh in the grill.) Anyway, I take off down the track and then BOOM the hood flies up and scares the **** out of me. Luckily the hood stuts held and all it did was put a very slight bend in the middle of the hood. Talk about feeling like a complete idiot! Oh well, got another 14.9 today with a little better speed. Times went like this:

15.0595 @ 91.35 (had the 17's on for this run)

The rest of the runs are with D/R.

15.0968 @ 89.73
14.9477 @ 91.93
NONE (Hood flew open)
15.1555 @ 90.28
15.2186 @ 90.18

I could see it was going down hill so I packed up and went home. Weather was 35 degrees out, wind out of the north (headwind) at 10-15 mph, 35% humidity, barometer was 30.27.

 

holly crap - thats pretty scary - i'm surprised the car didnt swerve out of control - good to know you werent hurt

 

I thought the track marshal's usppose to check stuff like that before you line-up???

 

I don't think we have track marshalls. We have a guy that points you up to the lines where two other guys are waiting with mops in case you dump fluid on the track. It's a real laid back place situated out in the middle of a bunch of cornfields. It would have been nice though if someone had noticed.

 

question - did u keep it at WOT to finish the 1/4 with your hood open or did u just stop in the middle of the track

 

Rather embarrasing having to shut your hood right there in front of everyone. My last recorded time was the 330 ft mark so I wasn't to far into the race and wasn't going too fast.

 

These are the guys that should be looking for these sort of things.

 

Maybe I was a friendly reminder of what they need to be doing up there.

 

True.

 

Saw in your profile you are in MO. Amazing the diff one state away makes. It was 15 for a high here today in Iowa. Hard to race with 1/2 foot of snow on the ground!

 

I know what you mean. Yesterday it was 70 down here and today it was in the 30's. At the beginning of the week we were getting snow and freezing rain!! Midwest weather SUCKS!

 

about the hood



good run though

 

Thanks.

 

:attention: If the track mashall had to examin every car comming to the line you may not have gotten to your 4th run.
They check cars when they come in. Or if your lucky to run faster then your class. Just to make sure you have the right safty equipment.

 

If you are talking about track marshalls lol, you have to be at Commerce, GA. A truck over-shot the line and backed up to get in the right position. Well, the dumb idiot forgot to put the truck back into Drive and when the tree lit green, he floored it, IN REVERSE. The track marshalls "did not see his reverse lights on" and he came within inches in hitting the vehicle behind him waiting to line up......But the kicker is, he did it AGAIN on his next run.....

Stupid people.....

 

sorry about your hood! what brand and size drag radials do you have? why didn't you get slicks?

 

I am a little confused. Shouldn't you be running better times with the D/R???????

 

I have 205/55/15 B/F Goodrich Comp T/A Drag Radials. For some reason, they really aren't yielding me any better times than my 17's with 215/40/17 Falken 512's. In comparison, they are both about the same weight and same circumference. I was hoping they would be a little smaller around than my 17's but they're not. I don't know why they aren't getting me better times. My 60 fts. aren't to much better either. Anyone got any tips or suggestions (other than make sure the hood's pinned )?

 

Well, the raial set up being the same diameter is not a problem. Since your running 15's with drag radials your weight is closer to the center of the axel, which is better than furthur away. It should take less HP to turn the drag radials than the 17's.
What psi did you have in the radials? What rpm were you launching at with the D/R's?

 

When I ran the 14.94, they had 40 lbs. in them. I started dropping the pressure on the next few runs and each one was slower. What's a good psi to run in them? I'm not spinning that much. When I try braking and getting the rpm's up, my 60 foots are crap. When I punch it right before green I can usually get a 2.26-2.28.

 

Shoulda but didna give him a breathalizer.....

 

I have never used D/R's so I am just going off by what I have heard or read.

I think since your using D/R your best bet is to torque brake. You won't be using the D/R's to their potential by just going WOT. I know with slicks you should easily be able to pull sub 2sec 60 foots, drag radials can't be that much different. You pull your 60 foot down 2 tenths and you'll see 4 tenths at the end of the track.

I don't know the best PSI, all I know is that it's lower than 40.

I recomend emailing Nealoc187 or Blubyu2K2. They have some expierence with slicks.