Last night I went out cruising and actually ended up racing 4 different cars:
1.) 2000 Ford SVT Lightning- Raced from a dead stop and we were even till about 40 mph at which point he starts pulling on me pretty badly. We shut it down around 80 mph and he had 1&1/2 car lengths on me (Damn those things are fast)! Then we get side by side at around 60 mph and both drop it up till 90 mph, where he ended up about 1/2 a car length in front of me. We get to the stop sign and the guy rolls down his window and says, "Damn what the hell you have under the hood?" I told him a supercharged V6, but you still beat me. He said, "Yeah but I have a supercharged V8! Damn you've got a sweet ride there. I couldn't believe you were keeping up with me." I told him nice race and then said Bye. My hats off to those SVT Lightnings!!!
2.) Next race was against one of those old TransAms with the 6.6 Liter (400 cubic inch) engine. We race 3 times from a dead stop and I creamed him by over 3 car lengths to 70 mph each time. He looked rather ****ed that his American muscle was beat by a Japanese family car.
3.) Next couple of races were against 2 different Honda Preludes with intakes, racing clutches, exhaust. These were some young Asian kids (real nice by the way) and I easily beat these guys. One of the kids asked if I would give him a head start so I said what the hell. Once his bumper was at the front of my car I jumped on it catching him from behind at around 70 mph and passing him and over taking him by over a car length to 90 mph. These were some fun races especially when they couldn't believe that I caught them so easily from behind and passed them. We talked for a while and then went our separate ways.

I'm going to stop by my shop today and put in some 120 octane race gas and go out trolling tonight again. It is so freakn' hot here in Texas (triple digits and in the low 90s at night)

 

nice job



120 octane? ...... hehehe..... have fun!

 

nice run against the SVT, I have always wanted to run one of those, but I have been afraid I would lose, those things are mean. They run high 13's with a good driver. But then again oyu have the exhaust setup and I don't so that could cause a loss for me. My 5 Spd will not make up that much.

Ohh on the 120 Octane, I hope you are playing around, b/c from what I understand anything over 106 or 108 (I forget) octane is leaded, and that its not favorable that you run leaded gas, on an unleaded vehicle. Check to make sure this is correct, but nice runsa gain and you better come down to the texas meet on the last week of August, red the Tx forum for more info and email me. I will be sending out some info later this week about the event. Thanks

 

I think the SVT was smart for shutting down at 90. If you opened up between 90-120 you would have passed him easily. What size pulley are you using?

 

Is the SVT lightning a truck?

 

Yup, aerodynamics would have eventually killed him. Excellent point.

 

I remember when those things came out in the late 70s and the Smokey and the Bandit movie made them so popular. Everybody thought they were the baddest cars on the planet and now 20+ years later I'm finding out that they were more bark than bite. Not that your car is not fast, but as you stated it is a family sedan with only a V6. Nice kills.

BTW, my brother lives in Austin and works with an older guy that has an SVT and is running nitrous. He said the guy is pretty nuts and hits the nitrous even when he runs out for lunch. None of his coworkers will drive in his truck cuz they're afraid

 

Nice kill DMan!
Wow, those SVTs are fast... but like the others said, over 90-100 you should start pulling. The truck will start floating
I raced my friend in a Toyota Tundra. It keeped up and actually pulled alittle on me off the line, but I start pulling after that and he gave up at 80 because his truck was bouncing.

 

lets call it a mustang on steriods?

 

DMan, I must say you have the best Max I've ever seen. And maybe the fastest too. Those TC help alot on launches don't they? I was wondering 1. what kidn of boost you're running? 2. What kind of times you're pulling? 3. How much you've dropped into all that...

 

those lightings can go up to 142mph and they can pull .85 on the skidpad and they can brake from 60 to 0 in 136 thats as good as our car stopping a high 4000slb machine.

 

Nice run against that Lightning. Good thing you had a supercharger. I ran against one at the track in Hattiesburg and I got creamed. I ran mid 15s and he ran high 13s I think. Btw, the supercharger in the lightning sounded pretty sweet.

 

especialyl against that SVT.

But against that 6.6...you've got to remember that it's 20yrs, give it some credit...imagine how a Maxima would have done then (if they existed)? But, I'm sure you'd fare well against the new LS-1s anyways.

Those 'ludes did pretty well against an SC'd car...that's why I'm thinking of picking one up.

 

Gee, were you driving back then?

You're being pretty harsh on a car that was built when the average 0-60 times were something like 13-14 seconds. And the majority of the cars were still carburated, and *everything* worked by mechanical linkage...

I seem to remember the hot engine around that time was the 2.2 liter VW engine that must have made 80 or 90 hp...

 

The stock 3.6" pulley that came with the kit. I'm running about 6 psi of boost. I am thinking about going to a smaller pulley but I'm first going to get the ERL Aquamist system installed and see how that improves my performance before going to a smaller pulley.

 

Thanks. Yeah the TC is awesome especially when I can brake/torque the car to 3K (the beginning of boost onset). 6 PSI. Haven't taken my baby to the track yet b/c I'm waiting for some cooler temps to hit Texas sometime this fall. I've drop over 6 grand so far into my car. (OUCH, but hey I'm having a blast with it) My wife teases me all the time calling me an adolescent in a 33 year old body. My response is heck yeah and I'm having fun!!

 

How exactly are you brake torquing? are you neutral-dropping it? Or is the ratio different in first? Cuz if I put it in D (OD on) and floor the brake and then floor the gas, I can only rev it to about 2300 or so, and I still get pretty good bog. I dunno, I'm still learning how to launch this thing properly for an auto, my old car was much easier (it didn't have any power, didn't worry). Maybe I just need to put it in 1...i dunno. These things are fun stock (i just did my first 0-90 WOT run last night) I can imagine how much fun you're having with yours. Awesome car!

 

Take a close look at my mod list and you'll notice that I have the Protorque high stall TCer which allows me to brake/torque the car up to 3000 rpms. When I had my stock torque converter I could only brake/torque the car to 2200-2300 rpm and yeah it bogged down pretty bad, thus the reason I got the Protorque converter. Now my car just flat takes off with no bog and a pretty good bit of tire spin if I brake/torque to 3k. DON'T EVER DO NEUTRAL DROPS!!! Guys that do this are just plain stupid and you will ruin their tranny in no time flat. Just some friendly advise. If you really want better take offs I would suggest getting the Protorque TCer. Good luck and take care.

 

correct me if I am wrong, but isn't flashing the TC the best way to get a good launch? You hold in the brake hard and just rest your foot on the gas or hold the revs at 1k. Then, before taking off, you mash the gas and then let go of the brake a split second later. Won't this also allow you to reach the stall speed without bogging down?

 

 

that probably is the best way! It works well both ways as you stated (flashing) and also when I torque/brake to 2500-3000 rpms. I need to practice flashing the TC to see if that will work better though. That is the way my shop who did the TC install suggested for the best start also.