2-29-08 Friday Night TNT 1/8th mile track

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XLRVIII

Registered
Since the tracks are just beginning to open and start their 2008 bracket season, I took the car out to the local 1/8th mile track to "brush the dust" of both myself and "Grandmas Car".

I cooled the car down for 30 minutes and headed to the lanes.

First pass
RT - .5374
60' - 2.27 (spun)
330 - 6.14
1/8 - 9.27
MPH 78.58
Temp 72
Humidity 80%
Baro 29.8

2nd pass
Cool down:45min
Dropped rear tire pressure from 35 to 30

RT - .586
60' - 2.28 (spun again)
330 - 6.12
1/8 - 9.25
MPH 79.27
Temp 70
Humidity 85%
Baro 29.9

3rd Pass

Left Lane Lincoln Right Lane 87-93 Fox on slicks w/cage

RT .6117------------1.0580
60' 2.32(spun)-------2.02
330 6.232------------5.815
1/8 9.38------------- 6.848
MPH 78.14------------85.70
MOV Right Lane-------.0950
The mustang was "hauling the mail" on the top end!
the MOV was less than 1 car length.
Tree'd the crap out of him and he just "barely nipped me at the stripe"
HAHA

4th pass

Left Lane Right Lane
96 Firebird LT1 Lincoln Mark VIII

RT 1.1518--------------.5545 (tree'd the crap out of him)
60' 2.311(he spun)------2.305( I spun)
330 6.246---------------6.199(draggin the firebird)
1/8 9.464--------------9.350
mph 76.87--------------78.44 (still pulling away at the stripe)
MOV - Left Lane .7113 = (roughly 7 car lengths *S*)

That run was the most fun pass of the night, even though the 60 sucked worse than the other passes.
In the burnout area, folks were doing their usual "laughing and pointing" at Grandmas Car, they were cheering for the Firebird to WIN.

Coming down the return road you could hear the folks giving the firebird guy hell for getting beaten by "Grandmas Car".

I followed the firebird back to the lanes to see if he wanted a rematch.
When we got to the lanes, he turned and went out the gate and left the track.
...poor guy.HAHAHA

All in all it was a crappy night on the track, it was the first night of the year for the track to be open, traction was literally non existant for myself and many of the other cars out there, including an Outlaw 10.5 tire car that hit both walls and ended up on it's roof in the top end.

Even with the crappy conditions, I did get a few good hits on the tree and had some good honest fun, without the pressure of "round 1" looming.

I was glad there was no "bracket race" as the traction issues would have surely "Stressed me out"..haha

Overall I had a good time, it was good to be "back in the lanes".
 
Don't ya just love it when the 'other guy' is such a crowd favorite and he ends up getting dusted by a Lincoln?! :D

Wow, those 60 foot times sure point to problems with traction! :eek:

In a way I guess that's a good thing. ;)
 
driller said:
Don't ya just love it when the 'other guy' is such a crowd favorite and he ends up getting dusted by a Lincoln?! :D

Wow, those 60 foot times sure point to problems with traction! :eek:

In a way I guess that's a good thing. ;)
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Absolutely, love when "laughy and pointy" talk smack before the pass, then to see the very humble grins they put on "after the fact"!.. it's one of my favorites!

Now that I feel I have "eeked" every last bit of performance out of the car via PRP.

Now I am going to have to "go backwards" thru my race tune and see if I can "soften up the hit" a bit and get the car to launch rather than spinning on street tires.

...wondering if I go back and "re-add" the "tip in retard" to my tune if it'll soften up the "hit" abit.
 
XLRVIII said:
Now I am going to have to "go backwards" thru my race tune and see if I can "soften up the hit" a bit and get the car to launch rather than spinning on street tires.

...wondering if I go back and "re-add" the "tip in retard" to my tune if it'll soften up the "hit" abit.
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NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Tire spin is a good sign! It simply means the engine loading exceeded the tire's traction ability for the conditions.

Fix the TRACTION problem, not the tune!!!

If you were my tuner and suggested something like that, I'd slap you silly! LOL! :D
 
I understand where you are coming from.. maybe I DO NEED A SLAP!
HAHA

but it seems I created this issue IN the tune, and since I cant afford Drag Radials..
I'm gonna see if I can turn down my "Low ET" tune to the point the car will launch again... then I can sneak back up on the performance that I had "tuned out".

For "fun" I'm gonna make a secondary tune and see if I can test it this friday night.
not gonna change anything except the "tip in retard" which really shouldn't affect the ET to a large extent... since the car is going to pick up .2 in the 60 foot, I should be able to "leave some on the table" and still run the same numbers I am now.

I AM accepting donations for drag radials.... you can buy "one slap" for 50.00.
anyone car to "slap me upside the head, until I can afford drag radials"?
*LMAO*

I'm not saying I'm gonna "detune" my car overall, just want to work out this "problem on the starting line" without having to spend 300-400 dollars on parts.
Tip In retard should work well.
Might pull a "little spark" on the bottom end as well.

Anything that gets my 60's back in order will show up as an "improvement" overall.

...it's worth a shot.. in the dark...

Slap away, I DESERVE IT...
HAHA
 
LOL... you're a riot, Tommy.

Reminds me of a tuning session at a dyno shop one day. This particular car being tuned was tuning for nitrous and was playing with jet sizes to maximize the tune while watching the A/F ratio. It came to the point where he really needed a jet size in between the two they had just tried but there was none available. The dyno operator suggested downsizing the jet to bring the HP levels down where the fuel could be matched for proper A/F. Both the tuner and owner literally stared the dyno operator down - lowering the HP level was NOT an option. :laugh:
 
Nice win on the LT1, I find the LT1 Camaros and Firebirds to be good competition for the Mark VIII especially auto vs. auto.
 
46callaway said:
Nice win on the LT1, I find the LT1 Camaros and Firebirds to be good competition for the Mark VIII especially auto vs. auto.
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That race, wasn't even close...haha

if you look at the 60's we were within .01 as far as the timing clocks were concerned, but if you look at the differences in RT.. you'll see I was so far ahead of that guy it wasn't funny.

I had him by like 7 car lengths and was pulling away at a 2PMH advantage at the stripe.
so.. he wasn't even gaining any ground.

Hell he "gave me" 6 car lengths right off the "tree".

as I said.. "poor guy"..HAHA
 
driller said:
LOL... you're a riot, Tommy.

- lowering the HP level was NOT an option. :laugh:
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If my long term goal was to be the "quickest lincoln" I never would consider such a strategy.
but I would gladly give up .2-.3 in ET to get my car to "hook".

Bracket Racing is my main interest, mostly because I cannot afford to "chase the quickest NA 1st gen title".

believe me, I am keeping a copy of this current tune in my LOW ET folder.
I wont "lose" this tune for danged sure.

On one of my crappy runs from friday night, the timeslip database program said..
had i ran under better conditions, i would have eeked out a 13.99 in the 1/4 mile {dammit}

I knew if I went to a "short track" my car would run some numbers that would have "met my short term goal".. 13.99! (kicks stuff around my office)

Now I need to take the car out to the "long track" this friday night...
the long track has been known for years as having a "great starting line"!

Who knows I just might be on the verge of my first "sub 14 second pass".
(crosses fingers)
 
I never get to run on a Saturday and participate in the brackets since I own and run 3 different businesses, and my time is at a super premium, but I wanted to tell a quick story here since you had talked about racing against a "crowd favorite."

I was at an afternoon test and tune one Friday last year and ended up sitting in the staging lanes against a 67 or 68 Charger that had been painted up/fitted to look exactly like the "General Lee". It was very well done and very detailed, and the car had its original 400 "Hemi" motor in it. There was quite literally a crowd around it, taking photos and asking the driver questions (and let me say it was a very well done car that looked very nice and the driver/car deserved the attention they were getting).

Anyway we get to the burnout box and he does this enormous and loud "John Force" smokey burnout while I do the little "tire drying" buzz that befits a street tire. I roll up to the line and wait while he inches into place. The lights roll and...

I leave the poor guy just sitting there. I tree'd him by about a full half a second and on top of that he ran around a 14 while I was around a 13, so at the end I was about 12-15 lengths ahead of him.

When I got back to the pits, my wife said that when the race was over the announcer said "I don't think anybody expected that to happen." :)
 
Devin said:
When I got back to the pits, my wife said that when the race was over the announcer said "I don't think anybody expected that to happen."
:)
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I've often heard many variations of that over the last few years.
it's my most favorite aspect of the Mark 8.
 
and I always love to watch the stick shift guys "really work hard" rowing thru the gears trying to either catch up.. or get away from "grandmas car".

Some of their expressions are simply priceless.

I need to get a camera that points out the side, some of the footage would be a riot!
 
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