The making of a bracket car

[driller]

I took the '96 out to the track today for an early morning track rental at Mason Dixon Dragway near Hagerstown, MD.

The best ET of the day was 14.301@94.83. The best trap speed was 95.86 mph. The ol' girl was mighty consistent with 14.3s @ 94-95mph. 19 runs were 14.3s and 7 runs were low 14.4s. A couple of the slower passes were driver error including the one pass where I tried to launch in second gear!

It was actually the first time for me with the '96 at the track, so there was a lot of getting acquainted with the car and trying to find the best launch strategy. It seemed to leave the line softly flashing the converter, so I tried stalling the converter at different rpms. The sixty foot times ranged from 2.078 to 2.157. The best reaction time of the day was 0.003.

I'm sure the heavy front wheels hurt the times but it seemed to hook well with the 26" Hoosier QT Pros on the stock Lincoln wheels. After 27 passes, the Hoosiers should be broken in for the season. LOL

 

[driller]

Just calculated density altitude was 1867'-2345', fairly typical for this track without being too hot.

A few pics...

 

[driller]

Here's a link to a video of some T&T action.

More pics...

 

[maxmk8]

Interesting that trap speed is exactly where I had this mark. 94.xx
Did you change the gearing in the back?! The 2 times i took it out to the track, I ran 15.1X and 15.0Xs. And you guys must have better gas

My 60FT was 2.22 with the stock rims and 225 out back and 2.35 with the big wheels and 275s at the time.

 

[46callaway]

Nice JP! I watched the video, the announcer was loving the hot rod Lincoln...

 

[driller]

Yes, the gearing is changed.

The trap speeds are the same because the stock HP is the same.

It now sports the 4.10s with traction-lock courtesy of hand-me-downs from the '93. It also has a PI triple-disc 3500 stall converter, another hand-me-down from the '93. And to add to the mix, a true original MMx driveshaft along with a J-modded valvebody in the tranny. A custom programmed chip from Lonnie at BOC is also new.

The best ET before on the car with 'drill-bit' driving was 15 flat at the same track with street tires on the same 18 inch wheels.

Realizing the Hoosiers mounted on the snowflake wheels probably accounted for some gains, the ETs were pretty good given the few mods on the car. I figure it to be good for 13.9-14.1 at a good track in cool autumn air.

The track announcer was pretty cool. Obviously, a Lincoln at their track is pretty rare, let alone one hot-lapping the track as I was. LOL

What the car really needs next is to get rid of the cats and install a pair of headers.

 

[maxmk8]

Since i am home now I loved the vid. Mark laid the spanking down to quite a few cars... btw that mustang convertible pictured... looks like it has the same wheels as the mark

 

[mlschultz]

Looks like you had a great time, JP! Nice times!

 

[46callaway]

JP, does the car have a tune? Also, what size and brand tires are you running?

 

[driller]

It has a new SCT chip from BOC. It has not been dynotuned.

The street tires are 245/45-18 Essenzas.

The rear tires at the track were of course the Hoosier QT Pros 26x9.50-16s on snowflake wheels.

 

[Lonnie]

Finally found the thread. Thats a pretty good improvement overall. Where's the video you guys are talking about?

 

[Last Mrk]

Click on the word video in the 3rd post.

 

[Lonnie]

Yeah I clicked on it last night but it didn't work. I did work this morning though.