Debut at the track!

KStromberg

KStromberg

VIII looking for 8s
Well, it's official. I hit the track for the very first time yesterday with my buddy Dan to run the cars. It was in the 40s in the morning and the first 2 hours of running were terrible.:( The track was cold, it was cloudy, and people couldn't hook including myself. Anyhow, the sun came out at about 11AM and the track really started improving.

Ready for this?:p

The best time I could muster was a 14.1 @ 97mph. That was with 14psi in the stickies and a 60' of 2.02.

I had TONS of passes that were in the 14.2-14.3 range. All in all, I hoped for 13s but after a short time knew it wasn't happening. So, I programmed myself to deal with that fact and despite that fact still had a hell of a fun time!:)

I even managed a trophy in the street eliminator challenge in the afternoon!:D For that event, if you ran closer to your dial in time than your opponent, you win that pass. Win 2 passes, you get a trophy. So after earning that trophy after 2 passes, I managed to go on and do 2 more passes before I was finally knocked out on the 4th pass.

We are going back on the 9th. Maybe I can squeeze out a 13.9? It's gonna be tough.

I had a blast running the car and getting down the art of launching. Now, time to go do some more modding!

P.S. I am going to try to get some pics and video up......
 
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Congratulations! :) A very similar time to my Mark during SSHS6 back in November 2006. I think I had a 3200 stall PI single tc, metal matrix drive shaft, 410's with t lock, C&L maf and cone filter, MT dr's at the time and went 14.132 @ 96.79.

My car skipped the 13's all together when the s/c went in. Went from 14.1 to 12.5 or something like that when the blower went in. Good luck!


My best run:
60......2.049
330.....5.893
1/8.....9.051
MPH....77.95
1000...11.800
1/4....14.132
MPH....96.79




lol some back in the day old school pictures at SSHS6 of JP and I... :)


SSHS6021.jpg



109618162-L.jpg



SSHS6011-1.jpg
 
Mike?!!:D I am looking at my timeslip and our times are identical down to the 1/1000th. My time was 14.132. How cool is that!! :lol3:
 
Congrats! Now you have a baseline to work from and improve upon! :D

KStromberg said:
Mike?!!:D I am looking at my timeslip and our times are identical down to the 1/1000th. My time was 14.132. How cool is that!! :lol3:
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Does that mean you will follow Mike's steps and skip the 13s??? :rolleyes:
 
driller said:
Congrats! Now you have a baseline to work from and improve upon! :D
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Yes John! And I am indeed going to do that on October 9th already when we go to the track again. Here's an interesting suggestion my buddy gave me: MANUALLY shift the car. So this afternoon I went out and did just that for some test runs. Wow! The car responds soooo much better that way which is kind of encouraging in a way if I am going to crack off a 13.9 but discouraging in the fact that I just discovered that the shift points in the tune are absolute ****.

Here's the deal guys. In my SCT tune, 1st gear shift point is around 5900 rpm. It never hits 6K and second gear only goes out to 6200-6250. NOW, when I manually shift the car, 1st gear I can rev out to about 6200-6250 in first gear and 6500 in second. The difference is noticeable and I think this car has a 13.9 in it on October 9. Mail order tunes FTL!





driller said:
Does that mean you will follow Mike's steps and skip the 13s??? :rolleyes:
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Nah. I'm going N/A just like yourself unless I have some weird urge in the far future, but I see a rebuild coming long before that. :)
 
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lol Kirk, That is wild. These cars seem to be very predictable when modded - except for one, burbank's. He and I have a kinda similar setup, and he has like a second or so on me. lol I am not going to start deleting and changing things to catch him though. :)

I did not have the kooks yet when I ran the 14.1 back in 2006. I did have the custom made x pipe and stainless steel mandrel bent 2 1/2" cat back exhaust on the car at that time.

For me, going from "Mr. 15 flat" to 14.1 was straight forward and proven by many others. That next second is going to be a huge challenge, especially if you plan to hit 12.999. I do not know of a single 4000 pound+ N/A 4.6 Mark VIII or Marauder on pump gas that ever hit the 12's. Good luck trying if you decide to go for it... :)
 
KStromberg said:
Yes John! And I am indeed going to do that on October 9th already when we go to the track again. Here's an interesting suggestion my buddy gave me: MANUALLY shift the car. So this afternoon I went out and did just that for some test runs. Wow! The car responds soooo much better that way which is kind of encouraging in a way if I am going to crack off a 13.9 but discouraging in the fact that I just discovered that the shift points in the tune are absolute ****.

Here's the deal guys. In my SCT tune, 1st gear shift point is around 5900 rpm. It never hits 6K and second gear only goes out to 6200-6250. NOW, when I manually shift the car, 1st gear I can rev out to about 6200-6250 in first gear and 6500 in second. The difference is noticeable and I think this car has a 13.9 in it on October 9. Mail order tunes FTL!
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You MAY get a better run now and then manually shifting, but trust me when I tell you you can never consistently outshift a computer.

If you want to manually shift, I highly recommend getting a tune for it to be done correctly or simply just get the shift points raised on the tune you have. Manually shifting the 4R70W can wreak havoc over time.

And another thing, what it feels like on the street can be quite deceiving when compared to actual ETs at the track. ;)

Now go back Oct. 9th and prove me wrong. Not just once but with repeatability. :D
 
Here is with the tune with what I think is still stock shift points:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsRMEL7Ql3o&feature=channel

Here is a manual shift test run. I even eased into the throttle on this one;):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ObZRIflaNU&feature=channel

I don't know about you, but I like the second video better. It was just a little tougher making that one because I had to drive with my knees while holding my phone with one hand and shifting with the other. :D


Here is my big question: I want to send the tune back this week to have the shift points raised at WOT. When I manually shifted the car and let her whine out to 6500 rpm in first and second gear, it definitely felt really good! Do I dare go any higher with these shift points or should I just request 6500rpm for first and second gears?? Also to be noted, I have a 10" CircleD converter as listed in my signature. On the site where I got it, it says it can handle up to 6500rpm, but I also have an anti-balloon plate on it. I want to keep my converter in one piece if at all possible. ;)
 
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I have been shifting WOT at 7150 for years now while in drive. I was told to manual shift the car at 6000 to allow time for the delay to convert the physical mechanical lever movement to a electronic shifting command.

I believe I shifted my car around 6500 or so in drive when it was configured similar to yours. I would make sure your air/fuel is good up there too. Keep in mind the goal here is positioning the car for the shift into the next gear to be in the cars sweet spot of the power band to keep you moving forward. My opinion, that is high up on the rpm scale, especially when under boost.

Time slips are the best judge of this forward movement measurement thing :) Go get a fist full of them and note on the back of them what you shifted at and see for yourself where the car's best shift point is. Not sure about this, but ask your tuner if he can allow you to make changes to the shift points on your xcal.
 
Update. The chip was sent back today for another makeover. I spoke with the tuner briefly today and suggested 6500rpm wot shifts. The 4-valve loves it as I can attest to since yesterday's test runs.

Here are some videos from the track. Some are better than others. Enjoy!:D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wed0w-5pLNA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdlbEuClRSM&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNr0WPpGulM&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wed0w-5pLNA&feature=channel


I can't wait to hit the track again with a new improved tune!:D More videos to come!:cool:
 
mlschultz said:
Time slips are the best judge of this forward movement measurement thing :) Go get a fist full of them and note on the back of them what you shifted at and see for yourself where the car's best shift point is.
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Hmmmm.... forward movement measurement thing...

Acceleration? LOL :D

You have to make sure the fistful are from the same location and conditions. I did my shift point tweaking at the track during a couple private rental T&T events where you had plenty of runs to compare. Using the PRP software and the 4 position chip, I would pre-load different shift points and run at least 3 runs on each setting.

KStromberg said:
Update. The chip was sent back today for another makeover. I spoke with the tuner briefly today and suggested 6500rpm wot shifts. The 4-valve loves it as I can attest to since yesterday's test runs.
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Poke and hope, huh? :p

Seriously, I would hope the car runs better (faster) with the higher shift points but just don't expect it to emulate the manual shifts.
 
driller said:
Seriously, I would hope the car runs better (faster) with the higher shift points but just don't expect it to emulate the manual shifts.
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John, I expect it to be far superior and more consistent when revised in the tune rather than me having to do the shifting. All I have to do is mash the pedal on the right. ;)
 
Don't worry about not hooking at rock falls. Nobody hooks there. The only time they put vht down is when the owner makes a run, which is maybe 2-3 times during the day.
 
crash said:
Don't worry about not hooking at rock falls. Nobody hooks there. The only time they put vht down is when the owner makes a run, which is maybe 2-3 times during the day.
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I didn't have a problem last time once the track warmed up a little bit. Just the first few runs early in the morning were crap. Duh, right? It was overcast and in the 40s ;) The Mickey Thompsons at 14 psi hooked every time after 10AM. :D
 
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