I took the car over to Island Dragway last Sunday May 17 for the Spring Fling Nostalgia Event. I've gotten good timeslips at theses Nostalgia events in recent years, so in my head I was just shooing for a new PB timeslip, despite it being setup as a bracket race. I am definitely not a bracket racer, shoot, I am not even a racer.... I just get a kick out of making runs down the dragstrip, so I packed my gear accordingly and planned on getting knocked out of the event early on and maybe making a total of 4 passes. Never expected to go rounds, never expected to need a second tank of nitrous, and never expected to wind up in the final; but all things considered, it turned out to be a great day. It was real hot for mid-May as you guys know, so the D.A. was between 2100-2900 during the race time. I entered into the N2 class which is a bracket class for all cars in the 10 second zone 10.00-10.99, so I would be needing/using the 150 shot all day.
Pass 1.
Rear shocks set at 8 compression and 3 rebound. Rear tire pressure set at 19.4 psi and I used white paint marker to mark/measure the movement of the tire bead on the rim. Setup the nitrous for a 0.8 progressive hit on the 150 shot with ignition timing ramped from 35 deg to 30deg on the bottle. Race gas concentrate added to my 94 octane Sunoco pump gas full tank. Footbrake launch from 1207 rpms and converter flashed to 3731. I let the trans shift itself on this pass and it shifted out of 1st gear at 5492 rpms and dropped to 4789 rpms in second gear. Took second gear to only 5685 rpms and this dropped to 4904 in 3rd gear which I stayed in all the way to the finish line at 6306 rpms. Pass felt good overall, but felt slow-ish on the launch.
Timeslip:
Datalog:
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQnJ5ZhaesI
Pass 1 launch photo from Steve Bell:
Pass 2.
I wanted to get a test hit in the other lane (right lane) and I wanted it to come out of the hole quicker for sure, so I changed the progressive nitrous shot to be a full/fixed 150 shot at the press of the button. kept shocks the same, but lowered tire pressure to 19.0 from 19.4 psi. Car came out of the hole great, I could feel it. I had footbraked the launch from a high-idle at 1080 rpms. The converter flashed to 4027 rpms and I made the 1-2 shift late this time at 6472 rpms which dropped to 5153 in second gear. I revvd out second gear as well and shifted at 6421 rpms which dropped to 5160 rpms in third gear. It slowed down before the finish line in mph despite crossing at 6390 rpms. I see two areas of my runs that show rich AFR numbers, so I gotta work on clearing that up in the fuel tables. Nonetheless, both passes gave me confidence that I could run a new PB to improve on my 10.55 PB from last year's track rental in October.
Timeslip:
Datalog:
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBH48pwAbec
Photo of pass 2 launch from Steve Bell:
Pass 3.
I was happy with the launch on the last pass, so I kept the nitrous shot as non-progressive. I didn't have any video or spotter that day to tell me how much the car was separating on the launch, but I decided to stiffen everything up one click. I brought the compression to 9 and the extension to 4 on the new Viking warrior rear shocks. I chose the left lane and set my dial in at 10.52 because I was truly hopeful I could get a new PB while running very close to my dial-in. I footbraked the car a little higher than I wanted to at 1615 rpms and it launched good. I was .009 on the tree which was woah but also just dumb luck that I didn't go red. The converter flashed to 4035 rpms and I shifted out of 1st gear a little late at 6508 rpms and it dropped rpms to 5039. I took second gear to 6418 rpms and it dropped to 5167 in third gear. Ran third gear up to 6375 rpms and crossed the line to see a win light I did not expect. Overall that felt like a great pass so I was glad to get another run ahead to keep improving.
Timeslip:
Datalog:
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqsfUNsNNms
Pass 4.
Decided to leave the shocks at 9 and 4, tires at 19.0, non-progressive 150 shot, same exact 10.52 dial-in and kept the same lane. I wanted to slow myself down on the tree a little bit but admittedly, I did leave pretty late this time. Footbraked to a high idle at 1109 rpms and at the launch it flashed the converter to 3941 rpms. This time I shifted 1-2 early at 5400 rpms and it dropped to 4808 in 2nd gear. Took second to 6307 rpms which dropped to be 5232 in third gear. Across the finish line winding 6344 rpms. Driveline seemed to like my shift points, timeslip shows this also. New PB for E.T. (by just a very little bit) at 10.54 but also 8th mile at 6.68 was really close to my 6.64 PB for 8th mile time. There is still some improvements to be gained in the sixty foot this year, so I am certain that a new PB will be attained in the coming months. Anyway, I got the win light again and moved on to round 3.
Tmieslip:
Datalog:
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbJThDoA5_4