Dog Days of Summer

No chance for records recently with most track days being over 90*F.

I have been racing and have some good videos.

Here's a good one from Steele, running low 12's on a hot day:



And last week, I took a trip up to Bristol Dragway in Tennessee for their Fas Mart Street Fights. It was a lot of fun, though the track was slower due to altitude and heat. Great facility though, and the surrounding mountains are beautiful.

Knocking on 11's

Went to Steele again this past Sunday, May 15th, for a beautiful day of racing.

The only change in the cars was the addition of JBA Shorty Headers. The install was very easy and getting it tightened up for no leaks took a while, but it fits nicely.

I used the same tune from the last time, and immediately I was in the 12:20's at almost 113 mph. With some more tweaking of the timing advance to get rid of Knock Reduction up top and be a little more aggressive down low, I was able to set a new personal best:

Sixty: 1.653
330: 5.021
1/8: 7.799 @ 88.66
1/4: 12.191 @ 112.89

The sixty-foot is amazing for a bolt-on car, and the time is great. It means I'm just two-tenths from an eleven-second run, which is very doable with my next mod, 3.45 gears in the rear. I'm just swapping out the differential from a manual Camaro that has 3.45 gears for my automatic differential that has 3.27 gears.

Here's a simple in-car video.



Interestingly, I used an App called "Dynolicious" for my IPhone on that run, and it was very accurate on the timing.




The horsepower is just a calculation using weight (4000 lbs) and drivetrain loss (15%). But more interesting is the horsepower that each change has gained. I put together a simple spreadsheet:




So that's a gain of almost 90 base horsepower since my first run, and the individual runs are very interesting.



Shows you what a few simple bolt-ons can do!

Oh, and I decided to name the car "The Heretic", because the Conventional Wisdom in the hot-rodding world is that Shorty Headers and Midpipes don't gain you much power. Everyone says you must get Long Tube Headers for good power. Well, the numbers are there, I gained 43.14 base horsepower. Since I'm going against that "Gospel", guess that makes me a Heretic. :-)

The Best First Mod for an Automatic

As has been said, the best first mod for an automatic is a high-stall Torque Converter. This enables the engine to spool up into it's power band more quickly so that the car launches quicker and generally stays where the power is being made, not waiting to rev up to it.


So I had a FTI/RX 3200 Billet Torque Converter installed last week. The only other recent mod was the JBA High-Flow Catted Midpipes, which gained me about a tenth of a second on the ET in the 1/4 mile and about 2 mph on the top end.

The new torque converter gained me 0.43 seconds, including a 1.713 sixty-foot. So the car really launches hard now and the Nitto 555R drag radials are loving it - no spin at all.

My new best time is:

1/4: 12.413 @ 110.18 mph
1/8: 7.965 @ 87.52 mph
sixty: 1.713

I'm very pleased with the results, and there's still more in the car as is.

Any Day Racing is a Great Day!

Went to Steele this past Sunday afternoon for some racing. Temps were in the 80's F, so it wasn't a great day for times, but always a great day for fun.

My main goal this week was to try out my new drag racing rims and tires. They are TSW Nurburgrings in Matte Gunmetal, 18x8 (35mm offset) up front and 18x9.5 (40mm offset) in the rear with Nitto 555, 265/50-18 and Nitto 555R, 305/45-18. The tires maintain the stock height and the TSW rear drag radials are great for driving to the track and hooking the launch, plus they're not too dangerous if caught in a rainstorm on the way home.

With the new setup, I cut 1.9x sixty-foots on every pass, with a best of 12.986 @ 107.51, sixty-1.964. Slower than last time, but good and consistent. Here's a video from the stand:




I also ran into my friend in the Shelby GT500 Mustang. He had a good run against an amazing 2011 Porsch Panamera: a four-door Porsche capable of runnning 11's.









The Porsche also ran against a Twin-Turbo Z06 Corvette. Quite a sight.









Any day racing is a great day!

The Best of the GTO Videos, Part II

Here are a few more videos from various eras of the GTO.

First, when I built the heads/cam LS1 motor, I took a visit to El Paso, Texas, my previous assignment. El Paso has a great street scene and managed to find many legal venues for fun. One was the Dezert Demonz airport street races. On Sunday nights, hundreds of cars and thousands of people would gather at the private airport for cars, fun, and racing. This montage is of one of my runs against a nice Pontiac Grand Prix GTP.



Next is a different kind of montage: a compilation of launches at the drag strip in Steele, Alabama. This is still the heads/cam package I had, but the tim es were getting into the lower 12's. Included are the "conversations with the timeslip guy", where I chatted with the fellow in the booth about each of my runs. A fun night.



Finally, a view from the stands when I had built the 408 motor. This was the first 11-second run for the GTO.

Quicker at Steele

Another run at Steele Sunday afternoon, set a new personal best to help celebrate the 16th Anniversary of my Ordination to the Priesthood (March 4th).

New best: 12.761 @ 109.38 (with new CAI and A6 HPTune).
Previous best: 13.224 @ 106.76 with Cat-back only (Borla Touring).

Only changes: Cold Air Intake(Fastlane Pipeline 4") and my own custom A6 transmission tune with HP Tuners. No other mods to the motor or tune.

Best run:
Sixty: 1.942 (stock 20" PZeros at 27psi)
1/8: 8.282 MPH: 86.98
1/4: 12.761 MPH: 109.38

Overcast in the 40'sF at Steele, good track prep. I figure the CAI was worth 2/10ths, the A6 HPTune 2/10ths, and the weather 1/10th. Guessing, of course.

The car chirped the 1-2 shift, so you can see how much the transimission tune helped. It was almost too good a tune for the launch. I'll be adding drag radials next week.

On the way to the track, I got 22mpg. On the way back with the stock tune reinstalled, I got 21mpg (250+ mile round trip, all highway).

I really like the quality of the Fastlane Pipeline 4" CAI. I've used a down-and-out intake on my GTO, and I feel that and the 4" really make a difference.



First video:


Same run, from the inside with my Ipod:


Lots of fun!

One thousand miles on the Odo.

2011 SS Camaro: First Day Racing in Steele, AL

So what does a pastor do when he takes the morning services and his associate takes the afternoon? Why go drag racing, of course. My first visit to Steele, AL - Alabama International Dragway - since April of 2009. A beautiful February day, 68*F. Great place to race, and I ran into some old racing buddies and met some new ones.


Out of the box, full weight+, stock street tires, only mod is the Borla Touring cat-back exhaust, I ran:

Sixty-foot: 2.057
1/8th mile: 8.828 @ 81.87
1/4 mile: 13.523 @ 105.10





I made several other runs and improved a little, trying different lauch techniques.

Then I met a fellow in a 2009 Ford Shelby GT500, a supercharged car with more than 550 HP to the wheels (mine is maybe 350). His mods are a cold-air intake, a pulley on the supercharger, and a cat-back exhaust. I challenged him to a heads-up race, promising to get it on video. Here we go with my handheld IPod video:



I ran a 2.031 60', 13.447@105.74 and he beat me handily with a 2.051 60', 11.781@122.88. And fun was had by all. Since he was on street tires, his sixty could have been better, so technically I took him on the launch, but all I saw was tail lights after that. Nice race, Neal!

After some cool-down time chatting with other racers, I decided for one last run. Turned out to be my personal best (of 7 runs):

Sixty-foot: 1.982
1/8th mile: 8.613 @ 83.77
1/4 mile: 13.224 @ 106.76

Good lane choice, a bit cooler (64*F and <190*f on the coolant), and a decent burnout (smoking the stock street tires) seemed to do the trick.


When I left, the car had 444 miles on the clock and was getting 4.9 mpg.