What a great night at the track (1/8-mi). My car ran a lot better than I expected it to. We were hoping for 7.50s (and maybe 7.40s with a little luck). But it was much quicker. My best run of the night was 7.217 @ 94.73mph (~11.20 in the 1/4mi). But, my wife Donna kicked my butt. Her best time was 7.181 @ 95.54 (~11.15 in the 1/4mi)!! (It must be a weight thing ) We had a bunch of runs in the 7.20s and 7.30s. And Donna won her very first drag racing trophy tonight, too!!

It was a blast to say the least. And yes, I'm lucky to have a wife who really enjoys drag racing... even if she did get the better of me last night.

No one hassled us about the lack of a roll cage... hooray!! But, we were having trouble getting it to hook well. I played with tire pressure and got it to stop spinning, but then it went into tire shake. The best 60' times were in the low 1.60s... never could get down into the 1.50s.

But my car was sure getting a lot of attention last night. I don't know how many people wandered by in the pits or staging lanes and asked, "WTF have you done to this thing?!?!". hehe... that was pretty cool. As of right now, I'm pretty sure it's the quickest S197 in San Diego.

We're hoping to get it on the 1/4-mi track at Fontana in a couple weeks, but they are strict there about the cage rules. If we go, I'll either have to slow it down (bigger pulley), or risk getting booted off the track. And if I'm going to get booted, I want it to be for a 10-sec run, not a low-11.

Anyway, I'll be packing up to head to another track here in a few minutes, so I'll have more to report tomorrow (along with pics and vids). I don't expect the times to match last night... the DA at this other track will be worse. I've always run 1 or 2 tenths slower there.

 

awesome job don. Way to go. What pully are you running now?

 

Don - nice runs and tell your wife congrats on the trophy!!

 

Thanks.. that was on a 91 octane pump gas tune and 12psi.

 

Just checked out your website. Holy crap dude, nice car!

 

A friend of mine has posted some videos he took here: http://www.modularfords.com/forums/2...tml#post649753

I'll post more tomorrow...

 

thats very cool that yall race together, great hobby for yall :-) Congrats on surpassing your expectation!

 

Just want to say contratz to you to Don (and Donna). I've been following these threads since the beginning and I'm so glad it's all coming together for you now. Cheers!

 

I love what you have done to your engine. Congrats thats amazing.

 

Awesome job Don & Don's wife!!

 

DON, YOU RULE !!!
DONNA TOO !!!

 

Congrats! Thats a sick ride

 

Holy Crap Don, talk about kicking *** now that you got her back out there. Your times are insane, you need to get her to some racing events now.

Congrats!

 

Saw the Vids Don..Congrats on the new no#s! It's a great feeling when you get more then you expected .....and theres still more in it .
Wife beat your time with a 7:18 hu?

Good Luck OTW to the 10's.

-John

Oh.....and 4 cars racing?I was saying to myself...WTF?lolol
Last time I saw that was in 64.

 

Thanks guys!!

And yes, they have dual side-by-side 1/8-mi tracks at Qualcomm.

 

We got in a few more runs at the other 1/8-mi track here in San Diego yesterday. I made my best run of the weekend (7.195 @ 94.36mph, with a 1.562 60-foot time), with a density altitude of a not-so-good 3,342 feet. It makes me wonder what this car could do in some really good air. On another run, I went 7.226 @ 96.39mph, and the 96.39mph was the best trap speed all weekend for my car.

 

Way to kick butt, Don and Donna!

 

Here are some videos from Friday night at Qualcomm that my wife and I took.

Video #1: My first pass... 14psi in the tires was too much. It spun real bad off the line. 8.413 @ 92.02mph, 2.053 60'.

Video #2: My second pass this time with 12psi in the tires. Much better run. 7.297 @ 94.93mph, 1.696 60'.

Video #3: My third run, again with 12psi in the tires. Heat soak sapped some ET. 7.358 @ 94.93mph, 1.749 60'.

Video #4: Donna's first run with 11psi in the tires (I left them at 11psi for the rest of the weekend). She was still learning how to do a burnout, and I think she had some water on the tires. 7.988 @ 94.94mph, 2.028 60'.

Video #5: Donna's 2nd run. There was still a little tire spin. 7.502 @ 94.73mph, 1.786 60'. But, we were running in a 7.500 ET class, and this run was good enough for her to win her very first drag racing trophy!!

Video #6: Donna's 3rd run. No tire spin on this one. This is the best ET so far with this car!! 7.181 @ 95.54mph, 1.632 60'.

Video #7: My turn again to drive. I was hoping to beat her 7.18, but my extra 100lbs of weight prevented it (that's my story and I'm sticking to it... lol) 7.235 @ 94.93mph, 1.647 60'.

Video #8: Another "hot lap" pass for me. Slowed a little but still not bad. 7.356 @ 93.36mph, 1.699 60'.

Video #9: Donna is back in the seat. 7.374 @ 94.53mph, 1.751 60'.

Video #10: Donna is going up against one of the local race cars... a classic Shelby GT350 clone (with a 347 Windsor on gods knows how much N2O). She went 7.293 @ 94.93mph against his 6.255 @ 108.70.

Video #11: My first heads up race against Adam. His clutch was not playing nice... but I got the win light anyway. hehe. I ran 7.217 @ 94.73mph against his 7.720 @ 80.21.

Video #12: Second race against Adam. His clutch was not any better. I ran 7.322 @ 94.34mph; Adam limped in with a 8.224 @ 67.66.

Video #13: On this run, Donna took Ed's wife along as a passenger. The track rules say you can't run under 8.50 with a passenger. We warned her to get out of it just after half track or so. She didn't... you can see her hit the brakes right at the very end, but it was too late. Her 7.777 @ 69.98 ended her night as a driver. Whoops....


And here are some videos from Saturday at Barona Dragstrip.

Video #1: Adam and I locked horns on our first run of the day. I'm sure he'll blame the clutch again, but for the 3rd time in a row (counting the two previous races the night before), I turned on the win light. Oh yea!! hehe. I ran a 7.226 @ 96.34mph, to his 7.423 @ 93.93.

Video #2: For the 4th time in two days, Adam and I went at it. This time his belt snapped right at the starting line. Oh well, that's racing (and he is oh-for-four against me). This run was also my personal best so far. I went 7.195 @ 94.36mph. We won't talk about his numbers...

Video #3: This is Scott (Adam's dad) in his fox Mustang. Turbo powered 5.0 in this thing, and it can really scoot!! It's been deep into 6's before, but was running low 7's on this day. This was his slowest run at 7.29 @ 96.94.

Video #4: Here is my 3rd run. I couldn't pick on Adam again, so I went after another Mustang. I ran 7.271 @ 94.36

Video #5: This one is Donna racing against Scott. There was some friendly trash talking going on before this pass and ... ummm, Scott showed her who's da boss. She ran 7.267 @ 94.93 to Scott's 7.065 @ 97.23. Of course, he went red and she tried to claim her victory. The trash talking continued.

Video #6: So this time Donna races Scott's car (with Adam driving). It got worse for her. Her 7.334 @ 94.58 was no match for Adam's 7.015 @ 98.05. Lesson learned.

Video #7: Adam got the belt back on his car and hit the track again. This thing went all kinds of squirelly, but he drove through it for a 7.19 pass. (He later went 7.11, but we didn't see it or video it).

Video #8: Here is Donna's last run for the night. A 7.458 @ 94.50.

 

My friend Ed also shots some vids at Barona from a different viewpoint. This one is my favorite. It is Adam and I going at it side-by-side on our first run of the day. It was close but I nipped him by maybe a car length. Fun race!! http://videos.modularfords.com/video...3800b732f9.htm

He posted links to more here: http://www.modularfords.com/forums/2...ers-62085.html

 

While I was compiling all these vids to post on my Car Domain site (see sig for link), a couple of them (shot by my friend Ed, at Qualcomm) were real eye openers. In the one race, the other car ran a 9.39 @ 83.80mph. In the second one, the opponent ran 9.00 @ 76.92. Many S197 Mustangs run in the 9.0-9.3 range (i.e., low 14s in the 1/4)... even slightly modified ones. I know a year ago, I was running in the 8.8-9.0 range myself. These two videos give you a really good idea what the difference is between my car now and what it was a year ago (and what I suspect many 05+'s are now).

This car is just plain silly fast now.

7.29 vs 9.39
7.18 vs. 9.00