WarBird69

Track conditions: Before I left the house, weather channel said 91 degrees and sunny. 2 hours later, its still 86 out there, and still quite sunny. Sure felt hotter standing on all that asphault in the sun.

Arrived at the track 10 minutes or so before my friend who drives a Dodge Neon SRT-4. Pulled into a parking area, opened my hood, and let the engine bay cool off from my 10 mile drive to the track.

Pre-race: Kept the hood up and car off until it was time to pull forward toward the pre-staging lanes. Turned the A/C off, traction control off, and OD off. Windows up, seatbelt on, heart racing....all check!

Race time: Pulled around the water pit. Shallow staged. Mashed the break and revved up to around 2k RPM. When the 3rd yellow tree light hit, I smashed the gas and let off the break. I made 3 passes:

1st: 14.0841@99.77 MPH (RT: .8347) ...raced some suped up Camaro that ate me alive! (11.7 @ 92 MPH)

2nd: 14.0721@99.97 MPH (RT: .7618) ... raced friend's SRT-4 He did 15.1@92.9 MPH)

3rd: 14.09@9.75 MPH (RT: .7491) ...friend did 14.79@93.56 MPH

Overall I'm a little dissapointed in my times. I expected to break into the 13s at least a little. What can I do to improve my times, besides go on a cooler day?

Performance Mods: Xcal2 87 octane tune, Tunable Induction CAI

metroplex

Your trap speeds are almost on-par with what S197 GTs get. The heat is a big factor because the air is less dense. What were your 60' times? That will give us an idea on how much traction you were getting off the line. From experience, 60' times can make or break a good run.

WarBird69

60' times:

1st: 2.2673
2nd: 2.3808
3rd: 2.2798

FordRacing

This is why you didn't get; what you wanted to get....

for every .1 on this end you can expect ABOUT .2 on the end of the run...

A good 60ft time for street tires is 1.9-2.0....anything above that and your spinning your tires too much.
Just dont ask me how to get that lower, I'm still trying to get mine below 2.19

medieval

How much did it cost you to race and for how many times down the track?

theedge67

Bump up the tune to a 93 rather than the 87, that will net you a little bit. Also, you can take out the spare tire and jack. That should save you like 50lbs.

WarBird69

$15 to run as many times as you want, and I went down 3 times.

I should also probably note that I was on street tires with street PSI with about 1/2 tank of gas. Next time, I'll try taking out the spare tire/jack and go on less gas in my tank. See what some weight reduction can do. Maybe it won't be so hot either...

metroplex

Once the track starts to heat up, and people slather water all around the staging area, your 60' times may suffer. Drag radials are one way of reducing your 60' times because of better traction. But it looks like your trap speed is close to what others are getting (roughly 100-101 mph) in varied conditions. Try to take out some PSI on your street tires and remove as much weight as possible (spare tire, jack, golf clubs, MP5, AR15, spare ammo, etc...)

BTW the engine makes the most power when it is at operating temperature (fully warmed up). The air intake charge, however, should be as dense as possible since you want the most amount of oxygen in the mixture. This is one reason why people ice their intakes/supercharger intercoolers.

70MACH1OWNER

Hi Warbird69,
I will assume you went to Kil-Kare dragstrip for Thursday test and tune. Been there a number of times since it is the closest track to me also. You have about 3 or 4 things keeping you out of the 13's. First was the heat, your 87 octane tune would not be that great. Jump up to 93 octane tune next time if you can. Your 60" time really killed you. But it may not be you fault. That track is notorious for not keeping the starting line in very good shape on Thursday's. It is always slick. Try lowering your rear tire pressure about 5 lbs also.
Good luck.
Scott

metroplex

FWIW jumping up to 93 octane won't help him much unless his spark tables are bumped up enough to take advantage of 93 octane (like in a SCT tune). The stock calibration will increase the timing at the powerband by roughly 2* if it does not detect detonation, which isn't anything to write home about.

ski

Agree with the others regarding heat(plus humidity?), and your 60" times keeping you out of the 13's.
Another thing you can try the next time is to reload the tune while the car's engine is cooling off. That will wipe out all of the timing and A/F ratio values, which may be on the conservative side, from the ECM's long term memory.

TBone69

Warbird,

That looks about right for a stock automatic at that temp. I ran a 13.98 deep staged in the cool air.

Get a tune and a CAI and with some good air you will be in the 13.50-13.60 range. Also pump up the fron tires to 40lbs or so to reduce the rolling resistance, that should help some.

Good Luck and have fun.

Cowtown

The tips above are good, I would go to 93 octane tune or at least 91, it made a solid 10th difference when I did. I don't know the elevation at that track but be careful when comparing your times to others on here. Being I race at Calgary the altitude is 3500ft above sea level here, and then add in our terrible air and we can see density altitude upwards of 6500-7000ft. This makes a HUGE difference in the numbers you see.

When I was stock I was all low low 14's here at Calgary with average Calgary weather uncorrected. Just corrected for the physical altitude I was running basically 13.7-13.8 @ 100MPH.

So when you go back make sure when you stage you are flashing your converter to the point where you can feel the car pull against the brakes, then you're staged high enough, I think this is closer to 2500RPM than it is 2000RPM. As long as you don't blow your tires off (unlikely in a near stock Auto) you should cut your 60' down a bit and get a bit more jump.

Also who does your tunes? If it's not Bama or Brenspeed you're leaving HP and TQ on the table. I got Brenspeed to tighten up my shifts and again that change from the Diablo was huge, I was making more power and the shirt firmness made a noticable difference at the track.

ChevyKiller

Has the big bitten you yet?

don_w

The big what?

Stoenr

don is the bug!

don_w

I've been referred to as the "crack dealer" by a couple recent track addicts, but never a "bug".

281GT

The track here in Edmonton is at 2200'. Stock S197 GTs run high 14's to 15.0 here. Yep altitude makes a HUGE difference.