Now we see just how slow a NA car will run at altitude. I don't know what the air is like in Denver this weekend but I can see the Stock Eliminator cars are running close to 1 second slower than they normally run. Al Corda's AFI/A Firebird is running 11.0x and he usually runs low 10's.

I'm glad the altitude here isn't as bad but I'm still at altitude.

Never cut down how slow somebodys car runs especially if they're running at altitude. They may be faster than others but are restricted in hp because of the altitude. Some day I'll get to a sea level track just to see how fast my car can run. It will sound better, make more power and just feel better with very low density altitude.

I have 2 points races this weekend. One on Saturday night, the other on Sunday. So far conditions look really good. Barometric pressure is very high but could drop drastically in 12 hours so I won't know if I'll get into the 10's until just before racing. The temperature will have to really come down before it happens. 5*c can make a big difference in performance.

 

The NHRA ET factor for 5800' is 0.9276 (divide your sea level time by that number to get your Bandimere time), and MPH is 1.0773.

A 13.0-sec. car at sea level will run 14.0 here.

On a good day.

Last season, I was running 14.7's here, with a best of 14.53. At Topeka, I was dialing 13.5's, with a best of 13.44 in early-morning TT. Those numbers are very consistent with the NHRA factors, considering density altitude is typically above 8000' here, and was in the 1200's that weekend in Topeka.

I've been given enough guff about my "slow" times. All I can say is, "Come on up here and see what you can do, pal." There is a thread on the Southern Rockies forum right now about a Floridian who could smoke the tires there, but barely gets a chirp out of them after moving here. Welcome to our reality...

 

I need to do another tech article on my web site about high altitude tuning. When you can get a car to run fast at high altitude, it's not just a matter of bolting on a bunch of parts. Jetting, timing, octane requirements and gearing are all affected by running at high altitude.

I see none of the prostock cars got over 200 mph on the weekend. Even the A/SA stock eliminators cars couldn't even get into the 10's when they normally run very low 10's

 

I dont think it would matter Stephen. Most people still wouldent beleive altitude makes a huge difference. Cool thing is seeing some of these cars running 8's and 9's at altitude.