J. Chris Davis

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For those bored at work here is the live feed for day 1 of drag week 2016.

TTOP350

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Jeremy Heizer is running with his LS 91 GTA (green)

AlkyIROC

Just saw the 86 Camaro Mu11et Militia run an 8.86 in qualifying.

J. Chris Davis

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Yep just saw that too, lol. He was flying down that track. I think they will be doing these live feeds every day through Friday.

AlkyIROC

Glad I'm between employers right now. I can watch it every day. I'm using my 46" TV to watch the feed.

Lots of accidents on the first day. The nitro vet hitting the wall after running 199 mph took a long time to clean up.

Quickest car on day 1 hit the 5 second range.

J. Chris Davis

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I've got my laptop sitting on my desk at work playing the live feed. I should be able to let it play every day. I missed the wrecks though. I've been outside mowing my work lawn for the last couple of hours.

J. Chris Davis

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Norwalk, OH today.

AlkyIROC

16 vehicles out after the first day due to accidents, breakage, etc.

TTOP350

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Rough year so far

J. Chris Davis

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You aren't kidding. That's alot of cars to be out in the first day.

AlkyIROC

Hotrod has a story on the 66 vette that hit the wall. Toronto car. The chutes didn't open and he locked up the brakes trying to slow down. He's out for this year but says he'll be back next year with something bigger and meaner.

872 CID engine and it went through the traps at 6.85 at 199.52 mph. Since all vehicles competing need to be driven to the next tracks during the week, here's some things he does to make it more streetable.

He changes the 1.9 rocker arms for a set of 1.5's. He uses valve spring oilers to keep the springs cool and lubricated in traffic. He also puts in a bigger rad and twin 16" electric fans to help keep the engine cool. He runs EFI so he probably has a street tune as well.

Gear Vendors is a major sponsor of the event and I think I heard them mention today that about 70% of the racers are running a Gear Vendor overdrive (may have been more). You have a street/strip car with 4.56 gears and are running a TH350/400 etc so there's no OD in the transmission. Install a 0.7 overdrive unit on the back of the transmission and your 4.56 gears have become 3.19 which is a lot more streetable gear. A Gear Vendor setup is a lot more affordable than installing a 4L80E.

J. Chris Davis

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Nice information! I've got a 4 speed Muncie with 3.73 posi rear in mine and was looking at either a TKO600 or gear vendor set up. All I need is that highway gearing and the gear vendor does sound like a nice option.

AlkyIROC

With all the tricks these racers do, it's amazing to see a car capable of making 1500+ HP cruise down the highway at 14-16 MPG. It's not the same car as down the track but it does show that it's possible to do.

Gear Vendors does over and under drives so it could go the other way too. More often the under drives are used for 4x4's to give them more low end gear.

If I ever wanted to make a super fast street car, that's the way I would go. Far easier and cheaper to make a high HP TH400 then just throw a GV overdrive unit on the back of it.

Official results from day 2 are in. 37 racers are now out of the competition but today's breakage could have happened on the road trip as well.

J. Chris Davis

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I noticed I forgot to say in my previous post that was about my 80 Camaro not my IROC. That is a lot of people out now. What was the total start at day one? I think I heard like 70. So if that was correct then half are out already. Wonder how many will be out after day 3.

AlkyIROC

16 broke on the first day. That means 21 more have dropped out on day 2 for a total of 37. From looking at the result sheets, it looks like 351 have entered for 2016 so there's still over 300 cars driving down the road to the next race track.

The pictures are fantastic. All these race cars going down the road towing small utility trailers and slicks hanging off the sides or in front of the trailers. They can't have a trailer larger than 4x8 of storage and no support vehicles are allowed. If you trailered your car to the first event, your truck/motorhome and trailer stay there until you return on Friday unless you've broken down and can't finish the event. You can then go retrieve it.

TTOP350

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The ultimate test of man and machine.
Heizer had to repair his clutch master or slave on his t56 but he's still in.

J. Chris Davis

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I haven't looked up any of the on the road pictures. I don't know where I heard that 70 number from. Seemed rather low. So there's still plenty of contendors left in this. Wonder how many more dropped out up to this morning. I just now got the live feed up on my laptop.

AlkyIROC

I watched the live event until the start of the third session this morning then I had to go out. I can always watch the rest later as the live coverage is hosted on youtube.

Think there's a lot of breakage at the tracks? Listen to the track announcers during the day asking racers for parts.

I've heard them ask for an HEI ignition module, CSR electric water pump, copper head gasket, Monza manual steering box.

The announcers have also said that the racers will normally do anything they can to help out the other racers. They don't want to win the event because of someone elses bad luck. They want to beat them fairly on the track.

They've also said one racer is determined to get his ET lower and purchased a NOS kit which will be waiting for him at the next hotel they'll stay at.

J. Chris Davis

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I was hearing some of that and did catch the part about the racers helping each other out so they could run. That's the way it should be. It's all for fun. Lutz beat track time and speed for any Hot Rod Drag Week. 6.10 eta and 243 mph I believe it was in the 1/4. That's damn fast. Granted it is a promod, but still fast. I've been letting the recording play since the live feed is done for the day.

AlkyIROC

It's cheaper to build a pro mod and make it "Street Legal" than it is to build a street car to go that fast. I think it was yesterday they were joking how he was able to get a VIN for the chassis. Really it's not any different than getting a state/provincial 17 digit VIN for a home made car or a much older car made before normal VIN numbers were used. Not too many serial numbers on stuff from the 20's and 30's.

That's like my car. For all the money I spent to make it faster, it would have been a lot cheaper and easier if I started from scratch with a tube chassis car. I don't run any sort of power adder like all these LS engines are doing so I need to make power the old way with brute force which means it's not going to be streetable.

They were talking to a guy trying to get an 8 second time slip and on his second pass today he got an 8.99. Car uses a belt driven supercharger. Probably a Procharger. For the road trip, he takes the belt off and drives it NA. I don't have that luxury.

AlkyIROC

Wednesday results are posted. 50 cars are now out of competition after 3 days of racing.

AlkyIROC

Still watching day 4 racing. Lots of delays due to oil downs. NOS has given out 625 pounds of nitrous this week and it's been announced that they are now out. That's just crazy.

J. Chris Davis

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I've had it on, but haven't been able to watch it much today unfortunately. I'll have to watch the recording once it's posted.

AlkyIROC

Day 4 results have been released. The track announcers said today that this is a record number of cars making it to the final day. Not sure what the car counts have been in previous years. They have a photo page of engines. A lot of cars sure use a turbo LS engine for power and not just in GM vehicles. Lots of other engines also but an LS engine with 1 or 2 turbos seems to dominate.

Vehicles eliminated after day 4 is now up to 57 and there were a few that should have been eliminated but they managed to make repairs to get on track and trip the starting light beams. The 69 Camaro Promod snapped a spindle on the road trip and managed to get a replacement. This isn't a part that a typical speed shop would carry. An El Camino had an engine fire from a cracked copper oil gauge line. Car looked like a write off but they got everything replaced and managed to make a pass. I don't even want to know how much they had to pay to get a new wiring harness, sensors ECM etc. Plus all the hoses and fittings that got burnt or melted.

Day 5 is going to be fantastic. I guess I'll need to get up early to watch as much as possible. I think they said the most people watching online reached 6700 from all over the world.

The cutoff for Street Machine Eliminator is an average ET of 11.1968. This class can not run quicker than 10.0 but a few of them have so they have more power in reserve if they need it. Quickest car in the class has an average of 10.1173

Six_Shooter

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It's not 70%, but 70 cars are running Gear Vendors.

If you do it right a 4L80E would be cheaper than a Gear vendors, ESPECIALLY after you factor in that you also need a transmission to go between the engine and it. So if you don't already have a built transmission a 4L80E would be far more cost effective, if you already have the transmission it's almost a wash for the upgrade. A friend of mine is planning going Gear Vendors because he says he can get one landed at his door (in Canada) for cheaper than they are listed on the website, which I really don't know how he figures that, but if he can, then so be it. A mutual friend and him worked out the pricing of each setup and going by published pricing the 4L80E would have only been a few hundred dollars more.

Quiest E.T., yes, but not quickest MPH. Lutz last year, maybe it was the year before went 251.

They don't usually run out until the middle of day 5... Just another reason to either not run the juice, or have your own stock pile, for the last day, or as it seems last couple of days. lol