It's been many years since this thread topic was rolled out. My contributions anyway. I think 2018 was the last time I replied and then kind of gave up after that as the car was in limbo.

THIS upcoming season is different though. I've been to the track with the latest mix of parts (fall of '25), established a baseline and started a couple of 3rd gen threads looking for information.
'26 will be about getting to the track on a regular basis and seeing if I can be quicker than before.

 

What are Your Goals for the 2026 Racing Season?

Hopefully to have mine on all 4 and running again...

 

That was goal for the ten years leading up to this one!

 

Amen!

 

My goal is to simply hit a track. My modified car has been off the road for 10 years now. I've been to many many events with drag racing, but never been down one myself.

I really want to get my modified '86 roadworthy again and run it. If I can run in the 12's then I'll be happy as can be.

Heck, if it works out that I can run my Chevelle wagon at a Power Tour venue and knock down an 18-something, I'll still be very happy, lol.

 

I just finished installing new iridium spark plugs. Next on the list is installing the Luc clutch, then its a waiting game for the track to open again for lapping days.

 

I like reading how the track is common theme. And seeing as its a "racing season" thread, that seems appropriate.
When you all go, I hope you post your results. Go, bad or somewhere in between.

 

To get out more than once lol i made two passes on new converter and broke a turbo. Oil pump for turbos stopped due to relay coming unplugged. Doh

sucks, cuz year prior i was soo close to going 200 in 1/4 and wanted a 6.99. Couldnt get it to stop wheelies. So i made changes over winter and transmission issues kept me down all spring and summer was too hot. Oh well

 

Get decent tires for my "hard-to-find-tires-for", C5 Z06 rims...get to the track (rd course), and do what I love to do there: beat up on cars that my car has no business beating up on.

 

I need to do some diagnosis on why my warm idle isn't happy anymore. I touched 6k rpm a couple times at the track, got the motor to 230f a couple times, also maybe vacuum leaks at the throttle body from banging on it too hard. All possibilities that could contribute.

Still have the infamous extended first cold start and at this point I'm suspecting a weak pump or really excessive voltage drop. So maybe fuel pump and exhaust at the same time for me, as my y-pipe is split and the rest of my exhaust is pretty hashed. I need fresh tires pretty bad too, I'm still rocking the old hard tires that came on the wheels I got years ago and the tread is pretty much gone in the back.

 

Ha ha ha..... I did a track day a few years ago w/my kid in his 03 WRX....I had 10 year old tires, and my GOD....the handling...excuse me; the "handling" of the car on the track was absolutely diabolical! It would hand you your *** in a turn...then on the next lap, same turn, same speed, same line...no prob...ya could've gone faster. It would do funky things mid turn that made me convinced that I had a bad wheel bearing, bushing gone (missing)....some arm not connected. It was nuts. I was literally afraid of the car and afraid of the track....that day. I could barely, and I mean barely at max effort, max ***** to the wall....barely keep up w/my kid in his WRX. Tires. I got me some new, good tires and went out and lapped my kid in 10 min on the track.

 

My goal for this upcoming year is to run a 10.3x at 130 mph, and hopefully in the process obtain a 6.50 8th mile and 1.35 in the 60 foot. This would be with the 150 nitrous shot.
All motor goals, I think the car is almost at its total potential, its gone 11.47 at 117mph but maybe it could squeak out an 11.3x at 119mph? Sixty footing in the high 1.4x and low 1.5x range currently, and its probably going to stay there at those numbers.

This winter I am doing a converter re-stall, adjustable drag specific shocks, and fresh drag tires too.

 

Standing Mile

180-189 mph

 

Always nice to see someone's performance gains after winter modifications. Adding a chrome shifter **** should get me 5 more HP but a timeslip doesn't lie. Doesn't matter what you guess the car will run or what software says it will run. Go out and make some passes to back up any claims. As I've said before lots of HP won't get you a quick pass if you can't get the power to the ground. Being fast on the street is not the same as being fast at the track.

It's highly unlikely I'll get track time anytime in the future. It was expensive to race 10+ years ago and it's gotten a lot more expensive to race a fast car. Without a local track now, it's even more expensive to race in a regular series and paying a lot of money to update all my SFI equipment, chassis certification and competition license to maybe race 2 or 3 days in the year just doesn't justify the cost.

I would still love to have that 8 second timeslip but it's not going to happen unless I win a big lottery.

 

I just "happened" to be at the PC when you posted...
Let's see. From the top:

Performance gains are exactly what I hope to achieve. Last fall's one and only outing definitely showed that's there are gains to be realized with the new collection of parts.

No chrome shifter **** but a rebuilt or replacement shifter for the upgraded 4L60 is on the spring to do list. The old Hurst Dual Gate has become increasing sloppy and while I can still pull off good 1-2 and 2-3 shifts it's finding 1st gear (after shifting to neutral after the burnout) that's proving problematic. I may unload the Dual Gate altogether (apparently there's a nostalgic subculture that has an attachment to these things) and go with something that's more race specific. Stay tuned for a revived thread on this.

No guessing on what it'll run. While I do reconcile my track times to a sea level equivalent, there's no substitute for an actual time slip. I've said before that a trip to the west coast track in Mission B.C. is kind of in the cards. We shall see.

Fast on the street is no longer a concern of mine. If that minivan with the high zoot performance package that just smoked me at the traffic light wants to compete at the track, then bring it on. The race track is the great equalizer.

We've had online dialogue about your car before and what you're up against. It's historically a very fast car and as such makes it all the more difficult to get out and race. If however, you do want to make a couple of passes, and maybe subsequently get thrown out, I've offered before that my little house 25 minutes from the track (with no garage I should add) is "Mi casa es su casa". You might be able to "sneak in" you lapsed SFI gear and at least clear out the cobwebs. Anyway, just throwing that out there.

Anyway, while I'm officially in the dormant car season (cite the aforementioned no garage comment earlier) it hasn't stopped my procuring new bits for this season. Another AFR gauge with datalogging capabilities is now on my work bench and other bits are soon to follow. I do have about 4 months to get it all collected though.

 

I love my powerglide but if I ever wanted a manual transmission, I would go straight for a Lenco. Screw the price.

Fast on the street?? My old 91 454SS was rated at 310 hp and around 400 pound feet of torque and sucked fuel almost as much as my race car. Current vehicle is a 2019 F150 with a 2.7L twin turbo. It makes more HP and torque than the 454SS did and sips fuel. If I really want to go fast, I could, but I would much rather do it at the track.

Hey! Maybe make the trip north next season to run the truck in sportsman class just to be able to go racing again. Much less stress in a slower vehicle. Tires are crap but it's a bracket race.

 

Car is strictly a bracket car so faster is nice but not necessary. I made about 120 passes last year so looking to go more rounds next year. New fuel lines are due and I'll probably wire in a delay box as I've been bottom bulb with the car since I built it. Need to get it on scales as it hasn't been weighed in years and I've taken a bunch of weight out and might try to get a few more pounds off of it. Might buy some new DA rear shocks as the old ones haven't been rebuilt in years and a new pair of slicks are also due. Car has been low 6.3's with 1.3 60's on methanol with a 355/glide. I would need to slow it down somehow to do some 7.0 index racing, I've run on primary's only and it still went 6.8's.

 

I've been looking for alternates to the Friday night T & T and have only come across the Summit / NHRA racing series. Is that Sportsman's class you're talking about a a part of that?

 

26' Goals or plans to always keep one tire on the track.
Race the 10 on the streets of Long Beach in April and Laguna Seca Reunion in August.
Race the 5 at the November Big Bore Bash at Big Willow.

 

Sportsman is the slowest class and sometimes the hardest to beat.

Each track has their own ET breaks but typically it's.

Sportsman 14.0 and slower. Sometimes called street class.
Pro 11.50 - 13.99 no electronics. delay box, transbrake etc. Basically exactly the same as Sportsman but a faster class.
SuperPro 11.49 and quicker. All electronics allowed.

Some tracks allow Pro cars to run as quick as 10.0
Some tracks allow SuperPro to only go as slow as 9.99

All safety rules apply to the ET you run. Roll bar/cage, SFI equipment etc.

Usually during a T&T day, the tracks will probably have a king of the hill type race. All vehicles in the same class. A 15 second car can beat an 8 second dragster. See who is the best driver, no matter what they drive and like I said, the slow cars can be hard to beat because they can run the same ET each pass.

 

I was talking more specifically which series the Sportsman class is a part of.
If you scroll through Rad Torque Raceway's website, there's no clear link to a "bracket racing" series although I DO know one exists. Summit Racing NHRA which is division 6 IIRC. From there, the local champions go on to represent div 6 at the finals. I think in Vegas if memory serves.
At one time, when it was still Castrol Raceway (and also my last previous outing prior to last fall), they were actively soliciting participants to compete in the series.
Not sure of the budget needed to actively race an entire season, as opposed to just the random test and tune I have planned for the upcoming year, but it's definitely on my radar.

 

IDK why tracks do this. Is it old skool, personal "passion"? Our beautiful, but poorly run track totally "pushed" bracket racing, they ran Summit ET series on Saturday nights and some other (can't remember the name) bracket racing series on Friday nights. I hated both...but ran* some of both, simply to get more passes than I could get from the track on T&T's. Anyway, the bleachers were empty...there were no crowds, there was no F&B sales....just the racers and the entry fee, keeping the lights on. Putt....putt....putt....
*I said "run"...not "raced" b/c I couldn't GAF about bracket racing...what *I* have always cared about was running my car down to it's basement number....what ever that is for the car, and for me. Bracket racing is the opposite of that; so I'd put a dial on my car that I thought might get me another pass...then drive to break out and try not to let the format mess up my focus on getting best ET's and traps.

In about '05, they started a thing called "Midnight Drags". It was on Sat nights after Summit ET series was over, and went until midnight or 1 in the am or so and was focused on street racers/Fast & Furious crowd....open format/heads up racing. F'k yeah...I'm IN. Place was f'n PACKED. It was PACKED/sold out, 3 hours before the gates opened for MND's. The parking lot was absolutely jam-packed w/cool/fast cars, hot chicks, it was happenin' and everyone is waiting for 10 bracket racers to finish their elim's and GTF out of there, so all these 100's and 100's of people could pour in. And pour in, they did once the gates opened. Stands were chock full, F&B had a line for the duration, drivers were sold out and seats were sold out....every night. The staff and track managers hated it. They thought it was a "fad" and would "go away". They kept pushing their dumb f'king bracket racing, which sputtered on, making no money.

I loved the MND format for the scene, and b/c it allowed me more passes than bracket racing ever could. At one time, I asked the track manager, "Why don't you host more MND's and raise the entry price until sell out occurs right as gates open?" He responded that, in summary, "my staff and I don't like to work that hard". Weird. Track managers couldn't see the forest for the trees. Eventually, the track went under.

 

Doesn't matter which series it is. They all have a class breakdown for bracket racing.

I think it was back in early 2000's, I competed in the local drag race series. Can't remember how well I was doing but I competed in the NHRA Summit series in Yakima. I think I was in Pro at the time. Not sure how many locals did the trip but there were a bunch of us. I was traveling with a group with 2 others. We all had open trailers and I was using a lowered 454SS as a tow vehicle. 3 open trailers going down the highway with a first, second and third gen on the trailers.

I was running a 454 at the time and ended up bending some valves during the Saturday time trials. Had a local machine shop fix the heads and I went racing the next day only to bend valves again. I won the first round with an engine popping by just breaking the beams. Opponent red lit. Couldn't win the second round. Trailered everything up and came home with a broken engine.

As for winning trophys, I won more with the 454SS than I did with the Camaro. Pickup truck won a season in Sportsman class with a few wins and runner ups during the season. Camaro has one event win and a hard luck award when I broke 2 engines in one season.

 

No racing goals with my GTA.

With my 6th gen, goals for 2026:

One Lap of America (registered)

Gridlife Watkins Glen Track Battle Street GT Class (registered)

Gridlife Lime Rock Track Battle Street GT Class (waitlisted)

8-10 HPDE days at local tracks (Lime Rock, Palmer, Thompson)

 

Someone on ebay agrees with you: NEW HURST USA Dual Gate 2 Automatic 3 Speed Shifter GM T350 T 375 T400 2920001 | eBay
Sell yours and buy this: Lightning Rod Shifter w/ Console for 2004R, 700R4, 2004R, 700R4. | eBay

 

1200 bucks! That's nearly a million dollars in CDN funds!!
There's a caveat to that though. The Dual Gate model was around long before the 3rd aftermarket got it's version. While shopping for a rebuild kit for my own shifter, (the "kit" being nothing more than a bushing and a couple of clips. Maybe two) I learned that:

"The Hurst Dual Gate shifter, often called the "His/Hers" shifter, is an iconic automatic shifter introduced in the late 1960s (notably '67 GTO, '68 Hurst Olds) that allows for both standard automatic shifting and, by moving the lever to the right, sequential, manual-style gate shifting for performance. It was designed for precise, rapid manual-style shifts without missing gears."

Now I can see how that in a box would be worth some dough. The 3rds gen console version...maybe not so much. BUT, if someone wants to make an offer for mine, in rebuilt condition, plus two shifter cables, I'm all ears.

As for the Lightning Rod shifter, perhaps a little extreme for what I'd really like! Other options were discussed in my ancient thread which I just revisited because of this post.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/orga...automatic.html

I just checked on Summit and despite the 13 years that's passed between then and now, the Winters Performance version is a still available and a standout from opinions posted.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/w...ZwJeg-Pj4v9ecD

 

Fast 'N Loud, or one of the other popular car customization shows of years past, used a multi-lever "lightning rods" style of shifter on one of their builds. I don't remember it being a Kilduff. I have a link to it somewhere, but I can't find it right now.

 

I might have asked before, but are your cylinder heads living up to your expectations?

 

Well, that's a difficult question to answer.
The short version is so far so good. Although not time slip supported, I ran a corrected personal best in ET and MPH in crappy air last fall.

The long version...The heads have enough capacity, in terms of CFM anyway, to support 500 HP. It's really closer to 450 (in simulated form) and probably a hundred horsepower less than that with the full exhaust. That's also supported by a couple of the Wallace Racing website calculators.
Based on some measurements done prior to assembly, things like MCSA, port volume and shape, all point to them being well suited to the smaller 357 CID. The cam was spec'd with those heads as they are so I think the package works as well as it could. RPM top limit I keep at 6500. It just needs some track days with a tuned length open header. Not mention some sea level air. There's more than 50 HP to be had between racing at 4000' compared to 0'.

Depending on how this season goes, (I intend to get to the track several times), will determine if the heads come off one more time. They really need a better valve job. I feel I was giving the short shrift last time around. The intake seat went from 5 angle to 3 and the radius on the exhaust wasn't carried over. Not to mention being overcharged. I also should have but didn't address the unfinished combustion chambers. Definitely something to gained there.

So, that's the whole story!