I forgot to mention, the car did do very well on Sept 21st before 3rd gear left me. Not only were the other attendees very impressed with the look of the motor and car, and of course with the sweet rumble of the exhaust with the huge cam(the car was surrounded by admirers most of the time). They were also impressed by it's performance. The folks there didn't know TPI. No one ever told them that long tube TPI doesn't make power above 5,500rpm. So they weren't that surprised when I ran through 1st gear in a heartbeat to 6,500 and grabbed 2nd, then tore up the track to 6,500 again real quick.

I am no pro at the starting tree. My first lauch was a smoke show with me igniting my tires and burying myself in a thick white cloud before I got the throttle right. My next run, I bested a GTO in the 1/8. He was even using his traction control(cheater). I still couldn't take off like I wanted, just had to ease into it. My new friend Mike(racing a gorgeous 440 Dodge Dart he'd just thrown together for the event with a 200HP nitrous shot) told me how to read the lights and I got my reaction time down to a blazing .640 seconds, Lol.

That was my best run of the day. I ran 9.1 in the 1/8 at 78MPH. Never did get to run a full 1/4 mile, as 3rd gear left me on my first 1/4 mile pass. I was doing 81MPH at the 1/8th on that fateful run though. Not bad for long tube TPI.

I talked with Nathan from PATC yesterday and setup my transmission parts order. I'll be confirming the order in two weeks(a timing belt job on a Mazda and a rear main seal on a Buick away from having all the money). Soon after, I'll have my Beasty back in good health, better than ever before.

 

ASE doc- I'm curious; have you had the opportunity to do much drag-racing in the past?

I purchased and followed someone's 'drag-racing intro' program and started taking home trophy after trophy right afterwards. I'd always been into dirt and asphalt racing before this, but it all got sooo expensive! There are some guys that race at Infinion Raceway's (Petaluma/Sonoma, California) Wednesday night summer program that are so consistantly good, that when they've shown up in a rental car for whatever reason, they'll take everybody out round after round!

Although it's really slow between rounds initially, and a tough way to test & tune, one can learn an awful lot from the 60 foot time, and watching where your time actually improves on the track; be it hook-up, 60', 1/8 mile, etc. *Plus you get to understand where the humidity is actually affecting things. It such a great testing tool, that's for sure!

 

Lol. Reading my "best run" reaction time, do you really have to ask if I have drag race experience? I've been drag racing one other time for laughs with a buddy. I sucked then too. I've done some road racing and been around the circle track a few times testing and tuning but no real drag race time. Most of the guys who were out there that day were turning reaction times of .13 and change. I feel like I could learn alot just by watching them and taking their advice. Mike told me to launch on the last amber light. That was how I got as quick as I was. I could obviously go just a bit earlier and still be okay.

To be honest though, while I may race my baby one more time just to see what she can do, I really don't plan on racing her. I love her way too much to abuse her like that.

 

I don't usually laugh at someone's posted numbers when they've been fighting traction along with mechanical issues all day long. But I'll laugh 'with you' now!

You are so correct on how much can be picked up by just watching and then asking a few questions. One I started doing that, these top racers at the track would start to show up around the time my car section was set to run and began to critique me at the end of each run. I was lucky that way and started placing. The 1st time I came home with a trophy I was so amped up I couldn't sleep the entire night; I was bit & hooked bad by the drag-racing bug!!!!

I know what you mean about not wanting to thrash your Hot Rod. I found so many 'weak-links' in my IROC, that it became necessary to tear it down and start rebuilding it with Beefed up parts, end2end. That's where I start worshiping the ground guys like you walk on who remember to throw out information for the rest of us, like what you've found on the: 'Raptor, Level V, rated at 1000+HP/1000ftlbs.

So how is the Woodburn track these days? Years ago I used to live in Silverton. I miss that area! Nitro-Nicky

 

The track was nice. Very smooth and well cared for. It's gets alot of use and support from the local racers. Most of the guys I spoke to that day are there every weekend throughout the season.

That Raptor level 5 is some unit. Have you visited their website and checked out the parts list on that thing? No wonder it sells for $5,000. It's got to be just about indestructible.

As far as my sad but funny numbers. Just look at those speeds at the 1/8 and that was babying the throttle. 80mph in that short of a span takes some power. I suck at drag racing but my car flat moves. I pretty handily put that 405HP GTO to bed and he was using his traction control. I went there to prove that my long runner TPI is making some real power and I think I did that even if I went home broken in second gear.

I need to get the video of my smoke show from my son's camera. It wasn't even intentional. I went around the water box and I still lit up the tires trying to come off the line too hard. Once I get the trans up to snuff, I'll definitely need to visit the rear diff, and the torque arm as well since I felt some axle hop during the burnout.

 

I visited woodburn day after you did in the mourning...
Got a best time of 14.85 1/4 mile with 2.19 60'....I feel I could do a lot better thou, need to advance the timing a bit I feel.

 

You were lucky on weather that day. Friday was a drizzly mess all morning. Didn't even get onto the track til 11:00. Then only 1/8 mile til after 1:30.

Next summer we'll have to get together, maybe at Woodburn. Don't know many serious 3rd gen fans out here. We should get something going local.

 

I know there's several of us up here in the Portland area that are part of a third gen club. We usually do several get togethers a year. The first of which is our annual Dyno day which kicks off the season usually somewhere between March and April.

 

That sounds great. Count me in. I should have my new trans built in the next few months and be ready to go.

 

It wasn't all good, I don't care how good they prep the track, there is no excuse for letting people and cars cook in the sun and make one pass in an hour. And unless the car puts serious power to the ground, the level of prep doesn't really matter. So overall I was pretty dissapointed, I think I will stick with PIR in the future for all my car testing.

I'm down for a get together, and there are 3rd gen fans around here, but they are not serious, I've been trying to arrange few get togethers last couple of months with no success. I did got to go to woodburn with another guy thats on the board here and have a red 88 IROC as well, so I know he will be down for it also.