Big turn-out last night at Englishtown’s Raceway Park, only got three runs in (and plenty of inconsistency!). Had a HD 720P Wide Angle Lense Key Fob camera on the dash for in-car video and a buddy manning my HD video camera in the stands. First two runs with exhaust cutouts open, corked them up for the third and final. Enjoy, I know I did!
">
Same run, from the stands:
Next run I dropped the clutch at a much lower RPM, less spin, better time but still short of my high 13’s goal. Check out the scale weight, 4025 lbs!:
From the stands. Car sorta SOUNDS like a Cougar (the animal), doesn’t it?:
Last run, with the exhaust. Nearly the same time (14.3x) as my second run and about 1 MPH higher (99.x), exhaust is working well I guess!:
My buddy got a little whacked out with the zoom!:
Decided that I am going to change out the cam (XE262) to the XE274, with the 3.89 gears I just ordered should work well. Tired of trying to control detonation with fuel and probably not reaching the engine’s potential. Need more overlap to bleed some of the true 10:1 off at low RPM’s.
True 'dat Bill! BUT, did you see how asleep at the starting line the Shelby was? I cut a .056 second light on that pass! He had a .915 second reaction time (tee hee!).
Guess I should try dumping the clutch at still lower RPM. The real question is if it is worth it (to me) to buy a set of rims and tires for this activity, it sure would make the difference I am after but would be about $600 investment for a once or twice yearly outing. I would have to buy 17" (or possibly 16") rims/tires to fit over my Cobra disc brakes.
Sorry to say, cuz I’m not a huge stang fan, but, slicks or not, the Shelby would have killed you regardless. That thing was Gone With the Wind…Looks like it was a good time. Taking the Heap to DuckusCrapus(google it) here in a few weeks. Not anticipating any killer times with 3 opens, but, will be fun!
I got a widened set of rear rims for my Marauder. Went from 8’ wide to 9.5’wide. Put a 295 tire on the rear from a 245.
My 60’ time is 2.2 sec. That has to get quicker. If I could get that down to a respectable 1.9 sec I would be well into the 12’s. My time was 13.31 @ 106MPH the last time I went.
Thanks Bill. My 60’ times were 2.746 (when I spun badly), 2.310 and 2.480. I will scan the slips and post them up for people to analyze who know more than I do (which ain’t much) about drag racing tech.
Couple of things with regard to Isabel and racing.
I cannot go faster than 13.49 without needing a x-point roll bar (NHRA convertible rule). So I should not work so hard that I end up spending money only to be not allowed to race! (not putting a roll bar in her)
The other thing is with my Cobra brakes, not sure what would fit over the rears. 17", yes, 16", maybe? So currently I do not have a solution I know will work that is under $600 (17" steel rims and drag radials).
Very helpful. If you subtract your 60’ time from the other data you will see that youa re very consistently driving the quarter in 12.0 seconds. Just get to 60’ in a tad under 2 seconds and you are there. Your MPH shows you have the horse power. And the open exhaust runs were slower than the closed system all the way down the track.
I’m guessing you have around 3.5 rear gears…
You’re barely getting into 4th as you go under the lights.
Build you a set of 4.56 gears with a mini-spool (it’s manageable on the street BTDT) to use on the strip. Tire spin will actually be easier to control!
3.25 gears. True that I don’t get much use of 4th in the 1/4 mile. Put in a TKO600 recently and just took delivery of 3.89 gears. This should do the trick. I run a Detroit True Trac. I am not interested in swapping pumpkin’s to go to the track. Thanks for the comment though.
Bring on “The Fuglies”! This oughta help at the track. Nitto NT555R 275/40-17 Extreme Drag Radials on the cheapest 17 x 9 steelies (with the right backspacing) I could find, kinda truck “wagon wheel-ish”. $78 each from Summit and free shipping. They look primer grey in the picture but are actually metallic silver. Mounted them myself last night using a cheap HF tire iron I picked up a while back on a whim (must have been cheap, they are on sale for $4.99 right now).
Tried one on the car, they fit nicely - as nice as my street rims/tires. 0.25" less backspace in the rim and slightly narrower tire than my street setup (285/40-17).
Also, here is a custom shift knob with a Cougar script embedment (Ford licensed) I had made up. Tried to coordinate with the paint color of the car. Perhaps I should have gone with black pearl or straight black (like a free knob I got with the trans purchase that has a “TREMEC” embedment in it). Will try it out and see if it is “me”. Kind of expensive at just under $60 but since I am spoiled I figured why not.
How come a drag radial instead of a sticky tire. Guessing you want something to drive on to and from the track without having to change tires at the track?
“Fugly” doesn’t even begin to describe. :headshake:
I know those wheels are serving as function over form. But at least lose the center caps and paint them gloss black. Or to call even more attention to yourself, paint them one-half black and leave the one half the color they are like the old gassers used to do. They look really cool during rotation while in the burnout box or at speed.
Been having trouble finding a good profile shot with the right look to attach.
Yes, that and also I understand that if you run slicks a driveshaft loop is required (which one could argue a convertible sort of has one already in the plate that spans the trans tunnel).
These drag radials are miles ahead of a regular radial on stickiness (but agreed, not quite a slick in that regard). The other problem is a diameter/rim that will fit over late model Cobra rear brakes, cost of slicks and finally, I can only go maybe .7 second faster before I reach the no roll bar to roll bar threshold of 13.49. I am not going that route with the car…
And let’s not forget the car is 4025 lbs with me in it. It is not even remotely a serious racer, it is to have a little fun and do what I have done since I was a kid.
