Once again the car has taught me patience! If this were easy everyone would be deep in the 10's. The GODS are looking over me and giving me 2-4 tenths each time I go out. For this Im gratefull. Nobodys wants to hit the wall. Heres how it played out. Friday at noon I heard the car was making safe power, Bob barely got into tuning it and gave me the go ahead to fly out. He had 4 tunes ready for me ranging from 530 twhp to 615rwhp The TQ was jumping up in increments of 40lbs per tune ranging from 450-580. All of which comes on real fast from the bottom. The weather looked good and I booked a Jet Blue flight outta long beach to Sacramento. I stayed at the Cal Expo Residence Inn and got to SVS at 8:30am. Mark at SVS was there and they had the car loaded on the trailer with the front/Rear drag wheels on it. Not the slicks but the Hooier DR's. So Ive not driven her at all since she left a month ago N/A. So I was a little bit nervous as Ive "NEVER" driven a Blower car. Nevertheless Ive been planning this for the better part of a year and it all came down to me. I knew the weather in Sac was tempermental and this may be the only shot I get this month, Spring Fest is 2 weeks out and I need to get this done. Back to the track. There were about 50-60 cars there Id say. So at 11:00 am I got to the tech line. Always a bit nervous at tech, Some of these guys are ballbusters, others are not. This guy gave 2 sh*ts. Asked me to pop the hood. Then he said "OK your good". WTF? :thanks: Didnt even ck my helmet, Never looked in the car, Never asked what I run?. Whatever!!, I know Im safe but if your teching like that who know what else got passed thru. Anyway Tic - Toc a hour later, its on. Time to sh*t or get off the pot! We put in the 530 rwhp tune and I stage in the left lane, I have no idea what im doing :help:, My minds going crazy! Do I slam it off the line? Do I roll into it? Hows she gonna launch? Bob told me "Do what you always do" "If she gets loose, let off and then get back into it". I do my regular Burn out and heat them real good. Coming out of the burn out the car stalls. Im 2 ft from the staging lights and the car wont start? Push button not working! WTF!. Then I remembered :mad2: push on the brake idiot!. Car started, I had to hit the ESP button, Get her in D, I was really tripping for a sec, Then it went green. Everything I planned was gone out the window!. Alls I did was ease into it kinda, then fully matted it! Whooo Hooo! The launch was soft but I ripped thru all the gears and it felt so ****ing badAss, It was slamming into gears like Ive never felt. Builder Bill that tranni is off the hook!! I will do a write on this fantastic piece. :rockon: It chirped second on its way down the track with the DR's . I knew the 60' wasnt all that so I had no idea what time she ran. I get to the booth and they hand me a 11.29 @ 124.565. I thinking it's on. Get that 60' foot down and let her rip. After each pass I went to the pits and Bob pulled a plug from each bank, Had some microscope tool and was cking things out, the plugs looked great all day. Also keep in mind that all the tunes except the 530rwhp tune had the knock sensors turned OFF. More on this later when I do a write up on "The Blower". So I do 2 more passes in the left lane and cannot get her to hook out of the hole? I tried launch from idle, Nope burned them up, I tried a brake stall and no go! So now Im thinking lane change. Then we try the right lane. We up the tune to 580 and I go to the right lane. I smoke them up good, I learn how to get out of the burnout without stalling the car, When Im in boost burning out and then left off completly and the blade shuts, she dont like that, I learn to work with her and shes happy again. I cut a 1.82 and run a 11.27 @ 125.19. We up the tune to 615 and i go back to the right lane. Its getting late, My hopes for a 10sec run are diminishing. The DA is going up, The weather is like 70 or so. I go again. Bam, I cut a 1.72 and run a 11.08 @ 126.25. :yahoo: So close!! So we let it cool for the first time all day. Mind you Im running full interior, 3/4 tank of pump gas. So I go it once more, I cut a 1.77 and ran a 11.17 @ 125.85, 101.36 1/8th mile. I also ran a [email protected] with a 1.78 60'. The summary. Jumping from 450 TQ to 580TQ with no drive time is quite a jump. I was happy to run the big boy tune on the last 2 passes hoping to pick it up on the long end cuz my 60's were suffering. I have no doubt that this car is deep in the 10's with a proper launch. Say a 1.68 or better. Anything in the 1.5's would result in a Deep 10 run. The boost is managable for sure. I will say I was 90% prepared, In hindsight, I never cooled the car :mad2:, I never set the fans to run with Bob's new tunes, And I also didnt have my Chief Mechanic, Spotter Cam there which is always worth 2 tenths, lol. So even though I moved 6 spots up the all time list to number 7, I really really wanted that 10. I would think had I got outta of the hole I would of ran a 10.8-9. You know this started N/A with a 11.9, then dropped it to a 11.6, then 11.4 N/A. Now blown I go 11.2, then 11.08. I see a pattern here. There babysteps for sure. But a safe way to go in hindsight. I turned the radio on today in the staging lanes and its a country sone. "Not worth dying for" How ironic!!! Made me think about things a bit. All in all Im happy with the progress, I could have really used a 100 shot today!! At least we got one of these blowers on the track. bout time huh! Someone had to go first. Ive recieved my small drag rear brake set-up and Im getting my 15"s next week, Im gonna mount the Slicks and run Irwindales 1/8th mile a couple times because all Im missing is launching this beast. My 1/8th should be in the 6's to get me were Im going. I want to send a huge shout out to all my peeps that support me. HHP, SMS, CTP, SVS, Diablo, Pedders, Kooks, Corsa, Morroso, 1bad4dr, Hemi31, InferAL, USCG Jason. :thanks:
Nice write-up. I wanted to be there but couldn't get off work. Too bad you couldn't stick around and run at Infineon this Wednesday. Nice, non-bumpy track with better DA than Sac as it gets closer to summer.
Congrats on the runs and numbers! You are almost there! You definately see the progress and keep getting lower. Very impressive for sure, keep it up buddy!
It was my fault! I forgot to raise my shift points in the new tunes, I was shifting at 6200. I could of picked up a bunch in the 1/8th and by holding 3rd gear out as long as possible, BudaBoy fill me in on Weds night Im thinking you'll see me for sure. Is it packed? Whats the track like? Have you ran there? Talk to me.
You'll get there dude all you need is more drag time. All the numbers are there you just need to put it all together. The track is in tip top shape way better 10 times better than Sac. You gotta get there early . Get as many run as you can because theres no fun run once they dial in .Your done for the night if you get elimanated. But I think if you go talk to them and tell them you situation they can work something out.
Wednesday night drags at Infineon Raceway just started it's season. It got rained out on its opening day last Wednesday. Weather looks real good though right now. I think it is supposed to be a high of 65*. It is located in Sonoma, CA northeast of San Francisco. It is about an hour and a half west of Sacramento. www.infineonraceway.com Gates open at 3:30 I think and runs are supposed to start at 5PM although they tend to start early. $25 for you and your car to run. Timed runs up until around 7PM when bracket racing starts. Drive in, sign the waiver and pay your fee from your car, go buy race gas at their pumps, get in tech inspection line and find a place to swap out your tires. Their tech inspection is a little more rigorous than Sacramento's although you'll probably be fine. Generally limited to 11.50 or higher although from what I'm told you can talk to the track folks about whether they'll allow a faster run. Some folks just run what they brung and get kicked out (I think 8yourM5 is planning on that). I usually get 2-3 runs before 7PM and a few more depending on how I do in bracket racing. The track is in a lot nicer condition than Sacramento's. While the sun is up traction stays pretty good. When the sun goes down it has a tendency to cool off fast and traction suffers. Since it is opening day there might me a lot of cars. It would be great to see you there although you might want to call the number on the website to discuss the 11.50 issue.
You can also run 1/8th mile runs until you get your launch down and then give it the beans (and get kicked out) I'd love to see your car run in person. I may even help you push it up to the starting line
the weather is almost always better in sac, but i agree, infineon is a nicer track. its a crap shoot though, weather vs track.... i always preferred sac, infineon seemed uppity and soul crushing with all the rules you had to play by.
Great times Chris. Always improving... so you know 10's are there. Why not try Irwindale to get your 1/8 mile down pat? It sucks that Pomona won't open up for street legal drags......stuck up track people. Did you drive it home? How is it running on the street? ..
I trailered it home, Id like to run Infineon, but to call and ask if I can run low 11's and then run a high 10 I dont think will go over very well. Ive got to accept my losses and learn from it and move on, I think I will do Irwindale in the next 2 weeks.
Set the bar buddy, if you hook man that animal is GONE! Awesome vid, love watching that car run down the track!
haha .. I watched the video like 8 times haha.. great times chris, you are going to hit those 10's hard. You have to figure your losing a couple tenths from not knowing the car right now .. also, I know your cars heading to the east coast soon. how do you think the DA is going to change the way the car runs? whats next for mod's are you done or are you going to run an N20 setup? any pics of the engine compartment??? congrats again on a job well done.
