My truck is pretty much a desert/Baja rig. It's an 01 SR5 extracab and has a 3-inch SAW lift and doubled-up leaf packs in the rear. Usually I have a shell on it, and a tailgate and a spare tire, but I remove all that for racing. Last night was my last time racing before replacing the shell and loading it all up again.
As a baseline, my best supercharged run was two years ago. It was:
2.323 60 foot
10.010 at 71.43. That was with a 9lb pulley and water injection and a URD 190lph/305 cc kit and a stock clutch that I smoked later that evening.
Last night was a whole different story.
I'm currently running around 13 lbs of boost with water-meth injection and a new Spec Level 3+ clutch. The motor has 64000 miles on it, and I'm now running 440 cc injectors and a 255 lph pump. I had my old worn out 265/75/16 BFG TAs on, since the back ones are pretty much worn down smooth. Not real slicks, I know, but it was the best I had. Oh, I also carried a pressurized spray bottle of water with me, and when I was 3 cars back from the line I'd jump out and spray the intercooler down. The evaporating water really helps cool the intake charge, believe it or not, and it was a cheap way to get some extra ponies.
My first run, I launched in 4wd with an open diff. The way I do it is to engage the 4wd with the pushbutton, then hold the button in at the line. Then when I launch, the pressure on the gears keeps the 4wd from disengaging, until I shift to second and then it disengages at the instant of the shift. It works pretty well, except my truck is making so much more power that when I hit second and it went into 2wd, I just pretty much sat there and spun the tires. Same thing when I hit third...more wheelspin. I chalked that one up to experience and cruised to the finish line.
I had a similar experience my second run, but this time I locked the locker, thinking that it would give me the 2wd traction I needed. No dice.
I am not the most experienced dragstrip driver, so I just decided to leave the rear diff open and run 4wd the whole way. Now I started getting results.
I creamed some chick in a hopped-up accord, it wasn't even a race. Then I went hunting for some bigger prey. A guy pulled up in a late-model Corvette and agreed to race me. We pulled to the line and according to him, (when I talked to him after the race), I got 3 car lengths up on him right off the line. Thank God for 4WD!
Anyway, I beat him though it was close, and that was my best race that evening. I pulled a 2.118 60 foot time and ran 9.221 seconds at 79.36 MPH. I could feel the force of the launch, and I knew it was going to be a good one.Quite an improvement from my supercharged best listed above, and I think pretty good for a 4x4. The corvette ran 9.44 at 80.64.
The 'vette guy tracked me down after the race, and he couldn't stop laughing while he congratulated me. It was fun to be able to say "Yeah, the motor is stock with just a turbocharger and some fuel mods." He was a really nice guy.
My next race was against a brand-new Nissan 350Z. That guy had just put a twin-turbo kit on his car, and I thought I might be able to take him because I figured he wouldn't be able to put that power to the ground. I was right, I think when he saw me jump off the line he panicked and stuck his foot in it. I beat him 9.528 to 9.744.
My last real race was against a replica AC Cobra with I-don't-know-what under the hood. I got him good off the line as well, but I ended up losing to him, 9.444 to 9.082. Those cobras are really light.
All in all a really fun evening!
No comments:
Post a Comment