Well I went to the track yesterday. I had been waiting for this for a long while.
I have no complaints or excuses about the conditions. I could not have asked for a better day.
Temp was 50
Humidity was 60%
Baro was 30.5"
I got there early and had a long cool down time before being one of the first cars teched. I was the 4th one down the track because I wanted to make some passes with a cool engine. Good thing too.
First Run.
I figured why not let it all hang out. Cool engine, perfect day, no wait in the staging lanes.
Did a 10-15 second burnout on the DRs to put some heat in them. Got up to the line and shallow staged. Raised the engine to a good 5000 rpm and left on the second yellow (normally would give me a 3 or 400 light)
Did a quick clutch slip and rolled into the pedal. The car jumped forward and then did about 3 hard hops as I gave it full throttle. It was at 7500rpm before I knew it and I hit 2nd perfectly! 2nd hit hard with zero spin and I made yet another perfect shift to 3rd and then 4th.
I felt it was a stellar run. I nailed every shift perfectly and the launch felt very hard even with the harsh hop.
R/T: .124
60' : 2.057
330 : 5.786
1/8 : 8.789 @ 82.23
1000': 11.371
1/4: 13.476 @ 101.96
No sh~t I was within 2 car lengths of a C5 Corvette! (He ran a 13.2 but I treed him and it took him nearly all the track to catch me!
)
Need to say I was blown away! I went back at got right back in line!!! As in driving right up to the front of the staging lanes and barely having time to close the hood.
I figured this time to lower the rpms of the launch so not to go directly to wheel hop.
Second Run.
Did a quick burnout and staged.
Launched from about 3500-3800rpm. Too low. The engine started to bog and I quickly gave it more throttle. That brought on Wheel hop about 5500rpm and therefore a slow shift to 2nd.
60' 2.18
1/8: 9.01 @ 80.8
1/4: 13.70 @ 101.2
About what I expected after the sub par run.
So I figured I had the launch window nailed down now.
Third Run
I went back and got in line. They had a little delay on the track so I had the perfect time to ice down my intake and let the engine idle with both fans running. (then off for 5 minutes)
I switched the TwEECer over to program 3 (+3-4 degrees timing) and was all set.
I got up and did a hellacious burnout. A good 25 seconds. The tires lurched the car forward as they were slowing down and quickly caught.
I got up to the line and held the rpms at 4500 and left on the second bulb.
I did a quick and smooth clutch slip and the car JUMPED forward. No spin, no hop, no bog. Hardest I've even had any car launch! It definitely would-have-been a sub 2.0 60' time. I rolled into full throttle and then NOTHING! Quickly shifting to 2nd and NOTHING! I rowed the gears as I pulled it to the side of the track. I stopped and tried reverse and NOTHING.
I was immediately thinking the worst. Diff, input shaft, maybe axle???
We pushed it back and the other guys came over and we jacked it up. The driver's side shaft could be freely pulled out of the tranny.
Not enough room to actually completely pull it out of course. That made me feel a little better.
Also one of the guys asked my how long I had a flat rear tire.
I had checked all the tires before my first run so I must have picked up a screw coming back down the POS return road on the first run. That I wasn't worried about at the time.
So I got the car home last night and was bummed out about tearing into it. I put all the stuff I had tore out of it (yes I removed the kitchen sink
) back in it and fixed the rear tire.
I swapped the DRs out and the driver's side just needs to be separated and have the axle pulled. I will do that tonight.
On a good note. I drained all the fluid and it came out crystal clear (no flakes or sparkles) I also pressurized the diff with a blow gun and nothing but clean oil came out so that made me feel a little better as well.
So the moral of the story is BUY SOLID AXLES
if you want to launch this car.
I won't lie. I let it all hang out yesterday. I left everything on the table. I removed everything easily unbolted but the passenger seat. (ran out of time
)
My first run I nailed every single shift like an air shifter.
To go quicker I would have to get sub 2.0's and even the HD axles (Stage 1 equivalent) I have won't handle that.
I am done shooting for sub 2.0's. I am more then happy with my best run. I don't feel I left anything in the tank outside of maybe a tenth from a completely perfect launch and praying nothing breaks because of it.
