Put the slicks on

[55 Tony]

I did 3 runs at a crappy track but was hooking up better each time. This is my last run, I don't know what any of this means:

60' 2.492 @ 48.99mph
330 5.488 @ 73.39mph
1/8 8.524 @ 82.32mph

This is with 3.42 gears.

Now here is the kicker! The guys there told me that on the last run I got the tires off the ground 1.5 to 1.75"!!!! I never expected that!!

I had to stop because my heater core sprung a leak and was running out on the track. I wasn't actually racing anyone, just seeing what it can do. A very small crowd.
I think I need to get some taller gears, and well since it's almost summer, bypass the heater core.
I was testing the slicks at home in the drive and have 17psi driver, 16 passenger.
I still can't believe I got air.

[chevynut]

Don't know how accurate this is.....

http://www.wallaceracing.com/et-hp-mph-8th.php

"Your Flywheel HP is 287 computed from your vehicle weight of 3600 pounds and ET of 8.52 seconds."

[Bitchin'57]

Don't know how accurate this is.....

http://www.wallaceracing.com/et-hp-mph-8th.php

"Your Flywheel HP is 287 computed from your vehicle weight of 3600 pounds and ET of 8.52 seconds."

Wow, I can't believe it gives flywheel horsepower. It has to assume a lot of variables. I wonder if that's a mistake and it really should be HP at the drive wheels.

[chevynut]

Wow, I can't believe it gives flywheel horsepower. It has to assume a lot of variables. I wonder if that's a mistake and it really should be HP at the drive wheels.

They make an assumption of drivetrain losses to come up with flywheel horsepower. I think they typically use around 15%.

[55 Tony]

I just did a little test with the phone app. Set it to go and it starts when it senses movement. I walked fast for 2 seconds and hit stop. It showed 2.97 seconds. There is a setting for the timing to count ahead for any lag in the movement it senses that was set on. I set it for neutral and 2 seconds is read out as less than 1 second. Evidently this isn't very accurate. Also there if a choice of different gps accuracies. When I set it to high, it takes 4 minutes to zero in on a fixed position. They aren't going to stage me and wait 4 minutes for my phone. I hope this track gets some real timing equipment. It's a shame, it was all there and after no one buying or renting the track and running it for 2 or 3 years, they sold that stuff.

As for going to another track, I doubt it will happen. It doesn't excite me enough to drive 2 or 3 hours each way. This is/was just a little fun for me practically in my back yard. I'll just race some other cars and forget the time and have some fun. I'll hold off on the gear change for a while and decide later. Who knows, this track could close next week.

[chasracer]

I guess you're kidding about not knowing what any of it means but for right now, working on the 60 foot would be good if you want the car to get quicker. Remove whatever weight that you can, possibly move up the timing a bit and see how it improves. I am a little worried about the different pressures in the slicks - that's something that we tend to stay away from. It might work okay at this slower speed but as things get quicker having one tire pressure higher than the other will tend to "drive" the car to the lower pressure side. Also if you look at your 330 to 660 speed, that was half the distance of the run, yet it only picked up 9 miles per hour in that distance. Horsepower is being limited by something. Have fun!

[55 Tony]

I guess you're kidding about not knowing what any of it means but for right now, working on the 60 foot would be good if you want the car to get quicker. Remove whatever weight that you can, possibly move up the timing a bit and see how it improves. I am a little worried about the different pressures in the slicks - that's something that we tend to stay away from. It might work okay at this slower speed but as things get quicker having one tire pressure higher than the other will tend to "drive" the car to the lower pressure side. Also if you look at your 330 to 660 speed, that was half the distance of the run, yet it only picked up 9 miles per hour in that distance. Horsepower is being limited by something. Have fun!

No, I'm not kidding about not knowing what the numbers mean. I've been to drags maybe two times in my life and never was around a car or driver. A complete newbie. Well except for my first visit to this track back a couple months with street tires, that was about useless.

[Bitchin'57]

I can't believe you left hard enough to pull the wheels off the ground, yet ran a 2.492 60'. Got any video?

[55 Tony]

OK, accuracy is out the window here. The track still doesn't have any electronics, I was using a cell phone app that goes by GPS. I know times would be a lot different with different gears, a lot different I hope. 3.42's aren't made for racing and a calculator without factoring in gears, I think is useless. No, no video. I'm just going by what they told me. As far as the different air pressures, I had the air low and did a little burn out in my driveway. It was all on the sides nothing in the middle so I kept adding air. The one side got a good patch and the other side caught up with another pound. I don't want to lower the one so I guess I'll raise the other. Maybe I could use more air in both? In the driveway I can hang out the door, give it a little throttle and see them wrinkle. That's just going a little more than off idle. For the first time it seems like I can actually feel the caltracs working.

[chevynut]

a calculator without factoring in gears, I think is useless.

You don't need to know the gears or anything else about the car to calculate horsepower. All you need is weight, distance and time to get the average horsepower produced. One horsepower is 550 ft-lb/second. I would think a GPS phone app would be pretty accurate over 1/8 mile, maybe not as good over 60 feet. Doesn't your app give you horsepower?