First Time on the Track - SS Convertible
 

First Time on the Track - SS Convertible

Thursday Night Street Fights at the Bristol Dragway, also known as Thunder Valley, is a warm weather tradition around here, and with some peer pressure from a friend, and you all of Camaro5, I thought i'd try drag racing night before last, and see what she'd do.

People race anything & everything at Street Fights, from 4-wheelers & Motorcycles to full blown drag cars & everything in between. Seemed to be an over abundance of diesel pickups this time around.

In a word - loved it!

Here's my baby ready to race. Bone stock with 9700 miles on Pirelli P-Zero's. The goal for the night was to break 100.
http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...8912adcf2e.jpg

Since I've never drag raced before, I thought i'd take it slow, and started out running with the nannies, transmission in drive, and make one change at a time to learn the car. My friend, an experienced drag racer, came along for the ride along, and filmed this video. BTW, did I mention, I was scared too death?
http://emob428.photobucket.com/album...c6fd1a68c9.jpg

Run 1 - 96.62 mph @ 14.8 secs, reaction time of .889. 2.360 60'. Here's my first time slip. Good first time?
http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...c5e936b4f1.jpg

Let the car cool about 30 minutes, and got back in line. This run would be solo against my friend who rode along on the first run. He's got a '68 Chevelle, with 600+ HP. Ran this one with the transmission in Sport Mode, with traction Control nannies enabled. His wife shot this video.
http://emob428.photobucket.com/album...1b9f4421d1.jpg

Run 2 - 98 mph @ 14.4, reaction time of .372. 2.268 60'. Getting better... Time slip 2.
http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...2e995045fd.jpg

The last run was against an '84 S-10 drag truck, running slicks. 383 stroker. Went a step further, and ran transmission in Sport Mode, with disabled Stabilitrack (pressed once).
http://emob428.photobucket.com/album...7013155d3c.jpg

Run 3 - 97 mph @ 14.7 w/reaction of .345. 2.335 60'. Time slip 3.
http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...ba6d0d0777.jpg

Had a great time, the people were great. Can't wait to try it again. Been reading today how to improve reaction time & 60'. Went out today, and found a spot to try Competitive Mode, and measured G-force using the BMW M Power Meter App for iPhone to see what effect each mode had.

The results were interesting, starting with transmission in Drive with nannies enabled, launch pulled .5 G. Sport Mode with traction control enabled bumped it to 1.0G while Sport Mode in Competition Mode bumped it by 50% to 1.5G. Looks like Competition Mode is worth trying! Looks like & felt like it launched much harder. Maybe it'll help with the 60' times. Hit it a few times, and could feel the car wanting to fishtail, but the Traction control kept it straight, while lighting the tires up pretty good.

The other thing, I need to look at is, doing the fuse pull. Have had the car since December, and am doubtful it was filled up with premium. Am seeing low gas mileage, 17-18 on highway running premium Top Shelf gas. Given all there is on the forum about this, am hoping to get a boost. Am planning on pulling fuses tomorrow morning, and going out to play tomorrow afternoon. Will let you know.

One last pic. Here she is all cleaned up.

http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...32922d4e26.jpg

Must say, it's been hard to wipe the smile from my face the last couple days, even if I didn't break 100...

Hate to break it to you, buy your friends chevelle might be making 400hp on a good day running those times.

When I at the track, I use sport mode and shut off the TC.(Press button for 8-10 seconds).
Did anybody told you what was the DA when you were at the track?
When your at the starting line,do you leave at idle, or load up the converter? 1000-1200 rpm.

Regarding DA, didn't know enough to ask. Will make a note for the next time.

Regarding RPMs at launch, at the first run, I left at just below 1000 RPM. The next two runs, I left just at right at 1000.

Have a lot to learn...:)

Here is my convertible last year. :eyebulge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxkPKoBaU34

This is a new year and a new build, coming very soon to a Camaro Fest - I hope!

Nice!... Quite a bit more car than what I've got. What all's under the hood?

It was a forged stroked 419 maggie but we spun the crank bearing and rebuilt it with a turbo but blew the block on the dyno after Christmas.
Coming out with a new LSX racing block and heads and the 88mm turbo next week.

Good luck - I got addicted to speed and it costs a lot!