Here's a quick summary of my times and such at Dallas Raceway on Saturday 4/16. The first run was when I came off the highway, no one in line anywhere so I did my first run within about 5mins of getting there.

The staging area was just laid with some nice rubber by some guy with big drag slicks, so I got a quick chirp and was off without any wheel spin. I was also testing out my new drag radials, so that help with the launch a bit. However my previous 60' with regular tires at the Texas Motorplex were in the 2.22 - 2.37 range. So while the drag radials improved the 60' times about 1/10th, I think they caused the car to fall off some in the 330' range. I know on the street the car felt stronger on the lowend with the regular tires verses the drag radials. I'll take both next time and see what the differences are. I know a small amount of wheel spin helps get the engine power up quicker, so that may well be the case here.

Overall my average 1/4 times were up 3/10ths over the last time. And I've got a rebuilt tranny, so there could be something there. I ran mostly agains SS Cobalts and Mustang GTs . . most were modded. I beat some of the Cobalts and almost got me a Mustang GT as I killed him off the line. He ran me down at the last 50' or so . . . his time was a 12.61, so in a street race I would have taken him to 80mph or so. This is why I tell some of the other forum guys why a TLS with a better driver can in fact beat a Mustang GT on the street.

Anyway, I didn't have the full ram-air setup working, so that and a few more mods should get me to the 14.0s and with a few more after that it's in to the 13s.

Best Run - was the 1st run.
Time 3:25 PM
60' 2.169
330' 6.063
1/8 mile 9.205
MPH 77.04
1000' 11.922
1/4 mile 14.205
MPH 96.85

The corrected Density Altitude corrected time was 14.026 @98.10mph, so I guess I got my 14.0 in a sense.

Average of 9 Runs
60' 2.211
330' 6.113
1/8 mile 9.26
MPH 77.05
1000' 11.981
1/4 mile 14.266
MPH 97.37

Ruf

 

Nice runs Ruf. Would be fun to run you at the track!

 

Agreed, it's always fun to race others that know how to drive their cars.

I lined up with a newer Mustang GT with a few mods and I was thinking he's going to blow me away. I killed him off the line and I didn't see him until about 80ish or so and then beat me by 3 lengths at the finish. The point being his time was 12.61 and mine was 14.27 . . . it shouldn't have been that close. He should have blown me away from much earlier on, but obviously didn't know how to drive it to the max. This is why I alway tell others that anyone within a second or so of my time is fair game. And it's why I've beaten guys with 550is, 6.0 GTOs, etc.

Ruf

 

My guess is you outreacted and probably out-60'd him quite bit because if you would have left at the same time, he would have finished about 12+ cars ahead.

 

eah, I'm pretty sure it was a combination of
1) reaction time
2) launch/traction
3) driver skill

Ruf

 

Nice runs RUF. Those corrected times are really good. I would've thought the trap to be higher though.

 

I was a bit surprised myself the trap speed wasn't a bit higher.

That said I wanted to check somethings out today and see what I could find out, so here's what I've come up with so far.

1) Drag radials were more than 1 1/2 lbs heavier than the regular street tires.
2) After a few test runs today I'm pretty sure the drag radial hurt more than helped. Butt dyno says the car was more responsive off the line than with the drag radials.
3) Engine sound seemed better with street tires.
4) The 60' times with the drag radials were barely .05 seconds better than street tires.

My thinking is that the drag radials grab too much too quickly and these engines really don't have enough torque to over come that, and that would cause the drop in power/acceleration in the 60' that I was feeling.

That combined with the ramair not fully functional, I'm 99% certain a 14.1 or better is possible. I'll have to watch the track schedule and weather (it's already been in the 90s here) and give it another shot.

Ruf

 

Are the DRs shorter or taller than stock? Are they a lot wider? Since you're an auto, I probably wouldn't have gone with DRs until adding a higher stall torque converter to get the increased torque multiplication or I would have gotten DRs that were significantly shorter than stock to gain torque multiplication.

I honestly can't see a bolt-on 5AT TL-S doing any better than 2.1 60 foots without the help of increase torque multiplication.

 

You are confirming a lot of what I'm thinking/learned. A modded tranny would do wonders as I've run stall converters in the past. The shifts are a bit slow as well. A long time ago I submitted that a solid tranny and torque converter would probably improve 1/4 times by as much as 1/2 sec.

As for better 60', I agree . . you'd need NOS and drag radials to have a chance at dropping below 2.1s. Either that or a 3.5 build with all available mods might do it.

As for the drag radials, they are slightly wider with almost the same circumference. And as noted they are a bit heavier . . and as we know unsprung weight hurts front wheel drive cars more than rear, and our lower torque doesn't help either. I got a great deal for them and thought the would help me launch harder and mostly not burn up my daily drivers. Oh well, live and learn so we can pass it on to others.

Ruf - - 13s or bust

 

A quality higher stall TC (3000-3500rpm) and a shift kit or something to improve speed (perhaps a more race spec ATF). That would definitely drop ET by .3 to .5 seconds.

 

That would definately help . . but with our tall 4th and 5th gearing it wouldn't be fun on the highway. A shift kit would be nice too, but you can't have everything can you.

I might try to run a race tranny fluid one time and see what happens, then change it after.

Ruf

 

Upgrading your tranny fluid does help! I switched from the Honda ATF-Z1 to Amsoil Synthetic ATF and that made a world of difference with the way the tranny performs. I have yet to go back to the track due to the crappy weather conditions however I am convinced that I will run faster times due to this fluid.

 

I'll have to give that a shot. Maybe with the ram-air working, performance tranny fluild and regular tires I can get a high 14.0.

Ruf - - 13's or bust!

 

nice runs

 

nice times!

 

A 14.00 is looking better. The last time out I did 14.20 and mentioned it wasn't running right. Well beside the Ram-Air not fully enabled, I finally found some of the other problems that were bugging me.

1) P0122 : Throttle / Pedal Position Sensor is malfunctioning. Not sure how much this hurt my times, but I'd guess at least the off the line acceleration might have been.

2) P1519 : IACV Circuit malfunction. Not sure how much this hurt, but likely had some effect.

3) P0420 : #1 O2 sensor efficiency below threshold. Again, likely some loss of performance.

4) Slight vacuum leak at the throttle body & intake.

Since I knew the car was bogging slightly on launch, a better time should be possible . . . now whether there's 2/10 or so . . . don't know. We'll see come fall when I hope to have everything fixed and tuned.

Ruf

 

I'm taking my cars back down there this fall as well........I would not dare run in this crazy stuff..........109 right now here in Las Colinas at work!

 

When did Dallas Raceway become a 1/4 mile track? I thought it was only an 1/8 mile track... when's the net time your going? Id love to go as I've never gone before...

 

Good runs btw

 

It's a brand new track. Built just a couple of years ago. As for the next trip, probably September or so. It'll take that long for me to get everything fixed and at this rate for the temps to come down.

Ruf

 

Mid to late September, lif Ruf said a couple yrs ago. I will let you know and we can roll down there. Drove the Z today, felt like a terd Max did yesterday. This 110 is taking it toll not only on my cars on me..ughh

 

Sweet, I'm down for that.. next time your going is Sept? I'm wanting to go sooner so I may take a run on my own.. do you have facebook?

 

Cool, naw I'm not on facebook.