California Speedway-July 31, 2004

[JPMS GT]

This page intentionaly left blank.[:I] I wasn't there. Mike, PTGT Boy, tell us how it went![8)]

John

[PTGT_Boy]

It was another crowded day, roughly 400 cars. When there is 8 groups and 400+ cars, you'll only get 2 runs (3 runs if you wait and go for the last free for all). The wheather started out hot, but cooled down relatively fast. Traction on the track was worst than 2 weeks ago. The Dodge Viper group weren't happy campers that the track wasn't using "NVT" to help with traction (I'ma newbie when it comes to specifics on track conditions and traction). It appeared anyone driving a manaul transmission car got crappy times and people with automatics didn't have to much trouble with traction.

I wanted to test the new SSR Competitions I had on, but botching the 1st run (shift gate error) and not pushing my car to its max ability on the 2nd run really didn't really give me a good estimate how much benefit I got out of the new SSR's. However, looking at my prior time slips, the SSR's should give 0.1s 1/4 mile advantage with an increase of 1 mph on the trap speed. It won't be able to do any further test on the SSR's since I just installed Adam's UCP and intake.

Results:
1st Run: Botched it bad, I hate the 5-Speed Reverse gate being between 1st and 2nd [:0].

2nd Run:
RT: 0.683
60': 2.55 (Traction sucked and launching a FWD is actually not as easy as I thought. The other GT's with autostick got around 2.2)
In addition, I went a little easy 1st to 2nd so I don't botch the run again.
1/4: 15.75 @ 89.94 mph

Setup: 2/3 of 91 Octane Gas in the tank, California has a facination with using crappy Octane. Rear Seats and Spare have NOT been removed. Xenon additional weight Body Kit (roughly 50lbs of extra weight). My daily driver trash in the car (about 20lbs of extra weight)

Mods: Mopar Dual Exhaust, Mopar Short Shifter, & SSR Competitions.

On a side note, Mike in Orange ran the best 60' I've seen on street tires: 1.8 secs. Paul (Mihoshi) ran a 15.25s 1/4 mile with just an airaid intake and H&R coils (Autostick GT).

Hopefully, August will be a better day, but most of the PT'ers out there didn't have a good run and tons of people at the track didn't make things any better. It was pretty apparant that some of the Vipers weren't running good times and saw some WRX's only breaking into the mid 15 seconds. I'll try again August with Adam's UCP and Intake, then from there I probably stop the my 1/4 mile runs till I find another mod to test.

[Mike-in-Orange]

quote:PTGT_Boy Posted - 08/02/2004 : 4:55:27 PM

It appeared anyone driving a manaul transmission car got crappy times and people with automatics didn't have to much trouble with traction.

Hmmmmm, remember me going up in a cloud of tire smoke???? I had absolutely no freakin' traction at all. On my first run I spun so bad that the tranny took over and shifted me into 2nd around 20mph! Nothing but tire smoke, which I never really thought a PT would do.....trust me, they will!!

My last run was my best of the night. I actually did a burnout in the water box to try and put some heat in the tires hoping it would help - 'cause nothing else that night was working. I ended up running a 15.1 @ 89mph but I had a 60' time of 1.853, which is by far my best ever. Still, I couldn't touch the 14.8 @ 90.5 I ran two weeks prior. In that run I went up against a heavily modded Nissan 300ZX - he ran a 60' of 1.856 (actually .003 SLOWER than I did) but finished with an 11.5 @ 120mph. That 3.6 second difference looked like he was halfway to downtown Los Angeles by the time I crossed the line!!

Yeah, our times were lousy compared to two weeks ago, but we had a great time and that's what really counts, right?

[Mihoshi]

Here's what I ended up with on Saturday...

1st run
________PTGT______SRT4
R/T_____1.233_____1.620
60'_____2.329_____2.391
330_____6.412_____6.409
1/8_____9.830_____9.592
MPH____71.27_____78.54
1000___12.834____12.265
1/4____15.378____14.546
MPH____87.44_____98.34

The SRT4 won, of course. I don't know if he had S1 or not. And my R/T *sucked* [xx(] . But then I'm not suprised, considering it's the first time I've ever been on a drag strip...

2nd Run

_________PTGT______50's drag special

R/T_______.631_______.419 (redlight!)
60'______2.313______1.486
330______6.367______4.336
1/8______9.765______6.769
MPH_____71.74_____100.43
1000____12.741______8.902
1/4_____15.257_____10.729
MPH_____88.51_____122.52

Obviously didn't even have a chance against a customized drag car, [:0] but this was my best run of the night , and 2nd best of the group if I remember correctly.

3rd Run
________BMW325i____PTGT

R/T-______.680______.963
60'______2.401_____2.117
330______6.723_____6.460
1/8_____10.279_____9.919
MPH_____69.30_____70.65
1000____13.326____12.939
1/4_____15.866____15.480
MPH_____88.93_____88.49


This was a fun one. I assume he must have bogged down or something at the start, since he had a .3 second R/T advantage which vanished by the 60' mark. I could hear his shifts, which were almost exactly matched to mine. He never did quite catch me... [8)]

Overall, I had a blast, and would love to do it again. (Gotta remember the sunscreen next time tho...) [8D]

Setup was rear seats yanked out, spare tire left in, 1/4 tank gas, stock Goodyear rubber on the 17" chrome rims, and auto transmission. Mods on the PT are: Keystone dual scoop hood with airraid airbox, Eibach sway bars, and H&R coilovers. Since this was my first time at teh drag track, I wasn't doing anything fancy for the launch. Held the brake, then stomp the gas pedal to the floor and keep it there.


Paul

[Mike-in-Orange]

quote:Mihoshi Posted - 08/03/2004 : 12:09:20 AM

Mods on the PT are: Keystone dual scoop hood with airraid airbox, Eibach sway bars, and H&R coilovers. Since this was my first time at teh drag track, I wasn't doing anything fancy for the launch. Held the brake, then stomp the gas pedal to the floor and keep it there.

Hey Paul, I guess I didn't realize just how consistant your times were on Saturday. Keep in mind everybody, Paul is running WITHOUT the benefit of Stage 1 and he's getting low 15's with an Autostick and stock tires. We were speculating that there may be something to that Keystone dual scoop hood feeding his Airaid airbox. That's one damn fast NON-S1 car you got there buddy!

[PTGT_Boy]

Actually, I was speculating that its the H&R Coils that are helping his 60' times [].

[JPMS GT]

Paul, welcome! Hey, you beat me to my first drag race. Every time one comes up I've got some other engagement. I'll get there some time and as Mike says it's got to be a blast. I'll put sunscreen on the list, but what else do we need? food, water, Slim Jims? [?]

John

[Mihoshi]

Heh, there's an idea... Checklist for stuff to bring to the track...

1) Folding chair
2) Cooler with water, soda, etc
3) Munchies (tho the on-site cheesesteaks was pretty damn tasty)
4) Air compressor (one of the small cig lighter ones is fine)
5) Video or still camera
6) Sunscreen
7) Aspirin/Tylenol/etc
8) Portable awning/sunshade (one 10' by 10' per 6-8 peeps)
9) Pen/pencil and notebook

Anything else?

Paul

[JPMS GT]

What about a place to put all the stuff when you go racing? Is there someone there to watch over it or does it go in the trunk?[:I]

John

[Mike-in-Orange]

Adam has been with us the last couple of times but he didn't race. He kept an eye on our stuff while we were blasting down the track. Other times we just weren't all in the same "group" so we never all left at the same time