Made it back to the track after a 3 yr absense.

[Venom351R]

No new personal best today but really close. I had 3 yrs of track rust to dust off and my base timing is still set at 10* and I was on my MT DR's and not my slicks. Once I get some skinny's on the front and my slicks back on I have no doubt I'll be in the low 12's. The car felt really strong I was quite happy with everything over all. I made three runs. Run 1 was a 12.7 @110 run 2 I hit the rev limiter and ran a 13.0 @ 107 and the final run is the slip I posted. I'll have the timing bumped and power shift it when I go back next time. May even have the slicks back on at that time as well. Hopefully I'll be back later on this month or in a few weeks.

This gives me a good starting point to work from. I feel pretty good about being able to hit a goal I have set.

 

[white95]

Cool man, you have the tune nailed down I take it..

 

[Venom351R]

Yeah its getting there. Keith may end up adding a few more degrees of timing in the mid range but overall its pretty good. Next thing I have to do is get a new helmet my current one is M2000 Snell rated and as of this yr is no longer an accepted standard for NHRA. I'll just get another HJC CL-16 for $120 and its M2010 rated so that will last me for awhile.

 

[shorty]

S.U.B.S.C.R.I.B.E.D
You have a 5 speed correct?

 

[Venom351R]

Yeah I do a Tremec 3550. I would have power shifted it this time but I just wanted to get used to racing again. One thing at a time.... I figured my driving / launching / burnout would be horrid but to my surprise everything went quite well. I have no doubt that 1.7 60' will be a really low 1.6 or a 1.5 with the slicks on it. Time to start saving up for some front runners Id really like to find some used ones for sale somewhere to save some coin.

 

[shorty]

Yea. not sure why i asked about you having a manual. you said something about power shifting on your 1st post.
1.7 60ft is FKN killer for just coming back after that long. PLEASE share your experience's and what you feel you can and will do differently and what works best ( i know what works for 1 person may not work for aother ) I'm trying to absorb as much of this stuff as i can

As far as front runners go, i was thinking about picking up another front spare rim and having a decent normal small tire put on it. maybe like some VW tires lol

I know it sounds kinda crazy, But if you think about it. the spare rim is about the size of a skinny, i would just recommend putting on an actual road tire, and not the spare tire

 

[Sinned83]

Why such a long absence bro? You been playing to much with that STI?

 

[Venom351R]

Aug 2010 was the last time I ran the car. Soon after that I did a head swap on it that was not complete until summer of 2011 and I did not finish off the rest of the combo ( long tubes ) until 2012 and I had problems with it that summer so it sat until just recently until I figured things out and got them corrected and took it back to the track.

As far as what I did it was just the norm of what I had been doing all along. I had yet to launch the car with the Team Z upper control arms and solid bushings so I did not know how that was going to feel. How it felt was really good. It launched hard but not like I remember it b/c the suspension did a good job of transferring the power to the tires. I played around with the launch RPM's b/c it had been 4 yrs + since I launched w/ DR's as compared to slicks and to my surperise I almost launched them as hard as I did with the slicks ( thanks to the suspension upgrades). I was launching at around 4,500 RPM's w/ a very slight slip of the clutch before they started to hook hard. I did not try a dead hook with them but I will next time at a higher RPM and see how it responds to that. I had my shock settings ( strange 10 ways ) set to 1 on the front and 5 on the back. That is what I have always run them at, at 6 I would spin and at 2 or 3 on the front it would not transfer the weight properly. Its just trial and error. Suspension tires and the driver mod play a bigger role in drag racing then HP does. This is my starting point with this combo, I will get a bit more HP out of it by advancing the timing but these times will continue to drop as I drive the car more and refine the shift points, do some speed shifting and put the slicks back on.

 

[castine917]

About time. :thumbsup:

 

[shorty]

Its fun going faster then everyone thinks you can, with no where as much HP as others. 80% driver 20% car

 

[ram360]

nice job man, do you datalog so he can adjust the tune? Did you pick up any mph since you last ran it?

 

[cobra head]

what kinda power you making and nice times btw

 

[justinschmidt1]

Its fun going faster then everyone thinks you can, with no where as much HP as others. 80% driver 20% car

Lol was someone saying his car wouldn't go mid 12s? Id say with his power he could dip into the 11s easily

Thought he was making 350rwhp way back and the tune situation was finally resolved so it should be making closer to 400 rwhp right?

Nice times, 60s look pretty solid.

How are you launching?

 

[Musturd]

Nice times and 60ft with the slicks and power shifting will be a nice addition . Prolly pick up a few miles an hour and a couple 10ths of the 60ft

 

[Venom351R]

Its fun going faster then everyone thinks you can, with no where as much HP as others. 80% driver 20% car

which brings up a good point. The first time I ran the car that day I was lined up to an RX8 w/ a carbon fiber hood and a big stupid wing. I was lined up next to him in the staging lanes so he knew he was going to run me ( at that time I had no idea what he run b/c usually when someone asks you what you run it means they are slow lol ) so he asks me hey whats that run? I said I have no idea I have not been back here for 3 yrs and Ive done some stuff w/ it since then but the last time I did run it I got a 12.5. His very next response was....well I'm putting a turbo on this and I'll be getting about 450 HP ( In my head I golf clapped and said yay for you ). After the run it all made sense b/c he knew how slow he was so his next response was ....well I'm going to have XXX HP giving the impression he will be fast or soon to be fast. Well I destroyed him in the 60' a 2.9 to my 1.82, by the 330' mark he was a faded memory, by the 1/8th he was a small faded red dot in my rear view and when I hit the 1/4 mark the distance was somewhat comparable to the distance between Voyager 1 and San Diego CA. He ran a 17.0 @ 83 to my 12.7 @ 110. Point being his biggest concern is not his HP, its his horrid driving. Yes that RX8 is a total turd HP wise but how about getting some traction and learning to drive it before you start throwing more power at it. With a 2.9 60' at that power level what do you think that would turn into with more power thrown at it and still running on street tires? Some people will just never get it and for the ones that dont stay the hell out of my lane w/ your stock tires tearing up all the rubber thats been laid down lol

nice job man, do you datalog so he can adjust the tune? Did you pick up any mph since you last ran it?

We did not do any data log but we may be fine tuning it later on. When I was running it before I would avg a 106 / 107 every now and then Id get a 108. I ran two and would have been three if not for hitting the rev limiter 110MPH runs and I know there is a few more left in it. So say I can get a 112-113 out of it once everything is sorted out that would give me a 5-7 MPH increase over my previous average.

what kinda power you making and nice times btw

Thanks. Its somewhere in the 360-390 range to be trapping a 110 MPH Avg. I'll know for sure once I get back to the dyno. The last time it was on the dyno it pulled 348 with the screwy tune.

Lol was someone saying his car wouldn't go mid 12s? Id say with his power he could dip into the 11s easily

Thought he was making 350rwhp way back and the tune situation was finally resolved so it should be making closer to 400 rwhp right?

Nice times, 60s look pretty solid.

How are you launching?

Id like to know who that was if they did lol. Unless I miss a shift or hit the rev limiter ( It was set at 6,500 which is where I decided I wanted to shift it so keith raised it while we were there) It wont see 13's. I was happy w/ the 60' b/c my best was a 1.66 on slicks dropping the clutch off the line at 5,000 RPMS so cutting a 1.7 on the DR's was great. The best I ever got out of those w/ the old suspension set up was a 1.8. I was launching between 4,200-4,500 off the line w/ a slight clutch slip b/c the tires started to grab really early on. I did not see if they would dead hook at that RPM or higher but I think they would have.

I knew I was not going to get in a lot of runs that day so I stuck with what I knew was safe...no power shifting..no clutch drops off the line. I can shift pretty well and I knew the tires would hook w/ a little clutch slip so I stuck with what I knew would work knowing I can build off from that. Being that it was an actual event day and I was just running test and tune the most runs I could have gotten in was about 5 anyway. There will be other times coming up soon where I can go all out, I just wanted to get used to the car again and driving at the track. I was nervous as hell at the line and in the staging lanes on my first run. I kept thinking I would screw up my burn out, the launch or miss a shift. Neither happened b/c its just muscle memory and it all came back as if I had done it the day before. The fact that my first run went really well gave me a lot of confidence. I was not looking forward to 2-3 trips to the track just to sort out my shifting/burnout/ launch/



For those of you wondering why I am running the DR's over my slicks its b/c of two reasons. First one is I needed to get a sticker for the car. I had an inside source at a place who was going to give me a hassle free sticker. As the car was w/ the Cobra R's on the back and the Nitto's I thought I would be pushing it even though I was getting a lenient sticker. My Nitto's had been rubbing on my inside fender and the lip on the tire before you get to the side wall ( side tread ) was chewed to hell b/c of more then one encounter with the fender before I got the chance to give it more clearance. Also the Nitto's were on their last legs. The middle was down past the wear bars and the sides of the tires were at the wear bars. So I knew I was being given a favor for getting a sticker and I did not want to take advantage of it or push the issue by going in with bald nitto's and a one that was chewed up on the side. So I made the switch over to my weld wheels and my MT DR's which have a good amount of tread left on them and they dont hit my fenders ( Even with launching that day at the track). So my slicks came off my weld wheels and the DR's went back on. I did not want to buy new tires for the Cobra's until I roll the fender w/ an actual roller and I plan on stepping up to 18's so it made no sense to buy new tires for my 17's

The second reason is b/c of the sway factor at the top end of the track with slicks. Some of you know this, others may not but when you run slicks w/ full size tires on the front it creates a swaying effect at higher speeds at the end of the track. You can literally feel the car swaying back and forth, Ive almost lifted a few times b/c of it. The way to correct this is to run skinny's on the front. I have wanted to avoid this b/c I really hate that feeling and Id hate to have a good run going and have to lift at the end for fear of things getting a little to out of hand. I plan on running slicks this yr but I need front skinny's first and considering the DR's are hooking well I have no issues with using them for awhile. If for some reason I cant get the front runners by the end of this summer I'll switch the DR's for the slicks anyway just for some final few trips for the year. My goal is to have the skinny's and slicks on by Tasca day in mid Aug.

 

[Rice_slayer]

My car was trapping 109-108 this last weekend for some odd reason, best trap before that was 106.8mph, and my car was dyno'd at 298rwhp before I owned it, all I have done is changed exhausts :/. As for top end wiggle, be a man, bite your lip, and give er' tits! I run 265 wide up front with my slicks, My car is shaking and going everywhere on the top end!

 

[Venom351R]

Slayer I ran the slicks for a long time and dealt w/ the wiggle at the top end. Its not like I did once and got cold feet about it its just something I would rather not have to deal with plus I need to drop more weight off the front end. Being that the MT DR's are hooking well I have no need to rush right to the slicks. Id really like to bang a 1.6 60' with the DR's. Might be possible with some more RPM and I'll just see if they will dead hook w/ no clutch slippage.

How was your 60' compared between the runs when you trapped 106 to the one that was 109? You will trap a higher MPH if you spin more off the line. A higher MPH is not always better if your 60' suffers at the other end. Best result is when you have a lower 60' and a higher MPH. I had been trapping 108 but as my 60' got better my MPH went to a 107 / 106. Also your shift points will effect your MPH.

 

[shorty]

Hmm no one said that. I'm just stating a fun point about drag racing.

 

[shorty]

. Some of you know this, others may not but when you run slicks w/ full size tires on the front it creates a swaying effect at higher speeds at the end of the track. You can literally feel the car swaying back and forth, .

especially when you run about 8 pounds of pressure lol. This almost made me shit my paints the 1st time. now im use to it, and just hold it to the floor.
But yea you can easily lose control of the car because of this.

 

[Venom351R]

I think I was running 10-11 PSI in mine at the time. Overall I want to get a set of ET Streets b/c they are virtually a slick and I can drive to the track w/ them and not have to switch wheels at the track. But Id at least like to finish off the DR's or the slicks. I dont need 3 sets of tires sitting around w/ 2 of them never being used. I did get used to the swaying at the end of the track w/ them but the DR's are so much more stable and I dont have to swap wheels over when I get there. I did that for a long time and its just tiresome, especially after a day of racing and its hot as balls outside and you still have to swap your other wheels back on before you can leave.