Back to the track

[281Ponies]

Little history... ran two different times back in the month of June. Car is a daily driver and I didn’t pull any weight out.
Mods so far are below on 17" factory wheels 33psi, 3:55 gear.

First time 13.79 at 101.2
Second time 13.75 at 103.3

I wasn’t real impressed with the numbers and I’m not sure if it was the track or 'more than likely' just me getting used to the clutch and launching. First time racing the car and first time on this track.

Last night with the only changes being in the weather about 72 degrees back in June compared to 56-57 degrees last night and to the car an 89 octane tune from Brenspeed...

60' - 2.12
1/8 - 8.72
1/4 - 13.41
Mph - 104.69

I made three runs...

13.61 at 103.12
13.56 at 104.25
13.41 at 104.69

I guess I’m wondering now how much the cooler temps played a roll in the quicker times compared to running the 89 tune from Brenspeed...
All in all it was a fun night and I feel better about dipping a little lower into the 13's.

 

[anticubicle]

Your #'s are about right for your mods. Don't be dissapointed in them. You should look into 4.10's and Mickey Thompson Drag Radials next.

 

[Five Oh Brian]

281 - your trap speed looks right on, so your GT is making decent power. The 60' and 1/8 mile times tell me that you're not able to launch hard enough. A really good drag radial (M/T, BFG, Nitto, etc.) and an aggressive launch on your part would net you 1.80's to the 60' line and 8.40's to the 1/8 mile. You'd be getting very, very close to 13 flat in the 1/4 mile if you could stick the launch.

While 4.10 gears will certainly make launching hard that much easier, and provide more grins driving around town, your 3.55's are still enough gear to launch harder once you have the proper traction.

 

[bigcat]

what was your 1/8th mile mph? i run about 8.70-8.75 @ 83.6x mph. traction is hard to come by with the stcok tires. i usually get 2.10-2.15 60' times. i have almost identical mods. i feel there is a ton of improvement as far as ET with some good traction. we got rained out last night, so i only got two runs in.

 

[kooldawg6]

The tune made a bigger difference than the weather. Practice launching your car will knock quite a bit off your times. Good luck

 

[281Ponies]

Yeah trying to get a good launch for me on these street tires is tuff... definitely need more time to find the sweet spot.

I tried to get better 60' times each run but couldn’t break the 2.12 barrier.
60' times and 1/8 mile speed on each were...

2.13 at 81.89
2.17 at 82.62
2.12 at 83.30

I really like the tune wakes the car up nicely. I’m thinking about drag radials now before doing control arms.

 

[kooldawg6]

Be careful as the DRs could intensify the wheel hop problem...

 

[HIGH HEAT]

here ill make you feel better. first time with my car after it was supercharged and the best time out of 3 runs was a 13.1 . i was very upset. i have raced a few other 05+mustangs (only because they made me )and smoked em, and then the track and hardly beat them.
my 60 was like a 2.12 i had my 20's on and smoked 1st 2nd and a chirp in third. i think my trap speed was 106. after spending that much money on a s/c i was very upset...
i am sure with practice and diff size tires i would do alot better.

 

[DarkFireGT]

4.10's and superchargers are useless at the track without drag radials or slicks. My '07 has stock 3.31's and my best so far (I've only been out twice) has been 13.5. My fiance has been racing our '05, and her best is like 14.5. She's scared of it, though. I jumped in the other night and thought I'd show her up. KDW2's may be great for the street, but they're no better than any other street tire at the track. I launched at 2000RPMs and spun through 1st. Got traction in 2nd, but then completely missed third. The stock shifter is so much different in the '05 than the '07. So yeah, the '05 is not going back to the track without M/T ET Streets and a MGW shifter.

 

[281Ponies]

Be careful as the DRs could intensify the wheel hop problem...

That’s really why I haven’t picked a set up yet... I know when I do they are going to go on and I don’t want to run the risk of massive wheel hop and bending/breaking something. I have a set rims sitting around I can use with the Drag radials when I do get a set so I’m good there. I also have a set of relocation brackets but no control arms yet. This is more tech than talk but...

Are the factory control arms okay to use with the relocation brackets installed... or should I keep talking myself out of it until I get the arms in. I don’t mind crawling under her I check things regularly so it’s not really a concern of getting it all and doing the job once... just curious about the factory arms.


... and thanks for the moral boost all lauching is the best part of racing!

 

[Five Oh Brian]

I've never had any wheel hop with the drag radials at the track - not on my 07 GT Automatic and not on my 03 Mach 1 Manual. I stick consistent 1.80's to the 60' line, 5.40's to the 330' line, and 8.40's to the 1/8 mile, so I'm getting great short times with the big gears, big converter, and sticky tires. I can't imagine why some of you get wheel hop. I've seen other S197's at our local track (NA's and Supercharged) and don't see them wheel hop or hear them complain about hopping. The only guys at our track with wheel hop are the 99-04 Cobra guys and the Corvette crowd (all cars with IRS).

 

[DarkFireGT]

I was getting quite a bit of wheel hop at the track Friday night. I haven't had a chance to get back under there and put some more grease in the LCA's, and haven't gotten a panhard bar yet. The track was also very cold. I think the in-car video I made Friday demonstrates the wheel-hop pretty well.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=N5sabliM3YU

 

[281Ponies]

I guess it sounds like wheel hop all of the time... it’s just occasionally actually happens more on the street those late night stop lights.

It happens sometime cleaning the tires off and sometime during the launch. Most of the time it’s a nice smooth short burn out and just a good hard screech off the line... and thinking a sticker tire with any wheel hop couldn’t be good on things.

 

[281Ponies]

Yep that's it the kind of wheel hop I get from time to time... hate it... sounds like it's just tearing things up.

 

[kooldawg6]

I experienced some this past time at the track after dropping 195 lbs. Only happened on a couple of the burnouts, never on launch. Perhaps the autos transfer power much smoother than the clutch

 

[DarkFireGT]

The track was very cold here, I'm sure that didn't help at all. Plus, I never once saw them out there laying down VHT. That would be why I didn't get good traction.

 

[bigcat]

friday night they sprayed the track at least twice to allow an alcohol car run 4 something (eighth mile). wasted about an hour of racing time for one/maybe two cars to run as fast as possible. the rest of us waited in line, then got rained out within two hours of original starting time.

 

[Five Oh Brian]

I experienced some this past time at the track after dropping 195 lbs. Only happened on a couple of the burnouts, never on launch. Perhaps the autos transfer power much smoother than the clutch

Good point - the automatics (like ours) probably are smoother putting the power down. Even with my stall converter generating 3,800 rpm launches and 4.10 gears, it's still smooth enough on launch.

My 03 Mach 1 was a stick car and there were a couple launches when I ran its best ET's (13.01 and 13.02) on drag radials that I thought stuff was gonna break (even though there was no wheel hop). 60' times were 1.79 for both of those runs. Sounded more like something groaning or creeking?!?!