Fox Fox Body W/ Cai, Ud Pullies, & 4.30 Gears At The Track

FastDriver

My dad had a bra
SN Certified Technician
Sep 5, 2001
5,312
1,920
224
Fort Knox, KY
At last Thursday's test n tune, a guy was out at kilkare with black '89 GT fox that had a BBK CAI, & some UD pullies. I watched the guy struggle to a 16.7 ET at a high 80's trap. I was naturally interested and talked to him. He told me about the bolt-ons, and that he'd bumped the timing to 14*, but said that he thought the car should be going faster. I felt that way too, and offered to drive it to see what was going on. He agreed.

First pass was a dismal 2.3x 60' on the uniroyal tigerpaw 225/50/16s, and I granny shifted it to a 14.8@93mph. While I normally power-shift my own cars, I don't like beating up someone else's transmission, or increasing the risk of missing.

On the second and last pass, I really tried to slip the clutch, but the tires still went up in smoke. I heavily peddled and got it to hook about 1/2 way through 1st gear, and then unintentionally power-shifted out of habit, but still ran a 2.24 60' and a 14.54@95mph. What a shame! If this car would hook in first, a 13 second pass is possible. With an SLR of 14.4:1 and a smaller than stock sub 25" tire, I just don't think it's going to hook up on a street radial.

I was picking shift points by the sound and feel of the motor, because the stock tach was so far off that I couldn't use it. I'll figure out what the speedo should be reading at the optimum shift points and tell him to use that in the future.

At first, I thought the 4.30 gear was too much for the car, but actually, at 95mph it should have been crossing at around 5500rpm. That's pretty close to optimum for my passes. If it actually hooks, it'll probably go a bit faster. So, a stock sized drag radial should let it cross right where it should. 4.30 seems to be a pretty good track gear for a stock-ish fox body.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
  • Sponsors (?)


i'd tend to concur, mine crosses around 107-108mph, with the 4.10's and 26x11.5 et streets, that puts rpms right around 57-5800, right at the top of fourth. confirmed by the shift light (set between 5750 and 6k depending on what i'm toying with) that flashes either right before or right after the line.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
At last Thursday's test n tune, a guy was out at kilkare with black '89 GT fox that had a BBK CAI, & some UD pullies. I watched the guy struggle to a 16.7 ET at a high 80's trap. I was naturally interested and talked to him. He told me about the bolt-ons, and that he'd bumped the timing to 14*, but said that he thought the car should be going faster. I felt that way too, and offered to drive it to see what was going on. He agreed.

First pass was a dismal 2.3x 60' on the uniroyal tigerpaw 225/50/16s, and I granny shifted it to a 14.8@93mph. While I normally power-shift my own cars, I don't like beating up someone else's transmission, or increasing the risk of missing.

On the second and last pass, I really tried to slip the clutch, but the tires still went up in smoke. I heavily peddled and got it to hook about 1/2 way through 1st gear, and then unintentionally power-shifted out of habit, but still ran a 2.24 60' and a 14.54@95mph. What a shame! If this car would hook in first, a 13 second pass is possible. With an SLR of 14.4:1 and a smaller than stock sub 25" tire, I just don't think it's going to hook up on a street radial.

I was picking shift points by the sound and feel of the motor, because the stock tach was so far off that I couldn't use it. I'll figure out what the speedo should be reading at the optimum shift points and tell him to use that in the future.

At first, I thought the 4.30 gear was too much for the car, but actually, at 95mph it should have been crossing at around 5500rpm. That's pretty close to optimum for my passes. If it actually hooks, it'll probably go a bit faster. So, a stock sized drag radial should let it cross right where it should. 4.30 seems to be a pretty good track gear for a stock-ish fox body.
Something doesn't seem right to me. How is he running a shorter tire and 4.30 gears and crossing at only 5500? My 3.73's with a 275/40-17 Nitto crossed at 49-5000rpm. I would think it would rev out more than that. :shrug:And those rpms were on an autometer tach.
 
Something doesn't seem right to me. How is he running a shorter tire and 4.30 gears and crossing at only 5500? My 3.73's with a 275/40-17 Nitto crossed at 49-5000rpm. I would think it would rev out more than that. :shrug:And those rpms were on an autometer tach.
Calculate GEAR, RPM, MPH, TIRE DIAMETER

4.30 gear, 25" (flotation equivalent of a 225/50/16) tire, 95mph is 5490rpm. Your nittos are at least an inch taller, and your mph was probably higher. My gt40ps were trapping 98 on street radials.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Exactly, Chuck. I only calculated the RPM based on the trap speed. Realistically, add an extra 1 mph to the recorded trap speed, because the traps represent the average over the last 66'. So, using 96mph, the 225/50/16's calculated 24.858" diameter, and 4th gear's 1:1 ratio yields 5582 RPM. Actual diameters vary by manufacturer by a small margin, and I don't care enough to be specific.

5liter, you didn't say what mph you trapped, but 4900-5000 with your nittos, with a manufacturer spec diameter of 25.63", should hit the stripe at 100.17-102.21mph, yielding a trap speed roughly 1mph lower than that range. Tire pressure might have a small effect on these tires, too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Exactly, Chuck. I only calculated the RPM based on the trap speed. Realistically, add an extra 1 mph to the recorded trap speed, because the traps represent the average over the last 66'. So, using 96mph, the 225/50/16's calculated 24.858" diameter, and 4th gear's 1:1 ratio yields 5582 RPM. Actual diameters vary by manufacturer by a small margin, and I don't care enough to be specific.

5liter, you didn't say what mph you trapped, but 4900-5000 with your nittos, with a manufacturer spec diameter of 25.63", should hit the stripe at 100.17-102.21mph, yielding a trap speed roughly 1mph lower than that range. Tire pressure might have a small effect on these tires, too.
Thats exactly where mine trapped 100-102 w/ my e cam/stock head combo. New one is supposed to trap around 112-114 according to cam grinder.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
If Kilkare is anything like it was a few years ago, you can probably blame the track, over the car.

Ran an event there back in '08 and it felt like it was being run by high-schoolers. Very unorganized and really lousy prep (if any) to boot.

I consistently ran 3-4 tenths slower at Kilkare than I ran at either of my local tracks.
 
Funny you say that. The boys over at corral are saying kilkare is why my other car went 1.87 with the street tires. I don't know, honestly. I don't think the track can be that bad based on that 1.87, but I don't know enough to say either way.
 
Funny you say that. The boys over at corral are saying kilkare is why my other car went 1.87 with the street tires. I don't know, honestly. I don't think the track can be that bad based on that 1.87, but I don't know enough to say either way.
Well, like I said, this was back in 2008. The track could have gotten a lot better then, but the consensus from the locals at the time was that the weekend we ran it, was typical OP for them?
 
It's always amazing and confusing how much similarly powered Foxbodies have such wildly different numbers sometimes.
Just with the driver mod alone it went from 16.7 down to 14.5. There are so many variables that come into play and that's why so many people get tired of talking about HP numbers and how it may translate to 1/4 mile ET's.