Hitting the track Friday!

Finally getting to drag my horse out to the track this Friday. Anyone care to venture a guess as to what E/T and MPH I'll be running? I'm thinkin' mid-14's at best, as I know I'm going to be having a helluva time trying to get this thing to hook at all with 4.10's and stock-size street radials...

Bear in mind that I will be running 1/2 tank of fuel, no spare, no A/C bits, half-stripped interior (no headliner/rear seat), and the ambient temp will be somewhere around 105* and the track elevation is at 1200' above sea level ... for those of you using calculators.

Yup, Firebird. Unless I get time to wash 'er down after work right before I go, I'll be the filthiest thing on four wheels out there. My car looks friggin' hideous right now with all the gunk built up on it from the past few rains.

Whelp, the results are in. I'm a tad bit depressed over them. I did, however, beat a trailer-queen Mustang of about the same year ... though only by, like, a bumper. It also happened to be my best run of the night (the rest were against imports, won 4 outta 6 total). Best run was as follows:

R/T: .097
60': 2.283 (helloooooo, wheelspin!)
330: 6.418
1/8th: 9.750 @ 74.16 MPH
1000': 12.633
1/4: 15.052 @ 93.82 (grrrrr, so close to 14's!)

As expected, my stock rear suspension and stock-sized street radials were my biggest problem of all ... aside from the fact that it's been years since I've hit the track and it took me three runs just to get used to it again. My first run was a horrible 15.858 @ 87.38 MPH ... missed/ground second and overspun the holy hell out of 1st because I was fighting my stupid handbrake to get it back down (some dumb idea I tried, hoping to avoid the chance that I'd roll backward at the line and redlight the tree).

Assuming I could get this thing to squat right and stick, I know 14's are easily within my reach. I'm just bummed that I couldn't manage to do it on the stock garbage and pull it off with my driving skills, alone. Heck, I was hoping the 4.10's would've given me a better advantage over my previous '89 notch with its 3.08's, but I only bettered that one by about two tenths.

So, I'm thinking (in the distant future, when I'm outta school and have money to blow again) I'll be needing the following:

245/50/R16 tires on pony rims OR a set of Nitto drag radials on my 15" rims
Maximum Motorsports (or some other brand) lower control arms
UPR torque box reinforcements
Battery relocated back to trunk w/cutoff switch (hated to put it back up there, but had to do it to pass tech)
Practice more.

I have in-car video of a couple of the runs, but the battery was crapping out, so I dunno how much of it turned out just yet.

The 4.10's were in it before I got the car; had it been my call, 3.73's would've been as high as I'd have gone. Oh well. I may as well invest in another set of rims and a pair of drag radials to make use of the gears I've already got. Current mods are all listed in the sig.

I'll be the first to admit that I suck at driving a stick at the track - I would say I could rock it with an auto, but then again who couldn't? I tried launching from idle, from 2k and everywhere inbetween, but 1st and 2nd gear were both nothing but wheelspin. I thought about taking off in 2nd, but that sounds like a good way to glaze the clutch.

You're right, I should be well into the 14's, but again I'm held back by a total lack of traction and my inability to drive it in such a way to make the most of what I've got. I was sure that if I kept at it all night that I'd at least pull a 14.9 out, but six track runs is my limit before I get too worried about breaking something and not being able to get home.

I was stunned by the amount of rice at the track. There were only about five honest-to-goodness hardcore old-school hotrodders out there and two other mediocre Mustangs (the Fox that I just barely beat and a black '99 GT pulling 13.8's N/A). The rest of the bunch was a whole slew of brand new Cobalt SS's (only one guy could turn decent times with his), semi-stock base-model Cavaliers, a laughably pathetic riced-out Civic that turned 18's all night, and some annoyingly fast Mitsubishi Lancer Evo's (one smoked me with a 13.4 @ 101.33).

Well, the temp was right around 105* at the first run, but it tapered off to around the low 90's/high 80's after the sun set. Humidity is super-dry, somewhere around 12%, I think. Track elevation is 1200 feet above sea level.

I can't fault the track much, as it's twenty times better than the crap I drove on at Kansas City International Raceway a few years back - sunken gullies at the starting line and a horrible, horrible return road.