Draglist.com Drag Racing

short version, I made 4 burnouts and 2 passes......entirely too much air in the tires for the first pass, spun like crazy, ran a 6.21 @ 113+ mph...(this is, after all, the first pass after changing the rear gear to a 4.10)........came back around, lowered the tire pressure a bit (lousy, inaccurate air gage that I had to borrow).....spun again, but not quite as bad, ran a 6.16 at 114 and some change.......when I lifted at the end of the run, the ol nag made a hard, violent move towards the right guard rail ( I was in the right lane).....My buddy, Jack Curles, said he could see the "Iron Pegasus" on the passenger door there for a brief exciting moment......he thinks it was exciting from His vantage point .....THAT one got my attention!!.......I brought it back to the pit....and we jacked it up, front and back, put it on jack stands and Jack and I crawled underneath to inspect everything, because I did not have a Clue as to why it made that move.........

Which brings me to those other two burnouts that I made without making a run.........I was shut off both times for leaking water on the track........come to find out, the radiator cap (that resides on top of my intake......you'd just have to see what I had to do there).....is, for some reason, vibrating loose and allowing water to puddle on and under my intake.......when I would let off the throttle in the burnout, water would splash on the track and they would shut me off.....I "think" a similar thing happened at the big end and got water under my right slick, but that is just speculation at this point......Tim and I are going to do a BUNCH of checking to find THAT problem......Trust me, I can't afford to risk ^#E^&U up my car over a raggedy radiator cap......That "issue" WILL be rectified!!!!...

At this point, I am not sure when I will get back out to make any more laps, but when I do, "maybe" I'll have some better numbers to report....Stay tuned.

You need to drink a Dr. Pepper and chill out fella. By the way I was reading a local mini newspaper the other day and it had recipes that used Dr. Pepper as an ingredient. Guess who I thought of?????

I was doing PLENTY of that.....but prolly shoulda been drinkin water .....I ended up getting overheated........vision got real blurry, head was feelin real fuzzy.....managed to get home anyway .

Watch the heat there buddy - it'll sneak up and get ya if you're not drinkin!

Sounds like the normal new car go around - at least you and the car came home in one peice.

Glad you saved it Billy, nice driving.

You will get it sorted out.

What Rapid said, Billy. Good piece of driving. Big Daddy said that most of the times he had bad runs or lost or something went wrong, it was a 15-cent part that caused it...the zillion details that are carefully paid attention to can all work fine, but it's the little dollar-a-box stuff that'll sneak up on you...I have no doubt that you'll get this new combination sorted out and running great. Cheers, WC1

Good to hear you got er' out again Billy. The shake down stuff will get worked out in short order I'm sure.

hmmm......after some closer inspection and measuring of my 4 link intersect point, a few changes were deemed necessary: shorten the upper bars and re-weld the adapters, so that the intersect point could be relocated to a more manageable length ( now at 50 1/2 inches, down from its previous 101 inches )....

Friday night, we took the ol' nag to the track for some test and tune. (What a waste of time).......It had rained pretty hard in the late afternoon....the gates opened at 6, we pulled in about 7:15 and they were trying to dry the track.....NO Problem, says us...we'll wait a little while........nearly 3 hours later I finally got to pull into the waterbox..... Tim had told me he wanted me to do a short burnout and then pull to the line. Seeing as how he is bigger than me (not all that hard to do ) I followed his hand signals to the letter.

I eased into the beams, set the tranny brake, put the pedal on the wood then launched when the tree flashed its permission......the front tires lifted a few inches into the air as the Mickey's on the rear were spinning (about a car length or so ) to a 1.33 60 ft clocking. The car went a little to the left on the hit, but not so bad that a little input to the steering wheel couldn't ease it back in the groove. Everything was going great as I was being pinned to the seat pretty hard, and then the rpm switch informed the shifter that it was time to go to high gear. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the shifter move forward and felt the acceleration increase. I glanced down at the tach to see the needle at about 6400 and then all hell broke loose.....the car made a hard move to the left and I immediately lifted my foot off the loud pedal and put a little in put on the steering wheel to avoid scraping any shiny off on the guard rail.

Now keep in mind, I was probably only under power for 200 ft (or so) but I was rewarded with a 6.7349 e.t. @ a paltry 74.89 mph.....which tells me one of two things.....either I was on a hell of a pass, or this damn thing rolls pretty dadgum easily, or (more likely) a combination of the two.

After getting back in the pits and noticing the dew on the roofs of all the tow vehicles and also noticing several other cars aborting runs before half track, I am pretty certain that the track was just not "there"....(I "could" be wrong, but I don't think so)

Tim and I are going to tinker with the pre-load on the rear end to try to nip that little going to the left issue in the bud.....because all 4 passes that I have made with this car (well....three passes and this latest attempt) have moved to the left at the hit......which, as I think about it, "may" have attributed to me going to the left again when the ol' nag was trying to get up on the tire, albeit on a marginally dew plagued track........Stay tuned.

Thanks for the update Billy Mac. You guys will get it. Just one other thing,,,check to make sure your steering wheel is in the right place to go straight. You might be inputing a little left without knowing it.

Randy, I've got a mark on the shaft that I make sure is straight up when I remove the wheel, so it will be straight when I put the wheel back on (done in an effort to idiot-proof that situation )

Tim "thinks" that the upper bar on the passenger side needs to be tweeked a flat or so......we'll see what happens the next time out (preferably on a better track surface )......I guess it's a good thing that the hinge in my right ankle knows how to go in the opposite direction on such short notice ....lol

Gotch Ya, now you know the steering wheel is straight,,,but how about the front wheels??

I agree if it is driving left at the hit, preload should cure it. It if if it driving left a little ways out,,,double check the "TARS" are heading the correct direction in relation to the track, car, and steering wheel. JMO