Now, i'm not talking about the kind where men dress up as women, or even the "drag" that comes before "strip".

I'm talking about wind drag on my car. Here's my motivational story. Read on.

I was coming home from work the other day cruising at about 70-75 mph. I come up behind two vehicles so I simply pass them and continue driving. There is about a 4-6 mile straight away on the way to my house. About 1/4 of the way across these "river flats" as we call them I notice one of the cars that I just passed is coming up behind me quite quickly. It's a new model honda civic and he's haulin ass. So, I throw it down into third, punch it, and no-lift shift all the way into fifth. Naturally, I walk away from the car whenever I down shift, but by the time I shift into fifth at roughly 128 mph, this civic is about 3-5 car lengths behind me. My exhaust is screaming, the blower is screaming... and the wind rushing over my car is so loud that it covers the noise of both the blower and the exhaust. My car wouldnt' climb over 130 and 5k rpm's, and actually starts decreasing some the longer I hold it to the floor. Once it gets down to about 125 mph I let off. The civic is now 2-3 car lengths behind me, and passes me when I let off.

I know my car does better than 130. I had it running 140 with room to go down the interstate late one night with 3 other buddies in the car, a full tank of gas, and a big tool box in the trunk (I know I shouldn't be running that fast, its not a habit. But gotta test the limits somehow right?). However, this was back when the car exterior was all stock. No bc2 body kit, no carbon fiber hood...

Here's my proposed plan. I'm ditching the BC2 body kit. Parts of it are busted and cracked anyways. I'm going back to stock bumpers. After that, I'm going to lower the car with some progress springs I'm getting from a buddy of mine. (He wants my ss/sc springs so his megan exhaust won't scrub so bad.) Once I lower the car, I'll be removing the worst of the drag monsters, the high rise wing. I have hopes of either trading someone for a wingless Rally Yellow trunk lid or buying a carbon fiber trunk lid to lighten the load, match my carbon fiber hood, and lose the wing all in one. Oh, and unless I remove/replace the strut holding the hood up, then I'll have some nice hood pins installed to keep the hood from bouncing so much. It sticks up on one side because the gas strut underneath is made for the heavy stock hood, not the lightweight cf hood.

Any other suggestions? Of course, engine mods are coming too, but I'm leaning more toward lowering drag. Thanks...

And one more thing! Do our cars cut back on fuel whenever we get to those speeds? Just a thought.

 

Heatsoak!!!!!

heatsoaking is your problem not the aerodynamics

dude your not really ever gonna go that fast for that wing to slow you down that much....when your on like that for a long time that blower keeps buuilding massive heat which will slow your car way down...i say get so cooling mods and save your car..you'd be wasting your money if you think your gonna feel any kind of a difference in speed by going the body kit route..

 

while im sure aerodynamics played a small role it would have been nowhere near that drastic ... unless you had your windows down the entire time but still you should have hit much more than 128ish.

 

but whats slowing him down was the fact that he was building so much heat by just sitting there with his foot on the gas going" why is it not moving anymore?"

and if thats the case then i don't know how SRT-4's get above 150 but they do

 

agree thats why I don't think aero played all that much of a role in what was happening but realistically we can't say that it 'doesn't' have an affect cus it does just not that much at those speeds. 120+ yes 160+ of course 200+ hell yeah but if the engine can push it and the tires can take it the car will continue to go until something breaks, or the car catches a crosswind causing a crash or the exterior is torn apart

 

I've alreadly got the body kit on, I mean I'm gonna take it off and put stock bumpers back on.

The windows weren't down. I actually rolled them up once I noticed the car coming up behind me. I know that aerodynamics isn't everything but indeed it does help to have a slick car. I believe doing the things I listed before will help.

Heat soak was an issue I meant to mention but I forgot. I do have one step colder plugs, but that's it. I intend on water/meth, larger heat exchanger w/dual pass end plate, and a few other things. But you really think that's the major cause of my problem? I live way down in the south so it's usually hot and very humid in the evening times. Plus I had been driving for about 80 miles so the car was already at or a little above normal running temperature. It makes a lot of sense to say heat soak is my problem. I can believe that...

 

It was most defiantly heat soak. Did you stay at the same boost levels the whole time?

 

Honestly I wasn't paying any attention to my boost gauge. I was more focused on staying on the road and keepin an eye on the civic.

 

dude heat soak get an intercooler and you will be very pleased

and meth is like the best thing to keep the blower cold and the heat exchanger will make you run about 15-30 degrees lower IAT..these cars generate so much heat you wouldn't believe untill you start cooling it down and actually see how much the heat is reduced..

 

wow, yea, I dunno what your problem is. I can get up to 150 pretty easily. Although I've only done it like 3 times maybe and I don't plan on doing it anymore cause that is just way too fast.

 

c'mon back Ralli we all miss you. When will you be back? got some goodies for you

 

150?! Seriously? The most I got was 140. I probably coulda got 145 if the car wasn't loaded down. That's insane tho. Think I may need to change my cat? Fuel filter? I've done a tune up on everything except those two things...

 

something is wrong with your car, my dads tbss will do 130 easy haha

 

Well damn.... I dunno what it could be.

 

yea, seriously man. But it's seriously way too fast. I don't know what the hell is wrong with your car.

qwikredline, I'm so ready to come home. 6 weeks to go.

 

Well I must congratulate you on your method of setting up your car. It seems to be very successful. Much like you, I would like to make the most out of my stock supercharger before I do any serious modding to it. I started with the WOT box, a K&N air filter, and a torque dampener. I'll be moving on to cooling mods pretty soon.

As far as my car, everything seems to be running fine. It lags just a tad during hard acceleration but I believe that's from the gas. Like I said, I just put brand new NGK's in it, I just changed and regularly change the oil using 5W30 Royal Purple, and I run nothing but 93 octane thru the car. Only thing I haven't done is checked the cat and replaced the fuel filter. I live 50 miles from the coast, so elevation is the least of my worries. The track I run at is nearly 3 miles from the beach. My best time so far is 14.9 @ 95. However, I arrived at the track an hour before they were closing, so out of 4 runs back to back that was my best time. The car didn't have anytime to cool, so I know that time is so bad because it was already heat soaking majorly. It's the only chance I've got to run the car at the track.

I dunno what the problem could be.

Edit: Take notice that I had been driving for an hour and a half when the incident with the civic happened. I can imagine that the blower was heat soaking majorly. Perhaps that's just the problem.

 

six weeks look forward to you getting back, so for now keep head down and those birds flying, the time will pass qwik....

 

we need to get some meth and a h/e on your car man. thats gonna help alot.

 

Well after I pay this damn speeding ticket, car note, and insurance this month I'll try to get those. A heat exchanger w/dual pass end plate will be first. Meth isn't any good without a tune, and a tune isn't possible without a tuner. I need to invest in a spare pcm as well and get someone on here to hook me up big time. A bad ass tune for the 2.8, 60's, water/meth injection, and all the cooling capabilities I can squeeze outta this motor. I'm serious. I wanna get this thing scooting even faster. I've talked about it enough.

 

is the high rise realy that much drag? i though it just provided some downforce.

 

no it doesn't cause a large amount of drag

 

it provides some down force but by doin that it also is creatin drag. i think its somthin like 70lbs of down force at 70mph.

but yea trey check out ebay for an extra ecm for your car. they usually have a few on there.

 

highly doubt it is that high maybe half that at most at that speed you would easily feel 70 lbs on the rear.

 

im just goin by what someone else on here said that had been proven. lol i have no clue if thats true or not.

 

Why are you running colder plugs on a stock car ? Or did i miss something? Your on the stock pulley right?