I hit up Great Lakes Dragaway this past Wednesday. It was my first time there with the Cobalt. It was perfect weather and the strip was not busy at all. Had all the runs I wanted. The only real problem I saw was that the track prep was not very good. They seem to only prep the track on slicks nights.

Oddly, my very first run was my best... 13.723@106.35 w/ a 2.296 60'. I dunno what the heck was going on with this car the rest of the night but I could NOT run any better than that. I did notice a few odd occurrences though.... The car wouldn't let me NLS 1-2 but maybe once. All the other times, it seemed to lock me out. The granny shifting worked fine but the bog after a granny shift costs you at least 3/10 of a second. I've NLS 1-2 on the street just fine but I guess the track is a whole other beast. It also seemed like the one or two times I got some wheel hop, the ECU shut the fuel. That coulda been in my head but I guess its better than breaking something. I also had some very odd misfires on a couple 3-4 NLS. I guess I could have been shifting a bit too late and it may have been hitting fuel cut. I dunno...

I'm on the stock Contis and don't have any trans mounts or suspension upgrades so I'm sure I could improve there. I was running the fronts at ~28psi and the rears at ~40psi. I was launching at around 2200 rpm or so and mostly feathering first for traction and then pretty much WOT from 2-4th gear.

First thing I'm doing is getting different tires. These Contis are awful. I may also try the football in the rear springs trick. I've read it does wonders. A couple positives though... The car impressed a lot of people. I don't think they expected to see a Cobalt running 13s. My first run was with a stock 2011 5.0 Mustang Auto. We trapped within 1mph of each other. Not bad...

I was #807

 

Yeah, they don't prep it much on Wednesdays. I've had better luck on Tuesdays, which I think is the only other night I've been up there. It wasn't an issue this week, but they also allow the junior dragsters on Wednesday, which shut down racing while they go. They aren't allowed on Tuesdays, which is cool.

 

heh, i ran better than the mustang with me missing 4th gear.

back on my 20psi hptune on stock tires my best time was a 13.6. lol. so your not far off by any means. just need practice.

 

Yeah, I've definitely been there on the the nights when it's prepped properly. World of difference. I may have to try a Tuesday. Back when I had my turbo'd Spec V, I cut a 1.9 or a 2.00 something 60' and ran a 13.0@108. Couldn't believe the grip that night. It was like having slicks.

It was good to see you out there reppin' the ladies. You drive pretty well.

 

Thanks!

I wasn't sucking too hard that night... Ever since I put in the Hypersingle, I'm having issues with grinding the gears sometimes... My feet move faster than I can shift, and that clutch only has about a half inch of engagement, right on the floor.

It's just annoying. The car ran a 13.8 with a different driver. So I know what it can do, I just can't do it.

I'm just taking it easy now that it's getting cold, especially with the Star Specs. Then I'll be back out full force next summer now that I know what I'm doing.

 

Not to thread jack but what year was your spec v and what turbo setup was it on? My friend has an 08 B16 spec v and he was one of the first with the treadstone kit. Went 13.2 @ 108 on 9 psi and meth with a farily conservative tune I made then this year we went all out and I tuned it on E85 and 16psi and with a (I believe) 2.1 60 he went 12.2 @118 on 26" slicks lol but then 3 runs later it had enough after a whole summer of beating on it and he snapped a rod damn fun cars though when boosted

 

That track sucks sometimes you should try and hit up Byron they always have a good prep track there

 

Mine was a 2004 B15 with a T3/T4 .50 trim mated to a Powertech Turbo Kit. I will post the vid and drag strip sheet when I get a chance. I might be wrong on the 60'. It was 6yrs ago. Haha.

Edit: Here's a link to the vid. It's not on YouTube I don't think...

http://frogstofall.f3h.com/vids/SpecVRecordRun.wmv

 

Thanks for the recommendation but Great Lakes is like 10 mins from my house.

 

2 years ago when I had a superchips tune this is what it did with a 2.15 60 .


60'.........................2.15
330'......................5.905
1/8th.....................8.85
MPH .................84.39
1000'.................11.339
1/4 ....................13.457
MPH..................106.45


It just shows how much 1.5 10th's in 60' can help. Our traps are almost identical . Your car is prolly making more power than mine was at the time ....it had a superchips tune only....either that or the DA was better at my track. Sorry for the essay....just though it was a pretty close comparison and example on 60's . GL next time out.

Haha.... i was just doing some math and on the back half of the track ....I picked up 22.06 MPH and you did 22.12 mph hehe within 6 hundredths of a mph ...... then from the 1/8th mile to the 1000' mark... it took me 2.489 seconds and you 2.499 ..... a hundredth of a second difference ....that's pretty fricken even in my book lol.

I couldn't imagine how close they would have been from a 40 roll on my old setup ....we could have done 20 of em and not been able to tell who was faster. Again ... sorry for the essay ....but it seemed pretty cool to me.

 

Yeah, that's pretty neat. I was expecting to run 13.4s and 13.5s but couldn't hook up. I'm certain if I cut at least a 2.1 60' I would be there and seeing your numbers sorta confirms that.