So I took the Cobalt out to the track tonight. I was a track virgin I discovered something tonight. That car acts completely different at the track. Even with the ingall's tightened up, I was getting super nasty wheel hop. I could not launch the car to save my life! It would either smoke the tires or wheel hop like a dirty SOB. My reaction time blew seriously. I got one good RT and I can honestly say it was a fluke. My 60' was just terrible....

I got to run a few cool cars. I ran a 240SX with an SR20DET. He blew off a 13.3 @ 117. We were side by side at the 1/8th then I heard that turbo spool and he left me like i was sitting still! Then I got 3 or 4 runs against an SRT-4. We were pretty close, not sure what kind of mods he was pushing. The driver said it was stock, his buddy with him that was running his Mustang was saying he had Stage 2.

I don't have scanner at the moment and I tried to take a pic of the slips and it didn't work but I'll go ahead and type out my 4 best time slips. They suck so bad I have no worries you guys think I'm full of it

r/t - .555 | .224 | .687 | .173

60'- 2.442 | 2.558 | 2.551 | 2.500

330- 6.480 | 6.541 | 6.484 | 6.528

1/8- 9.657 | 9.663 | 9.607 | 9.661
mph- 77.21 | 78.67 | 78.5 | 78.41

1000- 12.380 | 12.345 | 12.290 | 12.354

1/4- 14.657 | 14.581 | 14.526 | 14.604
mph- 99.31 | 102.77 | 102.85 | 102.17

 

im still a track virgin

 

Aw man you gotta go get your cherry popped, its really fun. I had a blast even though I was sucking that bad

 

same here man at first i was getting mad cuz i was running slow but then i was like **** im having fun and thats all that matters.

 

I feel you. I was getting irritated with the wheel hop bad. I went back to the pits and tightened up the ingalls and it did absolutely nothing, that really upset me. I had a 15.3 pass everytime i hit the gas in 1st and 2nd it would just start hopping. A few of the older racers seen I was starting to get upset and came over and gave me a pep talk. After that it was all good, I was having a blast.

One guy came over and talked to me, told me after seeing me run, he was glad he got the 2.4 SS cause he would get in trouble with a SS/SC. I was like wow man you got one!? He had to be every bit of 65, he was a really nice guy.

 

You went to Gainesville right?

 

Yupp, I was at G-ville.

 

Well at least you sucked consistantly

 

lol I wish that were true, I had about 13 passes, most were 14.7-14.9 so I really consistently sucked even worse! I just posted the best runs I had to give the impression that I didn't suck quite as bad as I really did.

 

So how do you guys think I feel?

I've got like 2 decades of drag racing experience (RWD) under my belt, but I still haven't been able to crack the 14.8" barrier in my completely bone stock SC.

This is the first car that I have driven in a LONG time where I didn't run the "as advertised" magazine tested numbers (14.4" for our car).

Granted, I have only made a total of about 10 runs with my car (on 4 different days -track is wayyy too crowded these days), and my car's engine is still fairly new (just over 3k on the odo now).

But still, 14.4 is a long way from 14.8. Oh well, will just have to keep trying ...

 

I'm impressed with the car. Almost 103mph, I think i can get a few more mph out it if I can get my 60' down. I think with traction and me learning how to drive its very capable of mid-high 13's

 

Well gainesville isnt the greatest track, I was having really bad traction issues there to, I did manage to put down a 14.7 stock though. Im hoping to hit up the 1/4 mile in Miami when I go down for Hot Import Nights.

 

by the sounds of it you were launching a little high in the rpms?

try launching at about 2krpm,
dont touch that throttle until you get initial movement, and have your clutch about 50% disengaged, then GENTLY feed in throttle as you release the rest of the clutch.

knock that 60ft time down to a 2.1-2.2 where it should be and youll be knockin on 13s

 

I got my best runs launching at 3K and riding the clutch till about 15mph then getting on it. There was one launch the tires were going but I didn't move an inch. My buddies were like "sleeping at the tree huh?" Then another guy there was like you didn't see the front tires spinning? Next time I go I'm going to drop the front tire pressure to like 22psi or so and see if that helps

 

mid 14's with mods like that... wish i had those mods. :-P

 

yeah but thats why your getting very high 60ft and 330s.
trust me, it might not feel like it, but launch it at 2k, get out of the clutch faster and once you have traction then feed in power.

not to mention you have no idea what your doing to your clutch doing that.....
please dont do that anymore lol

 

yea with ur mods u should be atleast in the 13's

 

Lol with all the mods I have i still need the driver mod!


Yeah my clutch probably does hate me now lol but I owed it some hell for the hell its given me!

 

The track can be a real-heart breaker, or eye-opener depending on what you take from it first time out. I've known a lot of guys over the years who'd never raced at a strip, say their car would run such and such "no problem", only to get slapped with reality when finally geting around to hitting the strip. But, one good thing about that first trip out, is it always gets better from there!

 

Isn't that the truth! I went with high hopes, my first pass I actually ran my little brother in his 06 Monte Carlo LS. I ran a 14.76 @ 98mph and was spinning like crazy. He ran a 16.16 at 88mph. His best of the night was a 15.93 @ 92mph, he was a happy camper, he has no racing experience at all. I was taking it pretty bad though, I've always considered myself a good driver.

Some of the other racers gave me a pep talk and some advice, mainly we are here to have fun. As the night wore on, wheel hop replaced tire spin and it was aggravating but by the end of the night I was doing a little better. I was having a good time and made a bunch of new friends too. So I will definitely go back and I'm confident the next time I go I will do better.

 

same here

 

Practice makes perfect, and if you calculate your 60', and your mph in, you will notice that if you can get that 60' down to about a 2.1 or 2.0 that'll bring you to at least a 13.3 or 13.4..With every tenth dropped off your 60' that should drop you about two tenths in the quarter mile.

Which is actually kinda weird that people say this, because I dropped my 60' one tenth from a 2.6 to a 2.5 and my quarter mile time went from a 15.0 at 99 to a 14.4 at 102...This was my first time at the track with a manual tranny. Launching on a bracket racing night can be tricky. lol

 

That's the key right there! It's meant to be fun, none of us are an undiscovered John Force *L*, so go have fun and when you can, pick up a new personal best. With the nice trap speed you're hitting, those ET's will tumble fast with a bit more practice.

 

I need some traction mods, I'm thinking 235/40 KDW2's. I was also eyeballing the bwoody traction bars, are those worth the money? The ingalls works great on the street but is seriously lacking on the track controlling the wheel hop.

 

Yeah, I agree you need to focus on your launches. Everything else will take care of itself. I'm stage2 intake and exhaust and I've pulled several passes from 13.70-13.80. I only have the stage 2 pulley and I've only ever pulled a trap speed over 103 once! I'm always in the high 102's. Where I really help my ET is my 60' times(commonly around 2.10-2.15.....although I have had a few between 2.01-2.09) I'd love to throw a smaller pulley on my car and get some 104-105 traps! 13.4's maybe??? :P