Quite possibly the worst "kill" ever!

[Fred 86 GN]

Quite possibly the worst run at the dragstrip ever!

Went to test and tune at a local drag strip last night. Good news is that I did not loose in any of my random matchups. But the second one was UGLY...

I was paired against a stock full size Chevy pickup. No problem -- I'll just work on my launch and see if I can time the 2-3 shift better to compensate for the TCC being forced into lockup. I do a mediocre burnout and pull up to the staging lights. We both light both sets of lights and I, as usual, start to build boost. For some reason, the Joe-Bob running the tree waits 2-3 seconds longer than usual! By the time the lights start, I am over-boosted and the rear tires start spinning. This is not good. The lights go down and I let off the brake, I spin like crazy. So I go to half-throttle to try and peddle out of the tire spin. I am rewarded with a 2.6 second sixty-foot. The skippy radial tires were determined NOT to hook up. The GN is still spinning and SMOKING the tires at the 1/8th mile mark and starting to go sideways, so I let COMPLETELY off the gas. The car jerks violently back in line and straightens up. The pickup truck in the other lane is about a car length AHEAD of me!! So I stomp the gas and I experience the "mother of all bogs". The TCC is locked up in third at about 70mph! Doh! I was not gaining on the pickup truck. The poor engine takes about three seconds to finally get above 3000rpm and start pulling again...the GN quickly reeled in the Chevy full size pickup and blew by him. I finished about one whole second ahead of the truck. I had 20 more mph at the finish line! I should have been four seconds ahead of him.

That was truely awful. NO MORE STREET TIRES at the track!

One of my friends summed it up well after I parked the car -- "nice run smokey."

 

[d0n_3d]

yeah tell me about it...i ran my first time before with 265/50/16 street tires and i when i launched i was spinning all over the place almost to the 1/8th mile and still ran a 14.1 @ 98mph...i added slicks and tuned better and ran 12.2 @ 112mph

BIG difference with slicks and street tires...you can launch with 10 lbs and you will just SHOOT out of the hole like they are standing still everytime

 

[blackbuick87]

They get a lot of billy joe john boy bob full size truck racers down there in OH?

 

[Fred 86 GN]

Funny you should ask...two of my three "matchups" at test and tune that night were stock pickups! The other one was a T-type...that was a better race.

 

[MY85pontiac]

every so often we'll have a GN or t-type show up at the track for test n tune and i notice that the guy controlling the tree will take his sweet ass time while the gn or t-type will spool up like mad. and he's just standing there, pissing the owner off. i think they might have done this to you on purpose, i know they do it here on purpose. as soon as they hear a turbo spool, they instantly slow down and wont start the tree for an extra 4-5 seconds. maybe these people are trying to get even after getting smoked by a turbo buick???

just a thought.

 

[Ryan87GN]

Hey Fred ----
Did the TType happen to be an 86 WH1-Black/Grey, and was this at Kil-Kare? If so the TType was running 13.6's? Could be a coincidence but a guy named Fred was running a GN at Kil-Kare on street tires. And the Anouncer- Jim-Bob, Joe-Bob's cousin, always calls a TType a Grand National. My brother (in the WH1) always gets pissed off about it.

 

[Fred 86 GN]

Ryan87GN -- yep, that was me. The T-type keeps getting faster. Won't be long till you guys get it in the 12's.

As for my GN...sticky tires and a race chip will hopefully have it in the low 12's at least. Another 30hp and a decent launch may get me to the 11's. That is the goal.