Forgive me, DML, its been 4 years since the last time I want drag racing.
I've got a 1998 regular cab Dakota R/T with 2000 miles on the odometer.
Today was warm (80-90 degrees F) with somewhat low humidity. I have not
raced in four years. I went to an empty parking lot last night and
practiced launches. I found that loading up the torque converter and
flooring it, the truck would hook up immediatly and take off. I figured the
launch would be even better at the strip.
A few observations before I get into the racing: They've added a new class
to the schedule. In addition to 4-wheel street, 4-wheel race and 2-wheel
motorcylce, (and also all the crazy divisions like comp eliminator and top
fuel, etc) they added TRACKED VEHICALS. There were a few guys out there
today racing ski mobiles. They had put wheels on their front skids and
coated their tracks with rubber. These guys were really fast (11 second
ETs), but still.... Ski mobiles? Sheesh!
Also, they have introduced a new system for telling people when to report
to the staging lanes. When you register, they give you a wrist band. The
band might be pink, white, orange, blue or whatever. Then, they put up a
flag at the stageing shack. If they put up a white flag, then everyone with
a white wrist band can go to the stageing lanes. It was kinda funky, but it
worked pretty well.
OK, so I went up to NE Dragway today to get a baseline for my proposed
throttle body experiment. The weather was about 85 degrees F and low
humidity.
Here's what I ran:
R/T 60' 330' 1/8 MPH 1000 ET MPH
.954 2.742 7.180 10.700 69.72 13.750 16.332 87.21
.597 2.361 6.481 9.931 70.89 12.945 15.508 87.77
1.034 2.378 6.543 10.005 70.71 13.026 15.595 87.72
.997 2.340 6.453 9.895 70.96 12.908 15.465 88.14
.699 2.382 6.684 10.302 67.76 13.416 16.031 86.24
Those are the numbers. Here's the story behind those numbers:
Run #1: I was matched up with this blue 1966ish mustang that had good drag
tires and open headers. I figured that he would totally blow me away, so I
just concentrated on getting in a good run. Pre-stage, I spun the tires for
about 2 seconds to clean off any dirt. I staged, revved up on the torque
converter to 1500 RPM and floored it at the greenlight. The tires spun alot
and the revs went up to where the transmission shifted into second. It
hooked then, and downshifted back to 1st for a moment. Then it just
screamed down the track as expected. The mustang ran a 15.282 on an RT of
.711. I lost by 1.293 seconds.
On the way back through the pits, I passed by a bunch of guys that had
these pretty cool trucks. They flagged me down and we talked. They had
F-150s with 351s and chevys with 350s. All of them had really cool tires
and wheels. They asked me about the R/T and after a while, this one guy
challenged me to a friendly race. I was happy to oblige. Really, I was
having a blast answering these guy's questions about the R/T. They were
really super.
Run #2: I was matched up against this guy who challenged me. He had a full
size new chevy truck with a 350 and fancy tires and wheels. We staged, and
he only got a .757 RT to my .597. I had loaded the torque converter and
just pressed 1/2 throttle for the first few feet. Then I floored it and the
tires started spinning. By 60 feet, he had made up the difference with a
time of 2.176. Those fancy tires of his were really hooking up. We raced
down the track neck-and-neck, and he ended up with a 15.350 to my 15.508.
However, I out-drove him! When you look at the RTs and the ETs together, I
beat him by .002 seconds! Wooo-hoo!
When I went back through the pits, the whole crew of truck boys had left.
Oh well.
Run #3: I'm sitting in the staging lanes. This dude starts asking me all
kinds of questions, which I answered as best I could. Then, he challenges
me. He's got a new F-150 ext cab, and he's close enough in the lanes that
we can race. Cool! We stage, the tree starts counting down, and suddenly he
leaves, RED LIGHT! He left so early I was left sitting there in
bewilderment. Then it dawned on me: GO! I do the ease-into-the-throttle
thing and manage to catch him at mid track and go blowing by. End results:
he got a -get this- .101 RT to my abysmal 1.034 RT. Even with almost a full
one second head start, he only gets a 16.797 ET to my 15.595. In all, I
beat him by .269 seconds even with his head start. Wooo-Hooo!
Run #4: This was at 4:53 PM. The crowds had been thinning out and I was
able to make runs very often at this point. My last three runs of the day
all happened within about the last hour of the day. I was getting pretty
exhausted from all the heat. So, when we get onto the track, I'm paired up
with this all-out race car based on a Dart. This guy really had his act
together. I tried the start as best I could and got the truck really hooked
up. I was very pleased with this run. I ended up with my best ET of the day
(15.465). The Dart guy got a 13.148 ET. His RT was .571. Beat me by 2.743
seconds. Even so, we compared our 60 foot times. He only got 2.203 to my
2.340. Apparently, the traction sucked so badly that he wasn't able to
out-launch me by all that much.
Final run, #5: I was matched up with this thing that somewhat resembled a
1966 Mustang. This thing was full-race, tubbed out, 460 cu-inch engine, the
works. I ignored him as best I could. He cut a .561 light to my .699 and
then just vanished. Gone. As I tooled down the track, I noticed the 1-2
shift at 4000 RPM, then the 2-3 shift at 4000 RPM agin. Then I pressed down
as hard as I could on the accelerator, and it moved! DOH! End result: I got
an abysmal 16.031 to the mustang's -get this- 9.881. Not even the same
league.
Why was the track so sucky today? I'm guessing that since it hasn't rained
much in the last few weeks, the track is covered with a lot of oil. It
realley sucked eggs, HARD!
So, I'm postponing my throttle body modifications for a while. I've decided
that I'll install some lakewood traction bars to get the truck hooked up.
I'll test it again to get a baseline ET. Then I'll do the throttlebody mod
and see if I can prove my theory.
Stay tuned, but this will take quite a few weeks.
-Mike Miller
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