IHI

iTrader: (1)

We typically pick an out of the way race/event to run once a year to experience a new track, everybody kept saying i have to goto Gateway and run the old "Fun Ford Weekend" which has now been changed to "World Street Challenge" so two of us towed down with our wives and another couple followed, we then met up with some other guys off some other forums. To say this was the biggest waste of a weekend ever is putting it mildly, i, like everybody i talked to will never go back..track and traction was nice and great, but the placed logged HOURS of downtime due to computer glitches, car count was pitifall at best, had to wait around from 10:30am when my bracket class finished until 3:45pm before they had checks ready to give the racers...luckily i entered another class so i was occupied for awhile, otherwise i woulda really been ticked off. It was nice getting away from home for 4 days, but i was fighting electrical issues Thursday through saturday i later found and fixed Sunday before eliminations....3 step box, the pin in the box had somehow worked it's way into the box so my adjustible 3 rpm controller was'nt making full contact and working intermittedly, so sunday was the only day i did worth a crap and got to the quarter finals before having my butt handed to me on the tree...my .027 to his .003.

Anyways, here's some pics. i did find a HUGE breakthrough though. I've been racing at 10psi for yrs, tires always getting murdered and every month putting new slicks on the car, i had 2 rounds of qualifying i had to throw away since i got the run i wanted to keep so i went upto 15psi and man, it wheelied like a champ, carried it out a ways, got a great poster of it i'll post up once i get it scanned to disc but it's too big for any civilian scanner. but my 60' went from 1.49-1.50 the previous 9 runs to consistant 1.450-1.451 in 5 passes, car really like it and to my suprise, my reactions times stayed the same somehow. i may try strapping the front end down next so see how much more ET i can squeek out of it.

anyways:
pitspot for the weekend



Coming in under the tower..pretty neat set up, but i hate the way your behind the water box...ask how many rocks hit my car from the car in the box...fricken joke




first round qualifying for open comp class


lil more stories in next post

IHI

iTrader: (1)

Friday after qualifying 1st round we were heading back to hotel, on the interstate in the hammer lane, behind a semi. there was a car in the middle lane and he decided he wanted the hammerlane...and obviously did'nt pay attention and turned right into and underneath the semi trailer....right in front of us The semi trailer started bouncing up and down off the road...at 75mph no less..and each time the trailer bounced up the car would slip back closer to the real duals on the trlr...i thought i was going to watch a person die. Finally the car reached the dual, and the trailer rode up the car driver rear taillight/bumper and contiued tilted at a 45* angle driving right down the side of the car and off the hood. Soon at the car was free of the tralr tires is spit immediately right across all 3 lanes of traffic...we looked over and the guy and girl were concious/okay, semi pulled over so we kept going, but it was crazy seeing that happen only 50 or so feet in front of us.

Saturday Pro Mod qualifying, the Aeromotive car's chute did'nt deploy and he had just mae a pass at over 216mph. Gateways sand trap area is short, very short....loooong azzed shut down, but short sand trap with a big rope net to catch the cars maybe 30' back from that, and then a dike maybe 10 or so feet behind the net....they estimated he hit the dike...yes, the dike at 120mph We stuck around their pit talking with the crew to see if the driver was okay, they took him in the ambulance to get him checked, but when they brought the car around, oh man was it ugly...it was banana shaped front to back, hay was stuck through the hood from top side through to the bottom side like a tornado sticking grass into a telephone pole, all kinds of pea gravel/sand embedded all over the front of the car...reminded me of a skid loader bucket as much that was packed in there, the pass front tire was impacted into the firewall....basically totalled the car to put it bluntly. Driver ended up being okay luckily, but he was waliing aorund with bags of ice...bags like you put in a cooler of beer on each shoulder, so i can only imagine the force of the shoulder straps digging into his body upon impact.

Other than that, just another boring bracket race, was fun watching the 10.5 tire class, outlaw super street, pro mods, radial tire class, etc...

xpndbl3

iTrader: (5)

nice wheelie, still needs dem der stiff sidewall slicks at that raceweight cough cough.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

the one i got a picture of is the best yet, she hung'em pretty good and carried them quite a ways...it was waay cool LOL! but i'm putting the 4.11's back in since the car is outta breathe by the 1000' mark.

as for the tires, i really started looking at the pictures at the phot trailer since i've been wanting to see what my tires have been doing. I have an excellent picture of them at the 10psi i've raced at for years on Friday qualifying, rim close to hittin gthe track, gaps between the rim and tire it looks like you could slip your hand up inside the rim, there are actually 2 "fat rolls" in the tread area right near the track surface where tire was balling up and then half way up the wheel well..in that tire area, it was cupping.

Saturday i had 2 round of qualifying to throw away, so i decided to try 15psi and see what that did...and that is when i got the big wheelie and 1.450 60'. Luckily they got that picture too and let me tell you, not only was there a day and night difference in the way the car reacted..picking up .05 in the 60's, the tire looks excellent..almost like a stocker, very little distortion at all anywhere. It looks like i could try a wee bit more psi, so if i can get the car back together by friday i wannt take it out and see if i can make 18psi stick. Even if i get stuck runnign 15psi, this is a MAJOR MAJOR find/discovery i wish i would've tried years ago, prolly woulda saved me thousands...but you get in a groove that works and ya hate to change, i was bored Satruday and figured, WTF, nothing better to do, let's experiement...luckily the outcome was for the positive!!!!!! tires ought to last awhile now since sidewalls aren't getting killed anymore.

cp87GTA

I agree on the stiff side walls. I was never a believer untill I used a set. I'm at 2840 race weight and run 14.5 w Hoosiers set @ 8 psi. And they work good. They still wrinkel but don't wad up. I used to have a 78 T/A, and ran 12x 29 Hoosiers, could only get down to 12 psi before they wadded up, and that car weighed 3020 race weight. If your going through that many tires one set won't hurt to bad if you don't like um.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

A few year ago at the Super Chevy here a Nitro Coupe's chute streamered, he blasted through the sand and went into the net. There was never any "official" release of details, but word was the net caught the blower and the rest of the car kept going; to put it as tactfully as possible the next stop was the back of the cage.

ross

I like the stiff side walls also. But the car was leaving the line hard looked good. Glad you had a good outing.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

I'll never ever think about running tubes again, Hoosier does'nt make stiff sidewall slicks/DOT slicks in my size so i'll never be able to run stiff wall unless they step upto the plate with a new tire, taint no M/T bs going on my car ever again

Now that i've had this apifany, i'm gonna order another set of stickies for next month's racing and see how long i can wring them out running this higher psi. I'm not in any points hunt this season, just racing when i want...which has been ever weekend LOL!!, but nothing really at stake if the tires go bad middle of a race weekend other than my pride.

I'm going to get that poster scanned to disc today and will see if they can scna the plauqe too, if i can get them i'll post them for before/after; and like they say, pictures speak louder than words and you'll see why this additional air pressure could be my saving grace...now there's hardly any tire deflection/wrap up...just a nice big fat flat spot on the track.

1bad406

iTrader: (1)

I've ran my M/T's for well over a year, sometimes longer racing atleast twice a month. But I run the 28x10.5x15S. The stiff sidewall version tires really help on the heavier cars and they can last a while. Nice launch pic by the way. The car comes up nice and level.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

I told my wife and myself i was'nt going to run much this year, but just like i expected it's been every weekend, most races i average the 3 time runs and am lucky enough to typically go 4-6 rounds each day, take that times 3-4 times a month plus street driving when i can and obviously it's alot of wear and tear on a soft tire even though when i street drive it i put 20psi in them, it still scrubs going around corners since i have a full locker.

For bracket racing i just need to tub it and get a monster tire under there so they'll last a season, or get another track only car and convert this back to full time street toy. Honestly though, i think running more psi is really going to save my hid, once i get the pic from friday uploaded i will post it so you can see the difference between 10 and 15psi..it's huge and blatantly obvious why i still had tons of plug left in the tire but sidewalls were shot. They get so bad when they start going south, even at 10 psi the tire will show 3-4 wrinkles sitting idle...i try to replace them before getting to that point, but a few times tires did'nt come in on time to swap out so i ran what i had.

Shon Webb

Please don't tub it.

1bad406

iTrader: (1)

I might have to try more air in mine. I typically run 11psi sometimes 10 if the track is junk.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

i really wish i woulda tried it years ago, but i had a problem and something was'nt right. If i tried 11-12psi the car would'nt dead hook, you'd get that grumble like they do when they slip a bit and 60's would drop off. So figured i'd go way to the other extreme with the 15psi, and am glad i did, it musta been enough psi at 15 to walk through the touchey area and regain usuable traction/tire shape again to stick it.

Definately worth the effort of a pass or two, treat it like jets, going 1 jet up/down really does'nt show ya much since air coulda been a factor that run, so when jet swapping i'll jump 4-6 up or down and see what it does...wish i woulda took that mentality with air psi, but like i said, all these years i was brain washed into trying anything different since any more air than 10psi i was a redlighting fool, so this really suprised me that it stayed right there jumping up this much, only thing i can think is now that it's hooking better and lifting the front endhigher the new found energy is going up instead of forward.

automec

hmmmm. i run the 28-12.5-15s et streets on a 8"rim. i have tried 14, 13.5, 13, 12, 11 and anything higher that 12 they just seem to spin. guess i will try 15 to see what happens. i have had that same trouble . it looks like the rim is hitting the ground on launch. i have my first race in 2 weeks.

slow86305

great pics. looks like a good time.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

the reason you're having such a hard time getting it to hook is likely because the tire is too wide for the rim. having that much tread width and that small of a wheel will result in poor traction. try a 28x9 or 28x10.5, or go to a 10" wheel.

NICK84Z

iTrader: (2)

Nice John Force burnout HAHAHA wheel stand looks good

IHI

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, that was gay but we had a good head wind and i was rubber necking mirror to mirror trying to see smoke..shoulda just went with my gut and did a 3 count and out, but new track, box felt different so tried to watch for it...waaaay to much and i felt like an idiot after wife showed me the pics in the trailer

xpndbl3

iTrader: (5)

i've done worse