It's late and I won't go into details until tomorrow but I finally won a race even if it was a King of the Hill race. Puts $180 in my pocket and gave me 4 points (one point per round win) in the Wednesday night Rumble series. That should be enough to be in the top 16 for the finals next month.

I haven't had a win since my second year racing back in 1998 when I was still running the 454SS truck in NHRA Sportsman class.

 

Congrats

 

Congrats on a long awaited win.. 10 years is a long time..

 

congrats on the overdue win!!

 

Congrats!

Not losing a round isn't quite the same https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/orga...ht-friday.html , but close.

I won a non-points race early in the year, and one points race. Funny no matter how many there are, they aren't close enough together.

 

I was exhausted all day from last night's racing but the win was worth it. Considering how crappy my night went, the win was even more worth it. I always like to say that around 90% of bracket rounds won are a luck win. 3 of my 4 rounds were luck wins.

First time trial. Spun out of the hole, peddled it twice, ran 10.771@139.62

Second time trial. Loosened up the suspension to get it to hook. Spun out of the hole, peddled once and ran 10.115@140.53

Third time trial. Rechecked tire pressures. Before first round, they were at 8psi. They're now at 12.5. Dropped the pressures down to 7.5 and loosened the front travel limiters. .050 light, 1.392 60' time. 9.515@142.31 mph. One reasonably good time trial run and now need to dial in.

First round eliminations. Somebody got a bye round so there were 15 cars in the field. Guessed at a dial of 9.40. Got a .119 light to a .021 light. My opponent had the race won and was hard on the brakes at the end but still broke out by .010. I ran 9.486@142.76

Second round. I go up against a bike who was using NOS in time trials and was dipping into the 9's. He was told he can't go into the 9's so he had to guess at a dial. He red lit with a -.001 and was almost .500 off his dial. I dialed 9.46. .226 reaction time and ran 9.500@142.26. Just after I launched, my muffler on the right side fell off the collector. When I slowed down, it made lots of sparks. I pulled off at the top and, yanked it off and threw it into the car. The safety truck got to me just as I was driving away. Got back to the pits and yanked the pipe off the other side. Took about 30 seconds to do it. Now the car is loud!

Third time trial. It's dark now. With the decreased weight and quicker ET, I dialed 9.46. .075 light and ran 9.445@143.35. We both broke out. He broke out by .021, I broke out by .015. I broke out by less and took the win. MOV was .0066 (13-1/2")

It's now really dark and my reaction times suck so I changed the delay from 1.035 to 1.015 to try and get a better light.

Final round. I go up against a fellow racer who's running mid 13's. He's going to get a 4 second head start. I dial 9.43 to his 13.58. At night, I can see his lights coming down and I sit patently for my top light to come one. Transbrake button is pushed, throttle stop is activated, foot's to the floor and the engine is at an idle. As soon as I see the top bulb light up, I release the transbrake button. Delay box finally releases the transbrake and I see a green light. Start playing catch up and I'm not sure if I'm going to do it. Just before I cross the finish line, it looks like I'm past him and I hit the brakes. I see the win light come on along the guard rail. I did it. I won!

Came back to pick up my timeslip and prize money. .001 light to his .071. Good thing I only took .020 out of the delay box. He was .031 off his dial. I was .037 off my dial. I ran 9.467@144.13 in 4000' air and a slightly lighter car running open headers. Calculations show that I was already across the finish line when I hit the brakes. ET and speed didn't decrease at all to what they should have been if I hit the brakes. My opponent said he wasn't on the brakes either.

The car was loaded up and I was heading out the gate at 10pm.

The car still isn't 60 footing like it should. It could be that I'm at the end of the second season with these tires. I have a few adjustments and checks I need to do to the car in the next 2 days. We have another big race on Saturday. I want to put the mufflers back on even if it means adding weight to the car. I'm going to weigh them first just to see how much I am adding.

 

Exhaust weight reduction. I just weighed the exhaust pipes and mufflers. 44 pounds and a couple of ounces.

Last run with exhaust on and hooked up
9.486@142.76

One side fell off the collector but still stayed with the car
9.500@142.26

Removed both taking 44 pounds of the car
9.445@143.35
9.467@144.13

Picked up some MPH but not a huge change in ET. Even though the air was good, I never got a better ET than when I was running mufflers of a 9.36

 

so put the mufflers back on lol. congrats on the win. I didnt think limiters would do you any good, but there is nothing like real world at the track testing

 

Exhaust is back on with supports at the front of the mufflers to help take the weight off the collector clamps. I'll live with the extra weight. At least my ears won't be ringing after a day at the track.

4-link has been readjusted moving the IC forward and upward a bit. Only testing will say if it will work and I'm still willing to try other adjustments. IC was 57.4" out and 7.8" up. It's now 63.5" out and 9.8" up. It's now ahead of the CG. Rear shocks stiffened up, front shocks loosened. Limiters are still adjusted to allow full travel for now.

Transmission band adjusted. Launch rpm changed from 3800 to 5000. Changed the pill in the barrel valve to lean out the fuel mixture. I think it was running a little fat. Reset the delay to 1.035

The only thing I didn't do tonight was check the valve lash and clean the bugs off the front of the car.

 

congrats stephen! a win is a win and it's an excellent feeling even if you're just bringing a trophy home! i say it's time for new tires honestly. you should be budgeting for those once a season at this point.

 

matt, love the car info over there! non-sag. thats funny

stephen, which bars did you move to change the IC?

 

I keep the bottom bars parallel to the ground or as close as I can get them to parallel. They were in the bottom hole on the diff and second from bottom on the frame. I moved those up 2 holes in each mount to raise the height of the IC. 1" per hole.

Top bar is in the top hole on the diff. It was in the middle of 5 on the frame and I moved that up one to move the IC forward. I could keep the same IC height and move it back by moving the top bar down one hole again on the frame. That would put the IC above the neutral line with 110.2% anti squat. If I move the top bar to the top hole in the chassis mount, the IC would be roughly directly under the center of the engine and the height would drop slightly to 9.6".

I just got back from more T&T tonight. Car launches pretty good. Wish I had external video of the second launch. The launch felt really good but still only a 1.3x 60' time. The air tonight is even worse than what it was on Wednesday night. Only managed a 9.514@141.86 at 4958 DA. That's only .117 off my best in 5139 DA air. It seems to run faster when fat so I'm going to fatten it up a little more tomorrow. Depends on the DA.

The delay was reset to 1.035 and my first pass tonight was terrible with a .168 reaction time. It was getting dark by my second pass so I put it back to 1.015 and got a .004 red light. Probably going to try 1.020 or 1.025 tomorrow to keep from red lighting.

Big race tomorrow. I expect traction to be exceptional. The forecast of rain now says rain late in the evening. The 7pm and 9PM show shouldn't get rained out now. I don't expect the Sunday show to happen. It's going to get cold and rainy.

 

still 1 7/8 away from parallel?

 

In car video of the second test and tune pass last night with the .004 red light

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/C...ing_180192.htm

 

congrats on the win stephen! you've got one of my favorite cars on the board for sure

 

Congrats on the win! Atleast you made back gas money.

 

Entry fee money. I have a sponsor buy me 2 barrels of alcohol this year.

Just got back from the track. This season, I have 38 passes down the track. 22 of those are in the last 7 days. I'm exhausted. Weather forecast doesn't look good or I'd be back again tomorrow.

I checked out a local Super Stock racer's car. It's a GT car. 87 Calais that's been back halved and has a 350 under the hood. He really pulls the front wheels like a typical SS car so I checked out his 4-link system. runs low 10's with about the same 60' as mine. Slightly smaller tire but 5.67 gears. I never asked but he must just scream that SBC or a lot less stall in the converter. His bottom bar is angled down in the front. Top bars are short and angled down so much that the IC looks like it's where the bottom bar front mount is.

Taking that information, I dropped my top bars down one hole back to the middle of 5 on the chassis. I still don't 60' like I should but the car really digs in and I never got wheel spin at all today. IC is now 47'5" out and 9.8" up with 110.2% anti squat. I think I can live with that and play around with shock settings some more. Everyone likes how it pulls the wheels.

 

well you always like to spit numbers out, figure out his rpm from the trap speed. converter stall on a properly built converter shouldnt change the trap rpm alot, and if he has been running ss alot his converter is probably fairly trick, with very little slip up top. Really good converter guys will do things that over the counter converters dont get. In fact if you discuss some of the things with tci for example they say they cant do some of them, but yet their big chief guy is one of the ones that found some of those tricks.
How was the track today vs. last visit? prep good?

 

My converter was custom built but I may send it back this winter to get the stall speed lowered about 500 rpm and maybe convert to spragless. My converter stalls at 6000 on the transbrake. I was launching at 5000 and shifted at 7400. The rpms dropped to 6400 then climbed back to 7400 where I crossed the finish.

Traction was pretty good. With the IC moved back, the tires hit hard every time.

60' times today in 5 passes.

1.378 (track still a bit cold and a few people said they spun)
1.347
1.348
1.354
1.36? (hand written timeslip)