F-Body Europe

So it was off to Avon Park again on May 19th to try to beat my 13.976 @ 102.74. The weather was a little hotter but cooled to about the same as before mid-afternoon and the only change was my 2 1/2" stainless steel catback Loudmouth replica with the flat pipe under the driver's side replaced with 2 1/2" round pipe. It may just be me but I thought I noticed a slight flat spot with this pipe replaced. Overall, my times remained almost identical (some worse) but the terminal speed increased consistently by 1mph. After 6 runs, the 3 best runs were 13.991 @ 103.69, 13.971 @ 103.21 and finally an improvement to 13.883 @ 103.45. My 60' times suck with a best of 2.328 but if I drive off from any more than a high idle, I lose time to wheel spin and I turned in one run of 15.24 @ 103.2. This wasn't a problem exclusive to me, there were 5 Vipers at this meeting and two GTS's were running. Their times varied from 12.4's to 15's with a missed shift or sideways acceleration! There was also a Lightning running 13.3's all day every time and a ZR1 with 550bhp that ran 12.7. One mystery i couldn't fathom was a 97 Firehawk that ran 15's on every run. Standard LT1's with catbacks and a K&N were running 14.0 or 14.1 fairly consistently. My friend's '95 TA with just the catback was running 14.3. I'll await the arrival of my FIPK and see what differeence that makes.

Sounds like you need to get some weight transfer going for you or some stickier tires. You have way more horse power than your cars suspension knows what to do with.

Roy is right. You do not need more power to go quicker. 2.1 60 ft is possible with a good launch air down the back tires air up the front ones. and launch @ 2400 practice in on a unused road. look for the g-spot no bog and minimum spin.

Lus1fer what you won,t know is how good the air was in my 12 years of drag racing I,ve raced various differant cars and one would run 4 tenths differance on a good or bad air day.The only way to tell the differance is with what we call a weather station next time your at the track ask one of the friendly drag racers to show you one .I,m not saying the air will make that much differance to your car because the E.C.M will try to make up for the conditions but may be a tenth or 2,if you add pressure to your front tyres all this will do is alter your rollout and adjust your reaction time ( not really what your after)and it,s been proven that with raidal tyres you need to add pressure to gain traction.The best money you could spend now would be on some drag raidals or the like theres nothing worse than turning the tyres to make you mad. Hope this helps Ian.

I agree with the air but on any given day it is the same for everybody that is why they have corrected times in the states. It depends on tires for air pressure Solid wide as possible black patch is what you want. Sway bar removal and a adj Torque arm gets traction and I run 40pounds of pressure in the front tires. first time out 7.86 @ 91.84 1.88 best 60ft time. MPH 1/8 The closer to the valve you increase flow the more power you will make. So headers will make more power than a catback system everytime. Bigger valves and ported heads will make more than headers. Same is true on the intake side. As far as what is right or wrong is not one thing it is the combination from tire warm up, Staging, launch, shifting until you crossing the finish line. Just my .02 cents

Thanks for all the advice. Launching off a thick blanket of rubber is a lot harder than launching on the street. I'll be changing the rear tyres next month anyway as the Goodyears are getting a bit worn. I put Avon ZZ1's on the front which have an AA traction rating (if that really means anything)so I may try those on the back. I'd like to go wider on the back but can't get a wider tyre in a 16". I can't really afford drag tyres either although it's a nice thought.