[cdahl383]

Took my car to Milan Dragway yesterday and entered into the Sportsman class (11.50 and slower). Made my two time trial runs and figured I'd dial in an 11.75. Turns out the car picked up rather than slowed down, so I broke out in the first round of eliminations. But the guy next to me broke out by more, so I ended up winning. And the really cool part was I had a .006 reaction time on that run, so by winning that round, I ended up earning a bye run on the second round since I had the best reaction time of the first round! I ran 11.67 that pass, so I changed my dial to 11.65. The guy next to me that round dialed 11.50 but he was sandbagging at the end, letting off, etc. He goofed though and ran 11.18. Whoops! I made it to the third round, but lost as I got a bit of tire spin off the line and only cut a .18 light that time. But it sure was fun!

I've been trying to focus more on my reaction time lately as I'm pretty much done with mods on the car, so I pretty much know what it's going to run most of the time within a tenth or so. I used to cut anywhere from .2 to .4 lights which is pretty sleepy. Yesterday I cut .13, .14, .11, .006, and .18, so I've made some improvements from before. If I can chop off another tenth consistently on my lights, I'll be pretty deadly!

The other cool part was the photo guy was there taking photos early on, and he got an awesome shot of my car launching off the line! I'm going to blow it up and frame it for my garage!

I met up with my buddy Mark in his black Scat Pack. We were both running pretty good yesterday considering the weather. The DA wasn't horrible, but the air was really heavy, lots of humidity, and a slight head wind. His car wasn't much faster than last time we raced with 1000ft more DA. Mine only picked up because last time I ran with my heavy 20" wheels and this time I had my Racestars. Not sure what was up. Other stock Scat packs were running 12.1-12.5 at 111-112mph and I was 11.6-11.7 at 115.5-116.5mph.

Anyway, it was a fun day at the track! I doubt I'll ever cut a better light than that, but who knows maybe with more practice I will!

 

[cdahl383]

Here's the video of my 11.67 pass from my GoPro camera...

 

[Race888]

That is some serious tree chopping sir!

Also, that is a great shot!

 

[Solidman]

Way to raise the bar Carl!! As usual...excellent skills and runs Great job cutting the lights.....someone has been practicing lol. Been WAY too hot (high 90's) here too even consider running. October is normally when we get back at it. I cannot wait to hit the Track again. GREAT pic (you need to pay him) of the launch....and the Hot Rod looks awesome as always. Congrats buddy.........Gene

 

[Rob446]

Hey Carl, glad to see you racing. Sounds like you had a fun day. It's tough running against those guys who run Sportsman, some of them really have their act together.

Did you ever get those catless mids installed?

Well, this is old news but I'm still enjoying the memory from my last outing in June. First photo I'm 959. Second photo is car 991 back in the staging lanes after the run. Make sure to zoom in on the spoiler. DA was 3300 so times were .3 to .4 off but a light and a win is good enough for me. Got to 11.9 a couple hours later when the DA dropped to 29XX.

I finally get the Spohn adjustable control arms installed and adjust so I'm looking forward to getting back to the track as soon as it cools of a little. With good DA I'm hoping for 11.4. So far September has been brutal, well over 90 degrees every day and today hit 100.

 

[cdahl383]

Haha! Nice Rob! You took out the Hellcat by treeing him and hooking up good. I'm sure he was a little pissed. Looks like he made a sandwich at the light and then smoked them off the line. Can't win them all. I've beat a couple Hellcats before, but only M6's.

No I haven't got the catless mids on yet. I've been busy with stuff at the new house and I did some work on my Nova. I put a new carburetor on that about a month ago. I need to get my butt in gear and do it already. It doesn't look like a very difficult install. I'm just a little paranoid with messing with my stock exhaust, it's so nice as it is. But I already have the parts, so I might as well give it a shot.

You'll hit 11.4 in good air, maybe even 11.3. I'd like to hit 11.3 this year but we'll see. I hit 11.4 a couple times last year and was happy with that. I'm to the point now where I'm done modding the car much more. I want to work on my lights and consistency now.

 

[cdahl383]

Way to raise the bar Carl!! As usual...excellent skills and runs Great job cutting the lights.....someone has been practicing lol. Been WAY too hot (high 90's) here too even consider running. October is normally when we get back at it. I cannot wait to hit the Track again. GREAT pic (you need to pay him) of the launch....and the Hot Rod looks awesome as always. Congrats buddy.........Gene

Thanks Gene!

I haven't run as much this year as in years past. I ran a couple times in April, once in May, then once in July, and then last Sunday. I plan on going more later this month through November when the tracks close. I'll see if I can hit 11.3 or not.

He prints the photo right off in his car, he drives around in the pits and offers his photos for $20. It's a nice 8x10 glossy high color photo on really good photo paper. I also got an electronic file so I can blow it up bigger. It was worth it to go that day just for that photo of my car haha! The .006 light was just icing on the cake! Didn't really run any stellar times, about what I thought the car should run, 11.65 or so, but it was still a lot of fun!

 

[Solidman]

Thanks Gene!

I haven't run as much this year as in years past. I ran a couple times in April, once in May, then once in July, and then last Sunday. I plan on going more later this month through November when the tracks close. I'll see if I can hit 11.3 or not.

He prints the photo right off in his car, he drives around in the pits and offers his photos for $20. It's a nice 8x10 glossy high color photo on really good photo paper. I also got an electronic file so I can blow it up bigger. It was worth it to go that day just for that photo of my car haha! The .006 light was just icing on the cake! Didn't really run any stellar times, about what I thought the car should run, 11.65 or so, but it was still a lot of fun!

Ok...you DID pay him! lol THAT is 20 bucks well spent my friend! lol I wish he was in Fla......does he have a cuzzin down here? lol

DO NOT fear the catless install. It is a POC! (piece of cake) Put them on and let Jay do his magic and you WILL be hitting 11.3's or better fo sho!

I learned a lot last year and I am REALLY looking forward to cooler weather. I have a few ideas in mind (always skeewy) that should pick up some steam. Keep raising the bar and representing Mopars well brother.....

 

[cdahl383]

Yep I agree, $20 well spent! Probably the best picture of my car at the track to date.

Ok cool. I don't have a lift, will just pull the car up on ramps and see what I can do. I might hit the header bolts with PB Blaster the night before. I heard the O2 sensors can be a little tight too. Otherwise not too bad. I hope they help a little. Would suck to put them on and not pick up at all. They would at least make the car a little louder though which would be cool.

Same here. Looking forward to some cooler weather, see what the car can do. Would love to get some more 11.4 passes and maybe hit 11.3 this year. That's probably going to be it for me. From there I will just be working on cutting better lights and being more consistent. Would like to get more involved with bracket racing now, it's kind of fun and won't cost me $3-5K in new parts to continue chasing ET haha!

 

[Rob446]

Ok cool. I don't have a lift, will just pull the car up on ramps and see what I can do. I might hit the header bolts with PB Blaster the night before. I heard the O2 sensors can be a little tight too. Otherwise not too bad. I hope they help a little. Would suck to put them on and not pick up at all. They would at least make the car a little louder though which would be cool.

Installation of the catless mids isn't difficult. Just get the car as high as you can to give yourself room to work. I spent more time getting the reducers to fit into the exhaust pipes without pounding them in than it took for the rest of the install. As a result I can now change back to cats in about 2 hours.

The guy in the Hellcat was cool, after the run he pulled up beside me at the timing shack and said "Why did you have to cut a perfect light while I was playing Rip Van Winkle?"

 

[cdahl383]

Installation of the catless mids isn't difficult. Just get the car as high as you can to give yourself room to work. I spent more time getting the reducers to fit into the exhaust pipes without pounding them in than it took for the rest of the install. As a result I can now change back to cats in about 2 hours.

The guy in the Hellcat was cool, after the run he pulled up beside me at the timing shack and said "Why did you have to cut a perfect light while I was playing Rip Van Winkle?"

Ok cool, I'll see how high up I can get the car. How did you fit the pipes in without banging on them? Just took your time or something? I'm the same way, would like to be able to convert back to stock if needed one day in the future.

Haha that's funny! At least he was cool about it. Some guys get all bent out of shape. I lost to a 16 second car in the third round of eliminations on Sunday, the guy cut a great light and ran within .03 of his dial in. He deserved the win. Generally I'm just happy to be there at all, whether I win or lose doesn't much matter, I just like hanging out there, hearing the cars, watching the cars, going down the track, and not having any demands placed upon me for a few hours haha!

 

[Rob446]

Ok cool, I'll see how high up I can get the car. How did you fit the pipes in without banging on them? Just took your time or something? I'm the same way, would like to be able to convert back to stock if needed one day in the future.

Haha that's funny! At least he was cool about it. Some guys get all bent out of shape. I lost to a 16 second car in the third round of eliminations on Sunday, the guy cut a great light and ran within .03 of his dial in. He deserved the win. Generally I'm just happy to be there at all, whether I win or lose doesn't much matter, I just like hanging out there, hearing the cars, watching the cars, going down the track, and not having any demands placed upon me for a few hours haha!

The small end of the reducers has a lot of crimps. I used a flap disc on a 4.5 inch grinders to smooth the crimps thereby reducing the O.D. a little. Next the small end of the reducer was slotted. They could be pushed in most the way easily, the last inch or so needed a few taps with a heavy hammer on a block of wood . They were uninstalled a couple months later just by removing the manifold bolts and working the pipe around.

He was real cool about it, my neighbor was there with me and kept giving the guy every sleeping line he could think of. I've been pretty fortunate that most of the folks I've raced have been great sports. After beating one guy in a wild ass looking Camero with big buck wheels we got lined up beside each other again. He backed out of line and was gone. The funniest one, I was lined up beside a big bucks twin turbo Silverado with 4 slicks. Just as we fired up someone knocks on my passenger side window, I roll it down and he says "prepare to get your ass kicked, points at the Silverado and says 1200 HP. I ran an 11 something and the Silverado ran like 20 seconds, guess something went wrong. The Silverado hustles back to the staging lanes many rows in front of me. After a while racing stops. One guy who was watching near the starting line walked back and told us the Fancy Silverado lost the left front axle and is into the wall. Lucky I was not racing him.

 

[cdahl383]

The small end of the reducers has a lot of crimps. I used a flap disc on a 4.5 inch grinders to smooth the crimps thereby reducing the O.D. a little. Next the small end of the reducer was slotted. They could be pushed in most the way easily, the last inch or so needed a few taps with a heavy hammer on a block of wood . They were uninstalled a couple months later just by removing the manifold bolts and working the pipe around.

He was real cool about it, my neighbor was there with me and kept giving the guy every sleeping line he could think of. I've been pretty fortunate that most of the folks I've raced have been great sports. After beating one guy in a wild ass looking Camero with big buck wheels we got lined up beside each other again. He backed out of line and was gone. The funniest one, I was lined up beside a big bucks twin turbo Silverado with 4 slicks. Just as we fired up someone knocks on my passenger side window, I roll it down and he says "prepare to get your ass kicked, points at the Silverado and says 1200 HP. I ran an 11 something and the Silverado ran like 20 seconds, guess something went wrong. The Silverado hustles back to the staging lanes many rows in front of me. After a while racing stops. One guy who was watching near the starting line walked back and told us the Fancy Silverado lost the left front axle and is into the wall. Lucky I was not racing him.

Rob,

Thanks for the advice! I did some more research and thinking and think I'm going to pass on putting those catless pipes on. I read a lot of stuff on them and at most they add 6-8hp if that. Many guys ended up putting the stock pipes back on due to the smell of fuel as well as discoloring their tailpipes. If this were strictly a race car I wouldn't care, but I still take this car on a lot of trips with my family and really don't want to have any fuel smells. My wife drives the car a lot too and I know she'll hate that. She always complains about my Nova being so "stinky" as that car has zero pollution controls on it haha! I think the overall gain is not worth the hassle for my particular situation. I'll likely just end up selling them at some point.

I think I'm probably at the end of the road for a while on the mods for the car. The next logical step would be to either do a cam or a 75 shot of nitrous in terms of going faster. Not really wanting to do either though due to the $$$ involved. I'll probably just stick with what I've got, enjoy running mid 11's, and see what kind of times I can put out in the colder air. Might be able to squeak out a 11.39 with some luck. But I'm happy with running 11.4-11.6 given the few mods I have done to the car. We just moved recently and I have so many other things to do now around the house, plus my Nova could really use a rebuild on the engine, so I think the Scat Pack is just going to stay how it is for a while.

That's a cool story about that truck. Scary to think you could have been next to the guy. Good thing he didn't hit anyone else.

People like that are funny. My Dad was in the stands last year when I pulled up to the line next to a blue Mustang. This thing was loud as hell, did a massive burnout, made a big deal revving his engine a bunch of times. I just did my normal burnout and rolled up quietly. A couple guys behind my Dad in the stands said...oh wow, that's it? Referring to my burnout. Then they said, that Mustang is going to smoke that Challenger. The lights came down and I was gone! The Mustang was sleeping at the light, then took off and roasted his tires all over. He was way back in my rear view mirror, not even a chance of catching me. The guys behind my Dad both said...whoa! Haha!

I've lined up against a lot of cars that I thought were going to beat me, but instead I beat them. Camaro SS's, Mustangs, older cars, etc. You never know how quick something is going to be.

I usually gauge my car by how other stock cars like mine are doing. Last Sunday at the track there were a couple stock A8 Scat Packs running with drag radials and hellcat airbox, nothing else. They were going 12.1-12.5 depending on how they hooked. MPH was around 111-112mph. I was running 11.6-11.7 at 115.5-116.5mph. So about .5 quicker and 4mph faster. That's usually how it is, so I know if I'm not running that much faster something must be off.