Paul(KillerCanary), how'd you do it?

[95Vert]

I had never really thought about it until a couple of days ago. There's a guy here who's running a 331stroker and hasn't managed to get his car under 12.5s. And then I thought about your car. I mean, you hit 12.2 (I believe) n/a. How did you do it? That's a hell of 1/4 time for never using a power adder? :SNSign:

 

[95riosnake]

He is a damn good driver for one thing And I think the run that did his motor in was on its way to breaking into the 11's correct Paul? But yea I say it's driving skill and just the right combo of parts.

 

[blksn955.o]

Good engine combo, good susp. setup, good driver.

I think he ran like a 12.0- or a 12.10....I remember he was REAL close to the 11.999 mark.

 

[illwood]

I had never really thought about it until a couple of days ago. There's a guy here who's running a 331stroker and hasn't managed to get his car under 12.5s. And then I thought about your car. I mean, you hit 12.2 (I believe) n/a. How did you do it? That's a hell of 1/4 time for never using a power adder? :SNSign:

Nah, it's more impressive than that. Paul got a 12.08 IIRC before he floated some valves.

Here's my opinion on how Paul makes those times.
-Well modded engine.
-Good suspension.
-Hot wife (sorry Paul, I had too, BTW, when's the little Ford enthusiast due?)
-Drives like a Bat outta Hell.

 

[Pokageek]

If I had to guess on any one engine mod I would guess his cam. For one thing I have aheard a lot of guys who have a cam made by some guy named Ed ALL run better times. I don't know why that is. Also, the guy is a dam good driver.

 

[Black95GTS]

PRACTICE.

Most underrated mod of all time.

Adam

 

[gmkillr]

I believe his best is a 12.03, but on his next run he had all of his 60' time 1/8 mile time and everything beat on his 12.03 run so it would of easily been a 11 sec. run but he missed the shift and jammed it into 2nd. gear and over reved his car smacking the valves onto the top of the piston. Does that sound about right Paul?
I believe he did it through Practice, good suspension setup, and being a very good driver. I bet he's had over 200-300 1/4 mile runs in this car, which will definately help in finding max e.t.

 

[xr8d302]

He had an aluminum wing and an invader body kit on his car at the time of his low 12 second run....clearly that's what did it...

Don't fight it Paul, you know you are teh ricer!!eleven!!

 

[urban96]

its gotta be the shoes

 

[yellow1995Cobra]

its gotta be the hidden n20 bottle in his fender...


PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE + good engine combo/tires

How many trips do you have down the quarter mile with that car now anyways paul?

 

[wytstang]

For one thing I have aheard a lot of guys who have a cam made by some guy named Ed ALL run better times.

Not true a guy running a Crower cam (OTS) is running 11.837 @ 114.79 in his h/c/i 302 95 vert (Allmotor95). It's having the right parts with the right driver nothing more nothing less.

 

[Killercanary]

GMKILLR about summed it all up. My best was a 12.03 at 112mph.

I bent all the exhaust valves two passes later and on the two passes following the 12.03 run I did in fact have better 60' and 330' times. I couldn't compare 1/8th mile times since my 3-4 shift occurs before the 1/8th mile and that is the shift I missed two times in a row. That race day was only the second day i had driven the car in over 5 months and I mistakenly had my seat back a little farther than I normally run with. I believe this caused me to "reach" for the gears and instead of having a nice fluid straight back movement, I started pulling the shift towards me when pulling it back.

Practice and a well thought out combo are the reasons I was able to run what I did. As Rob said, I easily have over 200-300 passes in the car. I actually have a LOT fewer passes under it with the new setup as most of the passes occured when it had the stock heads and cam, but that was mainly due to the fact i kept hurting things, mainly the tranny and axles when those parts were swapped for the AFR's and FTI cam.

I actually ran 12.3's on drag radials and 12.1 on 4yr old 16" ET streets with a completely stock suspension minus a set of global west LCA's and subframe connectors. The springs, struts, shocks, UCA's were all stock at that time. I believe the 'verts weight is the reason I was able to put the power down with the stock stuff like I did.

I'll be the first to admit that I NEVER thought the car would run what it did. I mean I set out to build a low 13 second combo that would trap 105mph or so. Back when I put this together that was concidered pretty quick even for a coupe of our years. My combo is relatively SMALL compared to many other that run similar times. i mean I run a normal edelbrock performer intake, 65mm TB with the stock 94-95 adapter, "small" AFR 165's, a mild cam, shorty headers, stock tail pipes, and I don't power shift it. The car weighs a ton too. If you look at those parts you wouldn't expect it to run what it does... hell I know I wouldn't if it wasn't my car, but it runs the numbers. I really don't know what else to say about it that hasn't already been said.

It does sadden me though that I hurt it right before I hit that ellusive 11 second slip, but when the new combo goes together I should blow past that and then some. Stay tuned!


BTW- here's a video compilation of the day I ran the 12.02 and also the missed shift pass.
http://www.crossroadvideos.com/search/got+cam/0/wm/D9774EF7-E593-4F5A-A27B-E1BAD420D146.htm

 

[5.0hatch]

Driver makes a big difference but there has to be another secret somewhere?? 331 or 347 maybe? I know i was driving my buddies insane for a good while in my 93 when I was trapping 113mph and telling them I had h/c/i and exhaust, i just left out the 347.

 

[final5-0]

When it comes to drag racing and looking for a low et ..............

Everybody wants to throw more and more parts at it to lower et's

Consider these couple of thoughts

Ever notice how many times you can see guys with ALL the GOOD parts and their et's ain't all THAT great

AND

Every now and then ........ you see a guy with not much of a combo but his et's are really good

My take on this based on my 1/4 mile strip findings is like this

1) Most important ... driver practicing to see what works for his combo in the areas of launch, shift points, etc. This can make et's plummet.

2) Next I would upgrade parts to improve 60 foot

3) Last I would upgrade parts to improve power

I don't care if your combo has one bolt-on or its got a bunch of stuff .......

If you can't honestly say to yourself you've have done all in your power to make improvement in item #1 ... You ARE leaving et on the table.

Grady

 

[Pokageek]

When it all comes down to it, most guys probably want a car that can do 12's or whatever the number is without a ton of time and effort like that. My guess is that is why they get the bigger engines.

Secondly, for me personally, I don't like thrashing my car around. Taking even 20 passes sound like ragging it out to me. So I may not be willing to slam it hard enough to get real good at it. Then again, I have a trans that's on it's way out. After I get the new one, who knows.

KC has paid the price to get that good. Now I just have to get a replica of my car and beat the poop out of it and then drive the real one around normally! LOL.

 

[Killercanary]

Driver makes a big difference but there has to be another secret somewhere?? 331 or 347 maybe? I know i was driving my buddies insane for a good while in my 93 when I was trapping 113mph and telling them I had h/c/i and exhaust, i just left out the 347.

I wish it had a better bottom end in it, but sadly enough it was in fact the stock ~65K shortblock that it came from he factory with. Maybe if I had aftermarket pistons in it I wouldn't have bent the valves.

BTW- My dad's NA H/C/I '91GT traps 117mph, and its still an honest to goodness 302... its not even a 306. Its a stock block with stock rods and cranks with standard bore (4.000) flat top pistons. It too is a well thought out combo with the right parts and the time spent at the track to dial it all in.


Grady made a good point. Once i got this combo together I didn't want to change a thing power wise until I knew I had gotten all there was to get out of it. I wish i wouldn't have hurt it because I would have loved to see what long tubes, a 70mm fox TB, and aftermarket tail pipes would have done as that was my next step as I felt that I had just about used up all the power there was in the setup as it was.

 

[Killercanary]

When it all comes down to it, most guys probably want a car that can do 12's or whatever the number is without a ton of time and effort like that. My guess is that is why they get the bigger engines.

On a side note, the car ran into the 12's on its third trip to the track. It was from the 12.7 to 12.0 that took a good bit of work.