Don't mean this to be taken as rude but is 12.2 good? I thought with this fully built car he'd be low 11's. Is the DA that bad? I'm not that knowledgable with that. School me!
Not rude at all.
The Et's you see on the forums that are so impressive are almost always set by cars weighing in around 2700lbs without driver, have a track focused
suspension, and are almost always set in late September early October over on the north east coast where density altitude will get into the -500 foot or better range.
My car is full weight, full interior, all sound deadening in tack, all steel body and original glass, power steering, power brakes etc., etc ... 3270 race weight.
The
suspension is basic, non adjustable simple stuff that rides/works great driving around town.
Running "stock" heads that breath ~220cfm.
It is far from a stripped and dialed track oriented "race car".
As you can see from my notes (missing shift points) there is some left in the car, and, I was "granny" shifting.
Given all that, the 12.2 isn't bad. Yes, it could be better with driver getting more experience, and, I'll get there... was my first time out on DOT's in 13 years, and I've not been to the track in a little over 2 years (2 years, 1 month and 1 week) so I'm rusty. I'm not going to strip the car down to 2700lbs, and I'm not going to turn it into a 25 cent K-Mart pony ride for cruising the streets in the name of 60 foot.
I guess it looks like I'm making excuses but it's not intentional, I'm trying to answer your question, or explain why it's not where you would think it to be.
Go to any online calculator and drop my race weight down to 2860 (2700lb car, 160lb driver) and without factoring in air, the car goes 11.54 @ 117.13
Take that 11.54 @ 117.13 and correct for 2280 air, and bam, you have your 11.194 @ 120.278.
So your thinking is correct were it a "fully built" car. Matter of fact, it is spot on.
So yes, turn it into a car like the ones you see setting the ET's world on it's head, and run it at Englishtown or Miriamichi Dragway (where I have experience) in October, and you have a low 11 second car.
To give you an idea of how much density altitude can effect a car I have a personal example.
When my car was all stock with the exception of off road H pipe and 3.73 gears it ran 13.2 @ 101 in October at Miramichi Dragway... northeast coast.
I moved to Phoenix AZ, no changes to the car... 13.9's at 96... went to full exhaust and ran 13.7's at 97-98.
Hope that helps.