What Ever Happened To...

[NIKwoaC]

Nik, your power levels should be in the 11s with some traction!

Ha yea that's what people keep telling me. Should probably have a few more MPH too. For whatever reason though, the car is not a strong performer at the track. Probably user error LOL. The car saw zero track time this summer because the T5 had the death wheeze. With the "new" TKO I plan to race the poo out of it this season.

 

[2000xp8]

Ha yea that's what people keep telling me. Should probably have a few more MPH too. For whatever reason though, the car is not a strong performer at the track. Probably user error LOL. The car saw zero track time this summer because the T5 had the death wheeze. With the "new" TKO I plan to race the poo out of it this season.

I've seen this quite a few times over the years.
Until the last 6 years or so, my friends in the business had no dyno.
So the 15-20 years before it, they put parts on, drove it to the track, tested it and repeated the process.
Sometimes going to Englishtown a few times a week. Back then though only muscle car guys went to the track, now you have civics, luxury cars, suv's and throw some pick up trucks in there. Now the wait is 100 times worse, so it's not so simple.

Helps too to own a shop and not care if you have to take a car apart 50 times to get it the way that's perfect. The average guy doesn't have the time, desire or money to experiment in that manner.

On my last pushrod setup, i dictated what i wanted, i probably should have had him dial the cam back a little so it was a little easier to drive in traffic. Live and learn.

The biggest baddest parts rarely had the best results.
Go figure, one of the cars was a 302 gt40 intake, 65mm tb, valve jobbed gt40x's with an Ecam and ran [email protected] (i think). With a very experienced driver.

 

[25thmustang]

I didn't know if you just misspoke or what but Nik is running cnc TFS 205cc heads

Must have missed that, I thought it was his signature I read with GT40s.

The cars running the good times are usually doing it after a lot of testing and figuring out what works.

 

[NIKwoaC]

I've seen this quite a few times over the years.
Until the last 6 years or so, my friends in the business had no dyno.
So the 15-20 years before it, they put parts on, drove it to the track, tested it and repeated the process.
Sometimes going to Englishtown a few times a week. Back then though only muscle car guys went to the track, now you have civics, luxury cars, suv's and throw some pick up trucks in there. Now the wait is 100 times worse, so it's not so simple.

Helps too to own a shop and not care if you have to take a car apart 50 times to get it the way that's perfect. The average guy doesn't have the time, desire or money to experiment in that manner.

On my last pushrod setup, i dictated what i wanted, i probably should have had him dial the cam back a little so it was a little easier to drive in traffic. Live and learn.

The biggest baddest parts rarely had the best results.
Go figure, one of the cars was a 302 gt40 intake, 65mm tb, valve jobbed gt40x's with an Ecam and ran [email protected] (i think). With a very experienced driver.

Yep my local track is the same way. I average 1 pass per hour on test and tune nights, and that's hot lapping it without ever getting out of line. They also allow race cars and bikes, so it's a cluster . I built this engine in 2011 and I think I have less than 10 passes on it.

It's not a race car though, I mean it's got heavy ass wheels on it and Cobra discs all around and stuff like that. Not to make excuses, but there is not one drop of drag race in this car.

 

[A5literMan]

Yep my local track is the same way. I average 1 pass per hour on test and tune nights, and that's hot lapping it without ever getting out of line. They also allow race cars and bikes, so it's a cluster ****. I built this engine in 2011 and I think I have less than 10 passes on it.

It's not a race car though, I mean it's got heavy ass wheels on it and Cobra discs all around and stuff like that. Not to make excuses, but there is not one drop of drag race in this car.

When you have made passes did you power shift it at all? Were all passes on regular street radials? How you drive it makes a big difference obviously. Your trap speed seems a little low with your power level even with the heavier weight wheels etc. With that new trans,some light weight wheels and sticky tires and driving it like you stole it you should run at least a low 12 @110-112mph

 

[Chuckman]

Yep my local track is the same way. I average 1 pass per hour on test and tune nights, and that's hot lapping it without ever getting out of line. They also allow race cars and bikes, so it's a cluster ****. I built this engine in 2011 and I think I have less than 10 passes on it.

thats about the way it is a gateway, thankfully i get off work and can get there when they open up at 5 or 6, and get about 3 or 4 passes in before all the "big boys" come out and break and have to wait in the staging lanes for an hour and half, or they just skip the street tire guys completely and let the bikes and slick guys run thru their entire fields TWICE (i was pissed that night, i was the first guy in line on the street tire lanes when that happened). then again, the last two years ive gone a total of about 5 times, cant hook for crap, and go home after about 5 passes in 4 hours (the first three being ran in the first hour i was there). broke a heater hose the second time i went in '12, and the last time i went my trans/shifter started making some bad sounds in 4th at about 4k+, so until i get my aod rebuilt and back in, its street duty only.

 

[stykthyn]

Yep my local track is the same way. I average 1 pass per hour on test and tune nights, and that's hot lapping it without ever getting out of line. They also allow race cars and bikes, so it's a cluster ****. I built this engine in 2011 and I think I have less than 10 passes on it.

It's not a race car though, I mean it's got heavy ass wheels on it and Cobra discs all around and stuff like that. Not to make excuses, but there is not one drop of drag race in this car.

The track here on Gainesville is the same way. Ricers, bikes, offload trucks, muscle cars, everything comes in for test and tune night. my best night saw 3 passes hotlapping.

 

[NIKwoaC]

When you have made passes did you power shift it at all? Were all passes on regular street radials? How you drive it makes a big difference obviously. Your trap speed seems a little low with your power level even with the heavier weight wheels etc. With that new trans,some light weight wheels and sticky tires and driving it like you stole it you should run at least a low 12 @110-112mph

Nope, the car has never been powershifted. I manage to kill T5s without doing that, so I never tried. The car has worn nothing but BFGoodrich G-Force Sports for more than 6 years now- so no, it's never seen a sticky tire. Hopefully all this changes once the TKO is in it and then I'll finally have track times worth talking about.

 

[NIKwoaC]

thats about the way it is a gateway, thankfully i get off work and can get there when they open up at 5 or 6, and get about 3 or 4 passes in before all the "big boys" come out and break **** and have to wait in the staging lanes for an hour and half, or they just skip the street tire guys completely and let the bikes and slick guys run thru their entire fields TWICE (i was ****ed that night, i was the first guy in line on the street tire lanes when that happened). then again, the last two years ive gone a total of about 5 times, cant hook for crap, and go home after about 5 passes in 4 hours (the first three being ran in the first hour i was there). broke a heater hose the second time i went in '12, and the last time i went my trans/shifter started making some bad sounds in 4th at about 4k+, so until i get my aod rebuilt and back in, its street duty only.

The track here on Gainesville is the same way. Ricers, bikes, offload trucks, muscle cars, everything comes in for test and tune night. my best night saw 3 passes hotlapping.

Yea, I really hate how they can't seem to break up the nights a little bit. I understand test & tune nights probably don't make the track owners any money, but it's extremely discouraging when you have guys like us, who might only make it to the track a couple times a year, get the shaft when we do finally take the time to get out to the track.

What I feel really strongly about, is they NEED to have a STREET CAR ONLY night once a week. No trailers, no slicks, no race gas (for sale, at least).

 

[Chuckman]

Yea, I really hate how they can't seem to break up the nights a little bit. I understand test & tune nights probably don't make the track owners any money, but it's extremely discouraging when you have guys like us, who might only make it to the track a couple times a year, get the shaft when we do finally take the time to get out to the track.

What I feel really strongly about, is they NEED to have a STREET CAR ONLY night once a week. No trailers, no slicks, no race gas (for sale, at least).

Gateway used to do that before they shut down a couple years ago but the new owner hasn't really ran it right. The oval is finally going to get some use this year so hopefully things get better, but I doubt it