My son and I drove to Famoso today. It was my first time to run there.

It was about 250 miles roundtrip, and was uneventful, other than a valve cover gasket I had to replace at a truck stop at 0:dark:00 this moring. Apparantly, I damaged the gasket on the driver side after I lashed the valves last night.

It was dripping a fair amount of oil, but I didn't see any smoke until we were exiting the 5N, just before the 99. I didn't finish thrashing on the car until almost midnight, and I didn't want to disturb the neighbors by starting it. If I'd have started the car in the drive while I had my drop light out, I would have caught the leak before I left...

I last ran the car at Beechbend Race Park in May, where it went a best of 13.37 @ 107.60 The car went 13.17 @ 108.XX at California Speedway, but that was with a high rise dual plane intake, and the times at Beechbend and today were with a low rise Weiand #8120 intake.

Since that time I swapped the 1 5/8 headers for 1 3/4" Hooker Super comps, which also have longer primary tubes compared to old headers. For the first time, I ran a cheater slick, 235/60/R15 Mickey Thompson ET Street Radials. All my previous runs were on 3 year old 235/70/R15 Radial TAs.

My first impression was that I could not believe how straight the car went on launch. On the Radial TAs, the car was difficult to control on launch, and it wasn't unusual to be spinning well past the 60' mark. With the ET Street Radials, the car hooked and went straight... it was like a different car. Actually, it was kinda strange not to have to worry about the back end coming around and putting the car into a guardrail.

The first pass was 13.02 @ 106.25 mph, with a 1.91 60', and 8.36 @ 83.21 in the 1/8th. This was with 38* total timing and 72/82 Jets.

The second pass was 12.838 @ 107.05, with a 1.86 60'. The eigth was 8.215 @ 84.21 mph. For the second pass, I knocked .19 off my ET by simply removing the Lloyds mats (seriously) and changing the primary jets from 72 to 74.

My third and final pass was 12.829 @ 107.21, with a 1.838 60'. The 1/8th was 8.209 @ 84.05. For this pass I backed the timing down to 36* total, and dropped the tire pressure to 22 lbs.

Awesome Wes, finally broke 12s and bested your goals already! What size converter are you running in that, was kind of tight if I remember.

Well into the 12s, very nice. Seems like you're getting it dialed in!

Now about those floor mats....must have been the reconditioning that made them so heavy

Matthew

Ron, I'm running an 1800 - 2200 generic converter. I'm wondering if the MPH was down because I wasn't spinning and getting into my power band quickly enough... WRT meeting my goal, I have not done that yet. My old Nova went 12s at LACR on a street tire, not a cheater slick. So, until I get my example of America's Sportscar into the 12s on a regular street tire, I have not met my goal.

matak, not doubt the rstored Lloyds mats(would restified be a more appropriate term here?), were holding me back. It's hard to describe the performance difference it made just by removing them from the car.

BTW, during eliminations, I lost by less than a car length. Do you think the weight of the 25 pack of Corvette-guru window static cleans that I left on the passenger seat could have been holding me back?

Wes

Nice times. I really never mess with the car between runs, I feel like one run isn't really enough to baseline each setup.

But yeah, at Famoso you could rebuild the engine between runs and not miss one... Next time I go there I'll bring a book. :sleepy4:

Wes a bigger converter now that you have a tire on it could make up the difference for spinning. That and you have a shorter tire on than you did I think. IMO youre making too much torque to pull this off on a street tire.

CC, I made the tuning changes between rounds, because I've had the car to the track a few times. It's best MPH at California Speedway and Beechbend were with 36* timing and 74/82 jets. I was simply returning the car to those settings. Each step toward them reduced my ET... ideally, I could have gotten more runs in between tuning, to establish a better baseline for each change. And FWIW, temps probably rose 20* between my arrival in the AM and my last run...

Ron, my stated goal was 12s on street tires, and I haven't been able to do it. As such, I'm not thrilled with the performance of the car. I agree with your assessment about the torque. I think the stroker crank is hurting, rather than helping. I honestly think the same combo would have ET'd better on the radial TAs with a 3.48" stroke...

IMO a bigger intake and more converter your ETs would really drop. A plus is right now you have a reasonable drive everyday converter, driveable motor and get 12s out of it. Overall thats a good thing. Your gearing is still 3,.36?
Do enough I think youd be surprsied what you could pull out of that car but the attitude of the car may change some. $4 Factor, too.

Ron, I'm still running the 3.36 gears. I've been considering running my 383 after I get my testing done... might run a hotter cam, and possibly more gear and converter.