Hitting the track for the first time ... ... January 6, 2007
It's no secret that I love to drag race. I don't do it for money and I have yet to enter a bracket race, but I am one hell of a test and tune whore. I call up Mooresville at 11am every Saturday just to hear my favorite redneck say on the answering machine, "Mooresville Dragway, January __, Test and Tune is open, 12-5, I repeat, open from 12-5"...I hang up the phone and skip giddily to the garage to grab a few things and head out to the track. Saturday test and tune days during the winter are best, because only a handful of cars ever show up. The weather is cool, the track doesn't get ruined by endless FWD ricers running street tires through the water box, and the world is at peace. The track is an 1/8th mile which is fine with me...if you screw up your launch and totally blow a pass, you don't have to beat yourself up for the entire quarter mile...
I still had my 30 day tags when I took the formula to the track for the first time. Now that is dedication (or perhaps lunacy that I was dying to know what it ran?) Regardless, the car was barely modified when I got it. The only thing the prior owner had done was put some really craptacular muffler on it (not even a full catback) and get this...he put a computer fan in the intake before the mass air sensor. Yes, you read that right...a computer fan.
You can see how this douche when to great lengths to actually trim it to fit...what he thought a giant obstruction in the air way would do I don't know, but I swear when I removed it I felt like I gained at least 10 hp. I laughed my ass off when I saw it for the first time. I had glanced at it through the stock air box at the dealership, thinking it was a tornado. Some dumb people use tornados, and that's okay...but actually cutting up a computer fan takes it to a whole 'nother level...On the way to the track, we scanned with EFIlive and began tweaking the stock program. Shift points were altered, tables were changed, and the car drove a little smoother. I am also proud to say I was sans computer fan...
Current modifications 1/6/07 - muffler, PCMforless tune
I ran the car about ten times, and was very impressed with the consistency and how easy it was to launch. My best pass of the day was an 8.59 at 83.6 mph, with quite a few low 8.6X's as well.
Some action photos:
