Tuesday, May 19th, 1998
A 94 degree day at the dragstrip today. Several 3drealms and Norwood
Autocraft folk also showed up to run. We got to weigh most of the cars on
the track scales, which gives us a few more data points.
11.6 @ 125 Bob Norwood’s ferrari P4 race car (2200 lbs)
11.9 @ 139 John Carmack’s twin turbo testarossa (3815 lbs)
11.9 @ 117 Paul Steed’s YZF600R bike
12.1 @ 122 John Carmack’s F50 (3205 lbs)
12.3 @ 117 Brian’s Viper GTS (3560 lbs)
13.7 @ 103 John Cash’s supercharged M3
14.8 @ ??? Someone’s lexus GS400
15.0 @ ??? Someone’s volkswagon GTI
15.1 @ ??? Christian’s boxter (with Tim driving)
Weight is the key for good ETs. The TR has considerably better power
to weight ratio than the P4, but it can’t effectively use most of the power
until it gets into third gear. The viper is actually making more power than
the F50, (Brian got a big kick out of that after his dyno run) but 350 lbs
more than compensated for it.
I wanted to hit 140 in the TR, but the clutch started slipping on the last
run and I called it a day.
I was actually surprised the F50 ran 122 mph, which is the same the F40 did
on a 25 degree cooler day. I was running with the top off, so it might
even be capable of going a bit faster with it on.
The F50 and the viper were both very consistant performers, but the TR and
the supercharged M3 were all over the place with their runs.
Brian nocked over a tenth off of his times even in spite of the heat, due to
launch practice and some inlet modifications. He also power shifted on
his best run.
It was pretty funny watching the little volkswagon consistantly beat up on
a tire shredding trans-am.
George Broussard had his newly hopped up 911 turbo, but it broke the trans
on its very first run. We were expecting him to be in the 11’s.
We probably won’t run again until either I get the F50 souped up, or my
GTO gets finished.