1/2 Mile Racing Vids in the Vette
#1
03-15-2017, 07:45 PM
1/2 Mile Racing Vids in the Vette
Went out to No Fly Zone in Gila Bend last weekend in the vette. Figured I'd post up a couple videos this time.
Ended up running 4 times, trap speeds were 161-163 and change between 30-40 rolls and a dig race.
Got to run a few neat cars:
-CTSV coupe (first vid). Must've been stock as I really walked him. Never saw him after the start cones and had busses on him by the end.
-Stock C6 ZR1 (second vid). Unfortunately didn't get a clean race as he had a bad shift. I was definitely pulling on him once I got into the power band, but Im curious to see how the rest of the race would've went.
-650whp ecs blown c7. Put 3-4 cars on me out of the hole (better midrange with the lt1 and bigger blower) but I overtook him in 3rd and got him up top by a 4 or 5 car lengths.
-Nitrous/cam ls3 c6. Should've been a decent race as he was within 10 whp (on a different dyno). We ran from a dig but I had 5-6 cars on him by about the 1/8th mile. Not sure how far back he was at the end.
Definitely was a good time!
Last edited by bumpin96monte; 03-15-2017 at 07:57 PM.
#3
03-16-2017, 10:14 PM
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Mountains of Utah
Posts: 4,903
Jheesh, some people have access to really great automotive venues. How awesome to be able to run your Vette up to those speed levels. Were you maxed out or had to back out of it? I have to hand it to you the way you were able accelerate up to the scary fast speed is incredible. have never went that fast in a car before. Your second video appears as though you are barely even gripping the steering wheel. Bet the word got out to not line up next to you after you knocked out 4 wins in a row. The runs against the nitrous, the C7 and the ZR1 had to be thrilling in a huge way. Nail biters till you are obviously not having them come around you.
Is this a year round event or a rare occasion event? So jealous of you, great time out there. Had to really make your day all your mods coming in to play and giving you the checkered flag every trip down the track.
SUPER JOB!!!!
Is this a year round event or a rare occasion event? So jealous of you, great time out there. Had to really make your day all your mods coming in to play and giving you the checkered flag every trip down the track.
SUPER JOB!!!!
Last edited by ZIPPY02; 03-16-2017 at 10:17 PM.
#4
03-16-2017, 11:06 PM
That's about all she's got for 1/2 mile. If the weather was a little cooler, it might be able to squeeze out a 165. Doing the 30/40 roll start from 2nd, I'm able to go WOT at the start cones without spinning, then I get hard on the brakes at the end cones (where the speed trap sensors are). Only one I had to back out of was at the start from a dig for two reasons:
-1st is tough at full pressure. At 20psi with a lot of heat in the tires, it hooks pretty well, but it doesn't feel solid the further over 100 you get (they're nt05r drag radials). I ran them at full street pressure to maintain stability up top though.
-the white painted runway lines were pretty slippery.
If I had more space the car has 200 mph in it before it's just out of steam. That zr1 is a 205 mph car bone stock (even my base model is claimed at 190 by gm) and I definitely have more power and less aero drag than they do.
It's pretty amazing how stable the car is at speed. As long as the rear tires are aired up, it feels every bit as stable at 150 as it does at 50. It certainly wandered a bit here and there from low spots in the pavement, I wasn't fighting to keep it dead straight either. There was so much room between cars that I just let it follow the road so as not to upset anything.
My car was probably in the top 25% or so, but this event gets a lot of high power stuff. The bulk of the cars are 500whp+. There were probably 10 cars around 1000 whp and one at 1500 whp.
The 1000 whp cars were in the 185-195 range in the 1/2, people have broke 200 by a considerable margin here at past events.
They do it about 2 to 3 times a year out here. This is probably it until October as its already over 90* here.
Its a great event for a few reasons:
-you don't have to worry about police, traffic, etc that you would on the street
-there is plenty of space for error and even if you go off track, it's mostly just sand
-there are usually 100-150 cars to race and no limits or crazy waits. Some people got in 30+ runs.
-this isn't really a spectator event as you have to be so far off track. The people that brought their cars there are ready to run and will generally run anyone for fun (except the crazy big power cars)
-there are no rules, you pick how you want to race with the person you're running. You can do a dig from cone to cone (1/2 mile), the traditional 30-40 mph roll from cone to cone, a dig from the back of the track (1/2 mile + 300ft), etc.
Hopefully I'll get the monte out to these one time. She's still down for fuel pumps so I couldn't bring her out this time. I think it'll need a brake upgrade too....
-1st is tough at full pressure. At 20psi with a lot of heat in the tires, it hooks pretty well, but it doesn't feel solid the further over 100 you get (they're nt05r drag radials). I ran them at full street pressure to maintain stability up top though.
-the white painted runway lines were pretty slippery.
If I had more space the car has 200 mph in it before it's just out of steam. That zr1 is a 205 mph car bone stock (even my base model is claimed at 190 by gm) and I definitely have more power and less aero drag than they do.
Your second video appears as though you are barely even gripping the steering wheel.
Bet the word got out to not line up next to you after you knocked out 4 wins in a row. The runs against the nitrous, the C7 and the ZR1 had to be thrilling in a huge way.
The 1000 whp cars were in the 185-195 range in the 1/2, people have broke 200 by a considerable margin here at past events.
Is this a year round event or a rare occasion event?
Its a great event for a few reasons:
-you don't have to worry about police, traffic, etc that you would on the street
-there is plenty of space for error and even if you go off track, it's mostly just sand
-there are usually 100-150 cars to race and no limits or crazy waits. Some people got in 30+ runs.
-this isn't really a spectator event as you have to be so far off track. The people that brought their cars there are ready to run and will generally run anyone for fun (except the crazy big power cars)
-there are no rules, you pick how you want to race with the person you're running. You can do a dig from cone to cone (1/2 mile), the traditional 30-40 mph roll from cone to cone, a dig from the back of the track (1/2 mile + 300ft), etc.
Hopefully I'll get the monte out to these one time. She's still down for fuel pumps so I couldn't bring her out this time. I think it'll need a brake upgrade too....
#5
03-16-2017, 11:27 PM
Of course with the mod bug, I still crave a little more. I can go one size smaller on the pulley (3.6 to a 3.4) before it maxes out the blower rpm, so I'll add a little more meth to keep the knock at bay.
Longer term in the next year or so, I'll stick a cam in it. The front main seal is leaking (should've changed it when I installed the ati balancer), so at some point I need to pull the steering rack and balancer back off anyways. Those two should get me up in the 650 whp range which is probably where I'll stop with this car. I don't want to push it so far that it starts breaking drive train parts and it's still on a stock a6 trans.
It's definitely crazy how friendly these cars are to mod. The thing still drives totally stock unless you're over 3000 or so rpm and it still gets near stock gas mileage - I was up around 27/28 mpg on my last highway cruise night. Plus it's really only 3 mods - the blower, headers, and meth and it's already at the level of my monte.
Longer term in the next year or so, I'll stick a cam in it. The front main seal is leaking (should've changed it when I installed the ati balancer), so at some point I need to pull the steering rack and balancer back off anyways. Those two should get me up in the 650 whp range which is probably where I'll stop with this car. I don't want to push it so far that it starts breaking drive train parts and it's still on a stock a6 trans.
It's definitely crazy how friendly these cars are to mod. The thing still drives totally stock unless you're over 3000 or so rpm and it still gets near stock gas mileage - I was up around 27/28 mpg on my last highway cruise night. Plus it's really only 3 mods - the blower, headers, and meth and it's already at the level of my monte.
#6
03-17-2017, 09:58 AM
Sweet runs. I'm jealous, there are never any races around here that long (that are legal). Have you taken it to a drag strip?
#7
03-17-2017, 01:28 PM
They seem amenable to people rolling a couple feet out on green and then taking off a couple seconds later (to get a trap speed) or to jamming the brakes before the lights (to get a legitimate 1/8 mile reading), but that just seems stupid to me. Lately it sounds like the hey won't even give you the time slip if you're below what you're allowed. A few people had been trying to make a single glory pass after cheating the system all night with the methods above.
I guess there are some other tracks an hour or two away, but they seem hit or miss (unless it's a private track day) and the surface prep cisn't usually as good.
#8
03-18-2017, 10:04 PM
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Mountains of Utah
Posts: 4,903
That's about all she's got for 1/2 mile. If the weather was a little cooler, it might be able to squeeze out a 165. Doing the 30/40 roll start from 2nd, I'm able to go WOT at the start cones without spinning, then I get hard on the brakes at the end cones (where the speed trap sensors are). Only one I had to back out of was at the start from a dig for two reasons:
-1st is tough at full pressure. At 20psi with a lot of heat in the tires, it hooks pretty well, but it doesn't feel solid the further over 100 you get (they're nt05r drag radials). I ran them at full street pressure to maintain stability up top though.
Clearly your getting more in the know, even the maintaining full street pressure, makes sense. Would it be desirable to maintain full air pressure on a road course?
-the white painted runway lines were pretty slippery.
Wow, for this small detail to come into play, you had to really be traveling pretty fast and with great traction and then to feel a brief moment of an issue with painted lines, that's crazy. Least your ready for them as you interact with them
If I had more space the car has 200 mph in it before it's just out of steam. That zr1 is a 205 mph car bone stock (even my base model is claimed at 190 by gm) and I definitely have more power and less aero drag than they do.
You have ambitions of hitting 200 + ? A stock ZR1 knocking on 205 mph, nicely played Chevrolet!
It's pretty amazing how stable the car is at speed. As long as the rear tires are aired up, it feels every bit as stable at 150 as it does at 50. It certainly wandered a bit here and there from low spots in the pavement, I wasn't fighting to keep it dead straight either. There was so much room between cars that I just let it follow the road so as not to upset anything.
Your car is very well designed then to have the operator feel at home at 150mph. Bet some dips at the wrong speed could unload someones suspension and then they have a fight on their hands geting it back on course again.
My car was probably in the top 25% or so, but this event gets a lot of high power stuff. The bulk of the cars are 500whp+. There were probably 10 cars around 1000 whp and one at 1500 whp.
That is an achievement to play up top like that, congrats. The 1500 whp guy is getting into the Street Outlaw territory. Was he on a stock frame and body?
The 1000 whp cars were in the 185-195 range in the 1/2, people have broke 200 by a considerable margin here at past events.
Past 200 by a considerable margin, a guy better have went over their car twice hoping nothing rattles apart or a piece of body molding does not come loose, it could get ugly real quick.
They do it about 2 to 3 times a year out here. This is probably it until October as its already over 90* here.
Its a great event for a few reasons:
-you don't have to worry about police, traffic, etc that you would on the street
-there is plenty of space for error and even if you go off track, it's mostly just sand
-there are usually 100-150 cars to race and no limits or crazy waits. Some people got in 30+ runs.
-this isn't really a spectator event as you have to be so far off track. The people that brought their cars there are ready to run and will generally run anyone for fun (except the crazy big power cars)
-there are no rules, you pick how you want to race with the person you're running. You can do a dig from cone to cone (1/2 mile), the traditional 30-40 mph roll from cone to cone, a dig from the back of the track (1/2 mile + 300ft), etc.
I like all of these reasons, how could a person with a hopped up car not go out there. 30 plus runs in, that is awesome. That is where having the very good tires come into play
Hopefully I'll get the monte out to these one time. She's still down for fuel pumps so I couldn't bring her out this time. I think it'll need a brake upgrade too....
Man you have the patience of Job, you have been going at it with your Montes mod build for ever now. Your work is over the top. Hope to be able to live long enough to read about your driving experience with it. Lets get er did son!! For sure a brake upgrade would be in order at those speeds. What are you thinking the Monte can do, 155mph?
-1st is tough at full pressure. At 20psi with a lot of heat in the tires, it hooks pretty well, but it doesn't feel solid the further over 100 you get (they're nt05r drag radials). I ran them at full street pressure to maintain stability up top though.
Clearly your getting more in the know, even the maintaining full street pressure, makes sense. Would it be desirable to maintain full air pressure on a road course?
-the white painted runway lines were pretty slippery.
Wow, for this small detail to come into play, you had to really be traveling pretty fast and with great traction and then to feel a brief moment of an issue with painted lines, that's crazy. Least your ready for them as you interact with them
If I had more space the car has 200 mph in it before it's just out of steam. That zr1 is a 205 mph car bone stock (even my base model is claimed at 190 by gm) and I definitely have more power and less aero drag than they do.
You have ambitions of hitting 200 + ? A stock ZR1 knocking on 205 mph, nicely played Chevrolet!
It's pretty amazing how stable the car is at speed. As long as the rear tires are aired up, it feels every bit as stable at 150 as it does at 50. It certainly wandered a bit here and there from low spots in the pavement, I wasn't fighting to keep it dead straight either. There was so much room between cars that I just let it follow the road so as not to upset anything.
Your car is very well designed then to have the operator feel at home at 150mph. Bet some dips at the wrong speed could unload someones suspension and then they have a fight on their hands geting it back on course again.
My car was probably in the top 25% or so, but this event gets a lot of high power stuff. The bulk of the cars are 500whp+. There were probably 10 cars around 1000 whp and one at 1500 whp.
That is an achievement to play up top like that, congrats. The 1500 whp guy is getting into the Street Outlaw territory. Was he on a stock frame and body?
The 1000 whp cars were in the 185-195 range in the 1/2, people have broke 200 by a considerable margin here at past events.
Past 200 by a considerable margin, a guy better have went over their car twice hoping nothing rattles apart or a piece of body molding does not come loose, it could get ugly real quick.
They do it about 2 to 3 times a year out here. This is probably it until October as its already over 90* here.
Its a great event for a few reasons:
-you don't have to worry about police, traffic, etc that you would on the street
-there is plenty of space for error and even if you go off track, it's mostly just sand
-there are usually 100-150 cars to race and no limits or crazy waits. Some people got in 30+ runs.
-this isn't really a spectator event as you have to be so far off track. The people that brought their cars there are ready to run and will generally run anyone for fun (except the crazy big power cars)
-there are no rules, you pick how you want to race with the person you're running. You can do a dig from cone to cone (1/2 mile), the traditional 30-40 mph roll from cone to cone, a dig from the back of the track (1/2 mile + 300ft), etc.
I like all of these reasons, how could a person with a hopped up car not go out there. 30 plus runs in, that is awesome. That is where having the very good tires come into play
Hopefully I'll get the monte out to these one time. She's still down for fuel pumps so I couldn't bring her out this time. I think it'll need a brake upgrade too....
Man you have the patience of Job, you have been going at it with your Montes mod build for ever now. Your work is over the top. Hope to be able to live long enough to read about your driving experience with it.
Lets get er did son!! For sure a brake upgrade would be in order at those speeds. What are you thinking the Monte can do, 155mph?
You are the man!!
#9
03-19-2017, 09:40 AM
Clearly your getting more in the know, even the maintaining full street pressure, makes sense. Would it be desirable to maintain full air pressure on a road course?
For sure. About the only racing that makes sense to lower pressure drastically for is for the launch in drag racing. However I would never road course race with these rear tires (NT05R drag radials) anyways. The sidewalls are too soft and the handling too poor. It's acceptable for drag racing and street driving, but I think even the stock 285 run flats handled better, lol.
Wow, for this small detail to come into play, you had to really be traveling pretty fast and with great traction and then to feel a brief moment of an issue with painted lines, that's crazy. Least your ready for them as you interact with them
The long white lines are only at the ends of the runway. They have the start cones past them by a good bit so if you're doing a 30/40 roll from cone to cone it's not an issue as you're not at WOT on them. It's only a problem if you try to do a dig race from the start of the track to try and get a higher mph. Of course it didn't work for me, lol.
You have ambitions of hitting 200 + ? A stock ZR1 knocking on 205 mph, nicely played Chevrolet!
I'd love to try it once just to say I did it. Of course it would have to be at a mile or a mile and a half race so it was a controlled environment and so you could get an official trap speed.
Yeah, GM claims the ZR1 top speed is 205. Top speed for the base model (bone stock of course) is 190 per GM. The Z06 is somewhere in between.
At this event, the stock ZR1 did a best of 157 (from the back of the track) and a new c7 z06 was doing 161 from a similar run (hitting the start cones at about 70 mph instead of the standard 30-40). Nice to know Im faster than both of those.
Your car is very well designed then to have the operator feel at home at 150mph. Bet some dips at the wrong speed could unload someones suspension and then they have a fight on their hands geting it back on course again.
I think thats part of the benefit to doing it at an airstrip. There aren't any potholes or abrupt changes in pavement heights, the surface is really well maintained. All of the dips and such are very gradual. Any modern sports car would have no issues with stability here. Curious to see how the rat rod model A felt at speed though!!
That is an achievement to play up top like that, congrats. The 1500 whp guy is getting into the Street Outlaw territory. Was he on a stock frame and body?
Yeah, all of the cars here were stock body/chassis. At most the cars here had a roll cage or simple upgrades (subframe connectors, etc). No tube chassis stuff or anything though, they're all street cars. The big power cars are things like alpha gtrs (there was an alpha 10 and 12 at this event), UGR lambos (there have been a few at past events, the big lambo this time was a Dallas Performance build), big single supras, c5/c6/c7 either with a turbo or two or a big blower like a ysi/f1x. So they're generally just highly modified street setups.
Even though the power is up there, I'm sure those Street Outlaws cars would tear any of these cars up in their native 1/8 mile racing. They should be a lot lighter, have big power, and are allowed to run big slicks unlike at this even that is DOT only with 2/32" minimum tread.
Past 200 by a considerable margin, a guy better have went over their car twice hoping nothing rattles apart or a piece of body molding does not come loose, it could get ugly real quick.
That is a big concern here. There is a self tech sheet you're supposed to go through to check everything (brakes, suspension, steering, etc). For the most part, the cars out here are made to do these speeds (albeit not getting there quite so quick).
Where it gets sketchy is when people add their own 'aero' mods and such from the aftermarket. Stuff does certainly come off and break on occasion. The good thing is that's usually easy to spot and clean up. What's worse for the event is having someone blow up and oil down the track. That's a lot harder to fix.
Man you have the patience of Job, you have been going at it with your Montes mod build for ever now. Your work is over the top. Hope to be able to live long enough to read about your driving experience with it. Lets get er did son!! For sure a brake upgrade would be in order at those speeds. What are you thinking the Monte can do, 155mph?
Lets get er did son!! For sure a brake upgrade would be in order at those speeds. What are you thinking the Monte can do, 155mph?
Honestly the vette has just been taking up so much of my free mod time. I just got done wrapping it in vinyl which took a ton of time along with all of the body work for the rear widebody fenders.
The monte is next on the list though. Just needs the new fuel pumps put in and a section of both rear brake lines replaced and it should be ready to get back on the road. I did drive it a bit before the fuel pump died and it's definitely a monster. Power feels similar to the vette, but it definitely hits a lot harder being a whipple vs a csc on the vette.
Not sure what it would run in the half as there aren't really any similar setups out here. It should easily be in the same power ballpark as the vette, but certainly it would be a bit slower due to the extra weight, lack of traction, and not being able to go into 4th (not sure if it would even go fast enough to top 3rd in a half mile).
Last edited by bumpin96monte; 03-19-2017 at 12:54 PM.
#10
03-20-2017, 12:00 AM
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Mountains of Utah
Posts: 4,903
For sure. About the only racing that makes sense to lower pressure drastically for is for the launch in drag racing. However I would never road course race with these rear tires (NT05R drag radials) anyways. The sidewalls are too soft and the handling too poor. It's acceptable for drag racing and street driving, but I think even the stock 285 run flats handled better, lol.
Okay good to know. You running drag radials all the time? I bought some more a couple years back, had them heat cycled, mounted on my spare wheels and have never had hem on my Monte yet... Never have made it back to the drag strip in all this time. Pretty hard on the cars drive train.
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The long white lines are only at the ends of the runway. They have the start cones past them by a good bit so if you're doing a 30/40 roll from cone to cone it's not an issue as you're not at WOT on them. It's only a problem if you try to do a dig race from the start of the track to try and get a higher mph. Of course it didn't work for me, lol.
Ah hah, okay. You are a madman out there.
I'd love to try it once just to say I did it. Of course it would have to be at a mile or a mile and a half race so it was a controlled environment and so you could get an official trap speed.
That would be an experience for sure, it would probably be a highlight, all your years turning wrenches and such, and go where very few have or will ever go. Is Texas the only place with a mile track? Hear there is some annual event there where people from all over bring their cars here to get crazy fast.
Yeah, GM claims the ZR1 top speed is 205. Top speed for the base model (bone stock of course) is 190 per GM. The Z06 is somewhere in between.
At this event, the stock ZR1 did a best of 157 (from the back of the track) and a new c7 z06 was doing 161 from a similar run (hitting the start cones at about 70 mph instead of the standard 30-40). Nice to know Im faster than both of those.
Very nice indeed, you had to have hurt some ego's,
I think that's part of the benefit to doing it at an airstrip. There aren't any potholes or abrupt changes in pavement heights, the surface is really well maintained. All of the dips and such are very gradual. Any modern sports car would have no issues with stability here. Curious to see how the rat rod model A felt at speed though!!
I was just thinking that dips could be a factor. Perhaps at your speeds they are not threatening. The place in Texas, people get going crazy fast and every now and again the cars go airborne and I thought the dips played a part with the suspension momentarily unloading and the lose control. Could be wrong on that. However you guys are traveling at speeds faster than I will ever go
Yeah, all of the cars here were stock body/chassis. At most the cars here had a roll cage or simple upgrades (subframe connectors, etc). No tube chassis stuff or anything though, they're all street cars. The big power cars are things like alpha gtrs (there was an alpha 10 and 12 at this event), UGR lambos (there have been a few at past events, the big lambo this time was a Dallas Performance build), big single supras, c5/c6/c7 either with a turbo or two or a big blower like a ysi/f1x. So they're generally just highly modified street setups.
Even though the power is up there, I'm sure those Street Outlaws cars would tear any of these cars up in their native 1/8 mile racing. They should be a lot lighter, have big power, and are allowed to run big slicks unlike at this even that is DOT only with 2/32" minimum tread.
Yeah the Street Outlaws and their 1/8th mile blasts are kind of ridiculous, but make for entertaining TV. Your event has to be heaven for the big power car owners and people like you, get to get out and leave te paranoia of the cops at the gate. Happy for you all down there...
That is a big concern here. There is a self tech sheet you're supposed to go through to check everything (brakes, suspension, steering, etc). For the most part, the cars out here are made to do these speeds (albeit not getting there quite so quick).
Where it gets sketchy is when people add their own 'aero' mods and such from the aftermarket. Stuff does certainly come off and break on occasion. The good thing is that's usually easy to spot and clean up. What's worse for the event is having someone blow up and oil down the track. That's a lot harder to fix.
You would hope people adding aerodynamic aftermarket body parts will be understanding of the massive wind shear forces at play and would really fit them well to the car. Like you stated, things do come offI can see how oil would wreck havoc on the track. UGH, long wait time for sure.
Honestly the vette has just been taking up so much of my free mod time. I just got done wrapping it in vinyl which took a ton of time along with all of the body work for the rear widebody fenders.
The monte is next on the list though. Just needs the new fuel pumps put in and a section of both rear brake lines replaced and it should be ready to get back on the road. I did drive it a bit before the fuel pump died and it's definitely a monster. Power feels similar to the vette, but it definitely hits a lot harder being a whipple vs a csc on the vette.
Not sure what it would run in the half as there aren't really any similar setups out here. It should easily be in the same power ballpark as the vette, but certainly it would be a bit slower due to the extra weight, lack of traction, and not being able to go into 4th (not sure if it would even go fast enough to top 3rd in a half mile).