I’m sad to report that the stars did not align. My car was ready, but I wasn’t. As I envisioned my quarter mile time I forgot one critical element: I don’t know how to drive. The realization hurts the ego a bit, but this epiphany is a critical first step toward achieving my goal. I was able to do three runs (I’m car 117):

Anyone who bothers to look at these slips will find a common theme. My 60′ time is pretty bad. Poor launching technique resulted in loss of traction and bogging. I really should have practiced more but I was under the mistaken impression my tires would stick to the track like glue no matter how badly I launched. Operating under this false notion caused severe wheel spin anywhere north of 3000 RPMs. Overcompensation resulted in the car bogging as the RPMs dropped too low. Any 60′ time of 2.00 or less would have landed me in the 11’s.

I was a little surprised to discover that my trap speed was consistently around 121 mph, compared to 131 mph two years ago. Of course two years ago one of my boost reference hoses had fallen off and the car was boosting to 11 pounds in 2nd and 13 pounds in 3rd gear (making it wickedly fast). I still think the car could dip into the 10’s with the current tune though (but not with me driving it).  Next year I’ll hit a few of the test and tunes and try and refine my launch.

Potsted by Cam, October 8, 2011