Crushed a Firebird @ Atco Raceway

[JET]

ATCO RACEWAY
SATURDAY JUNE 28, 2003

1ST RUN AT 2:32PM (ABOUT 90 DEGREES & BRIGHT SUNLIGHT)

LEFT LANE: 1326 '91 FIREBIRD W/ A 383 SMALL BLOCK CHEVY TUNED FOR THE TRACK.

RIGHT LANE: 7293 (ME) '03 MARAUDER W/ REINHART CHIP, 180 STAT, MOTORCRAFT PLUGS & 4.10 REAR. BY MISTAKE I LEFT THE OVERDRIVE ON.

---------LEFT-----RIGHT
CAR #--1326-----7293 (MARAUDER2306)
R/T------.170-----.152
60'-----3.015----2.223
330'----7.656----6.364
1/8----11.043----9.679
MPH----73.00-----74.72
990'---13.855---12.444
1/4----16.368---14.954
MPH----93.03-----93.03

RIGHT 1ST 1.4324
COMOULINK AUTOSTART ON!!
BOTH LANES STAGED @ STARTER GO
RND # TO 157/156

I SPOKE TO THE FIREBIRD OWNER AFTER I CRUSHED HIM. HE SAID HIS CAR COULD DO A 12.5 ¼ MILE. HE BLAMED HIS POOR RUN ON STREET TIRES. WELL I WAS RUNNING STREET TIRES TOO. DESPITE MY OWN SELF-GLOATING THERE IS NO WAY I SHOULD HAVE BEATEN HIM BUT I DID.

2ND RUN AT 4:23PM (ABOUT 87-90 DEGREES & SLIGHT OVERCAST)

LEFT LANE: 7293 (ME) '03 MARAUDER W/ REINHART CHIP, 180 STAT, MOTORCRAFT PLUGS & 4.10 REAR. OVERDRIVE OFF.

RIGHT LANE: 3180 '98? BUICK ROADEMASTER WAGON WITH THE LTI ENGINE. NOT REALLY SURE OF THE NAME OF THE CAR BUT IT DID HAVE AN LT1 (THE CORVETTE MOTOR, I THINK IT'S CALLED AN LT1)

--------LEFT-------RIGHT
CAR #--7293------3180
R/T----(-.132)-----.102
60'-----2.302----2.505
33'----6.351--- -6.971
1/8----9.617---10.617
MPH---75.64----67.52
990'--12.349---13.646
1/4---14.828---16.340
MPH---94.07----86.79

LEFT 1ST 1.7468
COMOULINK AUTOSTART ON!!
BOTH LANES STAGED @ STARTER GO
RND # TO 372/373

I RED LIGHTED TRYING TO IMPROVE ON R/T BUT SINCE WE WERE JUST RUNNING TIMES I FIGURED I TRY TO GO ON THE SECOND TO LAST YELLOW. WON'T BE TRYING THAT AGAIN. MY FRIEND WAS RUNNING THE WAGON. HE USED TO RACE IT IN A POINTS SERIES A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO.

THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME I'VE EVER RACED ON A TRACK AND IT WAS A BLAST. I NEVER REALLY FOLLOWED DRAG RACING SO I WAS CLUELESS UNTIL WE GOT THERE. I WILL DEFINETLY BE GOING BACK. I DID NOT DEEP STAGE.

* I WOULD HAVE SCANNED THE SLIPS AND POSTED THEM BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO AND REALLY DON'T FEEL LIKE FIGURING IT NOW. I COPIED ALL INFORMATION OFF THE SLIPS THAT I FELT PERTINENT. THERE WAS NO READING FOR TEMP, HUMIDITY OR BAROMETER AND THE DATE WAS INCORRECT.

[jgc61sr2002]

marauder2306 - Congrats - Nice runs and good #'s.:up:

[TripleTransAm]

Great job, Marauder2306!!!

On your run against the 383, looks like you were all over him by the time you guys hit the 60' mark!!! Your 60' time is pretty good, too... I have a hard time getting any better than a 2.2-2.3 second 60' time on my WS6 when it pulls a 13.4 second run. My GTA has managed a 2.0 60' once, but that was only a 15.6 second run.

Looking at mr. 383's slip, a 3 second 60' time is pretty pathetic anyway you slice it. Either his 383 is sick as a dog or he really did have traction problems - all the way down the track! Doesn't matter, though... having the power's no use if you can't lay it down!

Did you catch his name? Maybe I know him online... would be fun to publicly broadcast that one of our MMs put a hurting on him.

Again, great job, sounds like you're hooked on this! Keep us posted on how you whittle those times down as you improve your technique!

[JET]

Thanks Triple,
He said he major problems with his grip but I still don't understand how he couldn't catch up to me at any point in the time trial. I felt kind of bad, he had his girlfriend with him. She was hot so he's not doing that bad.

Yes I did catch his name and forgot it as soon as he said it but he seemed like a real nice guy and I'm sure once he figures out how to make the tires stick he'll be fine.

[Bigdogjim]

Good job 2603! Were you the MM at the track? Remember it only gets better.

[BillyGman]

missing something here. I find it hard to believe that this guy only ran a slow 16 second quarter w/a 383 stroker motor under the hood. I'm not saying that you're not truthfull, but just that he must have been running highway gears like 2.73's or 3.27's in the rear end. It has to be either that, or he just sat there spinning his tires momentarily at the launch due to the extra torque of the stroker motor. Especially if he had poor tires. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Marauder fan too. After all, I happen to own one. But if this guy is running any kind of decent gears for the track like 3.70's, 4.10's, or 4.56's, then I'm sure that his car is capable of 12.5 ET's just like he said. Sure you have street tires too, but your street tires are 18" diameter. What diameter tire was he running? I'm sure it wasn't 18" tires. If he had only 15" tires, then that's a big difference. An 18" tire has a much bigger contact patch than a 15" tire does(provided they were about the same width). That 383 stroker motor produces a whole lot more power than our small 281 cubic inch Marauder motors do, unless your car is supercharged. Which I know it isn't if you're getting ET's in the mid 14's. And because the 383 produces a lot more torque especially off the line than the 4.6L motor does, it's much more crucial to good ET's for that guy to have some serious rubber on his car than it would be for us MM owners. So I think that what he told you about 12.5 second ET's is NOT a crock at all......

[TripleTransAm]

Originally posted by BillyGman
So I think that what he told you about 12.5 second ET's is NOT a crock at all......


A 12.5 second car is only a 12.5 second car if it runs 12.5 seconds. Tires are an important part of the drivetrain, so if he can't put the power to the ground, it doesn't matter if he's got enough power to suck the Sears Tower off its base, he still got his clock cleaned by a naturally-aspirated Marauder. By the same token, I've been told my WS6 *should* be nudging the high 12s, considering the MPH in the 1/4. But I haven't been able to nurse her to better than 13.4, thanks to my wheelspin off the line. And so I can't claim, in good conscience, to have a 12 second car, can I?

Any disputing this is kind of like the ricers sticking to their arguments that they have more hp per liter than us V8'ers... after repeatedly having their rear ends handed to them on a silver platter.

I noticed identical MPH between marauder2306's run and mr. 383's. Maybe that's a typo, but if it isn't then it's clear that a 16 second 1/4 mile time does not traditionally match up to a 93 mph trap speed. That shows either a really sick drivetrain off the line, or tons of wheelspin all the way down the 1/4. Either way, he lost.

A good running 383 TPI (I'm assuming he's running the Tuned Port Injection top end) should be good for 13s. His trap speed should be a few mph higher, maybe 98-100? I can see a little being lost in wheelspin, maybe he's got some tuning left to do (once you get to that big an engine size, you've gotta start playing with the ECM tables, no other choice!).

One of our local F-guys has a cherry 1989 Iroc 305 TPI 5-speed that's been modified in a very intelligent fashion (engine was never opened up). His weak link was the tires... spinning through 1st, 2nd and partway through 3rd, he mustered a mid 15 second 1/4 mile time, at 96+ mph!!!!

All this to say that we can bench-race all we want but the reality is that marauder2306 won the race fair and square... his MM put down the numbers and took the win home with him.

[JET]

Gman,
It was the first time I ever raced a 1/4 on a track. The last thing I was worrying about was the car to my left. I only noticed him when I looking at the officials, who told me put my windows up, pull up, stop & shook their heads when I over smoked my street tires before I got to the line. I felt like I was butt naked out there and by luck I hit the pedal on the last yellow and ended up with a .152 R/T. I did nothing but look forward once I hit the pedal. Once we had lined up for our second run I walked down the line and saw a firebird, I ask him if he raced me and he ask me what I was driving. Well since I was the only Marauder there it was obviouly me. His car was very clean, well painted and his engine looked cool. I asked him what happened and he said he was sliding all over the place. Looking at his engine it obvious that it wasn't the one that the came with the car. I ask him what it was & the year of the body then I ran back to my car, gigling like a little girl, to write it down just in case I forgot it. I left right after my second run so I didn't get a chance to see how he made out but I hope he did good, I felt bad for him. I doubt he ran home and posted on his favorite site that he got his ass kicked by a MM.
*Gears- no clue what he was running
**Spinning tires at launch- I have clue but I would assume his R/T would have been worse had he spun them that much at the line but again I don't know jack about drag racing.
***His tire size- no clue and I also have no clue what a difference it would make.
****I have no reason not belive him when he tells me he should a 12.5 I was more amazed that he could run 16. Again We were running time trials, eliminations started after I left and I sure being a new racer I would have gotten killed but then again I did crush a 12 second firebird with a strocker.

Gman- Did you ever complete the Reinhard Stage 1 package? What do you think of the chip?

[JET]

Triple,
The times I posted read the exact same way they do on the slip. We were both doing 93.03 MPH when we crossed the line.

[TripleTransAm]

Originally posted by marauder2306

**Spinning tires at launch- I have clue but I would assume his R/T would have been worse had he spun them that much at the line but again I don't know jack about drag racing.
***His tire size- no clue and I also have no clue what a difference it would make.

Tire spin normally shouldn't affect reaction time, as far as I know. By the time you stage properly, you're fairly close to the starting light beam (the one that trips the clocks).

For tire spin to affect reaction time, he would have had to be spinning in place (*completely motion-less*) once he hammered it. If you've ever tried alternating between deep and shallow staging (staging close to the second staging light beam versus just after the first beam), you'll see there isn't a whole lot of room to play with. What are the chances a car will sit without ANY sort of movement once he hammers it?

Similarly, a 12.5 second car needs a good tire, both in tire width and compound. Running such a strong car on tires that had him all over the place wasn't such a smart thing... if he was there trying to iron out his combination, I'm sure he didn't get very far. With crappy tires like the ones he had, he could run each 1/4 absolutely identically, and get wildly varying times. Again, a waste of his time. And if he's run his car to a best of 12.5 so far, I'm sure he's aware of why a good tire is important. I'm sure he didn't just run a 12.5 by luck on a pair of really good tires ($$$) he just happened to borrow and then expect the same thing on his slip-sliders.

All this put together, I'm thinking he was bs'ing a little. I don't think he's run a 12.5 (12.5 in a 3rd gen Firebird takes a LOT of attention to detail and a LOT of power).

edit: ... I say this in no way to downplay your excellent performance, by the way. You still took him to the cleaners, even though he matched you MPH-wise...

[BillyGman]

no I haven't installed the chip from Dennis yet. The UPS driver came to deliver it along w/the plugs and thermostat on Friday, but I missed the guy. I didn't even expect him since Dennis had previously told me that he wasn't sending it yet(long story). But anyway, I expect to catch the UPS driver tomorrow. I'll probably install it next weekend cuz I'll have plenty of time then. I was going to go to the Dyno before and after I installed the chip from Dennis, but that was when I thought that I only needed the chip since I've already installed the 4.10 gears in the car myself. But after calling Dennis up, he said that I should get the plugs and stat also, and the money I spent for the plugs was the money I needed for the Dyno. Besides, now that I installed the gears, the Transmission shift points are off so if I keep the accelerator hammered, the engine goes well into the redline. NOT good. So I don't know if I'd be able to get an accurate reading at the Dyno anyway before I install the chip, because I don't want to take the engine to 6400RPM's anymore. So at the Dyno I'd have to watch the Tach and let off the gas a llittle as soon as it gets to 6100 RPM's.
As far as your experience at the drags, hey, more power to ya. I wasn't putting you or your car down at all. I give you credit for taking it to the drags, and also posting your results on here. I just think that there has to be something not right w/that guy's gear selection, tires, or maybe even something else in the drivetrain like TTA indicated, cuz those 383 strokers put out more power than our engines do in our MM's unless we supercharge them.

[martyo]

BillyG: Where were/are you going to dyno your car?

[BillyGman]

going to Dyno it, but it might have to be done only AFTER I install the chip, plugs, and stat. There's a place in Milford which is close to where I live, and another one in Bridgeport, which isn't all that far away either. I can usually get a couple runs w/out any waiting or an appointment if I go on a weekday. I've run my 73 Vette on the Dyno several times before. Why do you ask???