Not really a War Story, but....

RockyMtnTitan · 10-05-2005, 11:24 PM

How sad....last night for running at Bandimere Speedway this year. Note to self...."never go to the track on the final Test and Tune night of the season"! Must've been 300-400 vehicles running tonight. Still managed to get 3 runs in, though.

Saw an early 70's Camaro slam 2 walls after he lost traction. He was staged in the left lane....took off and then it squirted out from under him about 1/3 of the way down the track, cut clear across both lanes, cutting in front of a Cobra Mustang (barely missing him!), slammed into the right wall, cut across again slamming the left wall. Totalled the car... and the guy was hurt...but not sure how bad. They hauled him off in an ambulance. That shut the track down for the rest of the night...what a way to finish the season!

My best time was a 16.14 @ 85 mph. This corrects to 14.97 at sea level. To show you how good of a time this is (remember the track elevation is 5,800'), here's how some other trucks ran tonight.

'01/'02 Dodge Dakota R/T (2WD, Ext Cab, 5.9L) 16.92 sec
'04/'05 Dodge 2500 CTD (Stock) 16.8 sec
Late 90's Chev (Exh/Intake/Chip) 18.2 sec
'03 F150 Harley Davidson CC (Stock-5.4L SC Lightning motor) 15.85 sec
'04 Ram SRT Viper 13.4 sec
(Empty: This space is for the Hemi's that never show up!)

I ran the F150 HD (SC'd) my first run and almost beat him because of my better reaction of the line. He didn't catch me until the very end and beat me by 1/2 length. His ET was .4 better than mine (16.24 for me on that run). I talked to this guy after the race....he was very impressed with the times I was running....couldn't believe I only had intake/exhaust. I would've traded him trucks in a hearbeat, though...that is one sweet truck.

My best ET this year out of 5 trips to the track was a 16.12. I was really hoping to pop into the high 15's tonight...but just wasn't gonna happen. Also, I always run street trim....I don't remove any weight...drop tailgate, etc. I usually run premium w/ 1/8-1/4 tank, but tonight I had almost 1/2 tank of mid-grade (87) instead. I think 1/8 tank of premium would've got me at least another .10 sec.

Now..I've got to wait until April for the track to re-open.

**goathead** · 10-06-2005, 05:21 AM

nice story rocky....

buzzkillwill · 10-06-2005, 05:36 AM

Good story!

Sorry to hear about the Camaro driver-poor guy.

It sounds like you have your truck dialed in pretty good! You should come down closer to sea level, like us normal air breathing creatures, and see how it runs!

Thanks again for sharing...

moparmanjames · 10-06-2005, 09:14 AM

Nice runs! What was the weather like? Temperature, Humidity, Barometric Pressure?
You may be able to use the density altitude factor to get a more accurate sea level time conversion.

RockyMtnTitan · 10-06-2005, 09:25 AM

James...weather was at 53 deg/30%RH/24.9(?) Baro. The Baro reference the track uses always seems to read too low, though, which puts the DA higher than actual. I've used on-line DA calculators to figure the density, but how do I use that info to more accurately convert my ET's to a SAE "standard day"? I usually just use the NHRA altitude conversion for our track, which is a .9276 factor, which I'm guessing only accounts for density change due to elevation w/o taking into consideration the weather?

Thanks!

moparmanjames · 10-06-2005, 10:02 AM

Well, since you already know how to find the density altitude, the only thing I can recommend is checking your local weather and getting the correct barometric pressure for your calc.
The NHRA conversion factor is only good for the same temperature at sea level, I cannot find a "standard day" calc. One would think they could derive one from the e.t. info along with the weight of the vehicle, which would give them a rough HP estimate, and then they could use that for a sea level pass at 29.2hg at 60F with ?humidity.