Who's Going To ECTA in October?

[DanStokes]

I charge you guys to have fun for me, too. It's so bad here that I'm cleaning up the shop (needed).

Dan

[Red_Kitty]

So the October event was the busiest one i have been to so far. Apparently a total of about 100 vehicles in total took part, and about 750 runs. Unfortunately I think there were only a couple of entries for the "Flathead 1/2 Mile" event.

I would estimate the mix was about 65% late model street and non street cars (partly due to the cancellation of this year's Texas Mile), 25% bikes and 10% traditional LSR cars like the Pigasus Racing Sport Coupe, the Grand Torino Talladega etc.

Friday was a late start as there was a charter jet that needed to fly out first thing in the morning, so the course couldn't be set up until after then, so first car down the track was about noon. With so many vehicles there the lines were quite long, so I only got 3 runs in on Friday PM. Conditions were good, cool and a light tailwind straight down the track. Due to the late start, we raced until almost sundown - around 7pm.

Saturday we got going around 8:30am and again the weather was cool, but this time with a light headwind down the track which dropped speeds a few mph from Friday. By mid day the lines were gone and the wait was maybe 10-15 minutes to run. Last run of the day was about 6.30pm, by which time the wind had dropped off and it was fairly still.

Sunday had the best conditions of the weekend - about 50 degrees in the morning and an 8mph tailwind, so many best times were set on Sunday. Sunday afternoon became the Tom Schaefer show, with Tom making over 70 passes on Sunday on a variety of bikes.

Overall, despite being October the weather held out - no weather delays or rain, and the cooler weather helped with faster runs than the summer.

Fastest car of the weekend was Mike Weiler in AA/BFCC at 248.482 in the 1.25 miles I believe, and fastest bike was Chris Burns at 246.778 in the mile.

My Corvette ran a little faster than the Hellcat in similar conditions despite being down 125whp (due to 1100lbs less weight and better aero), setting new records in MS/8 at 158.2mph in the 1/2 mile and 184.6mph in the mile. At 1.25 miles it ran a best of 192.2mph. Next goal is 200mph, which will require some motor and safety equipment upgrades - planned for next winter.

[Red_Kitty]

And a few more pics from the finish line:

[pdub]

I'll be there in the spring with Red plus roll bar to run the 1.25 and see if he's got another 1 mph in him.

[studemax]

I KNEW Peewee couldn't stay away. If I'm well by then - maybe I'll attempt a ride down there.

[Red_Kitty]

I'll be there in the spring with Red plus roll bar to run the 1.25 and see if he's got another 1 mph in him.

Most cars are picking up 5-10mph between the mile and 1.25 miles, unless they have run out of gearing already. My Hellcat in 500bhp Eco mode picked up almost 9mph, and even Lon's 130bhp Neon picks up about 4mph. So there could be a 155+mph run out there for Red.

[DanStokes]

I'm hoping to make the Spring meet next year though Dave G is trying to get me to go to Maine. We'll see what works out.

Dan

[pdub]

So there could be a 155+mph run out there for Red.

May be, we'll see. Crude math says the 1.25 run will give him about another 5 seconds in the throttle. Somewhere out there is when horsepower, excessive mass and (lack of) aero reaches terminal speed. I don't think it's exactly at a mile but it'll depend on which way the wind's blowing .

[Red_Kitty]

pdub I'm thinking about bringing my Ford Focus track car to the next event in April. It's currently limited to 112mph though. How did you bypass that on Bluebelle? A tune, or just unplug the vehicle speed sensor on the transmission output shaft?

[pdub]

pdub I'm thinking about bringing my Ford Focus track car to the next event in April. It's currently limited to 112mph though. How did you bypass that on Bluebelle? A tune, or just unplug the vehicle speed sensor on the transmission output shaft?

If you run the Focus multiple times down the track you'll find that the Ford limiter is actually set to 111.8. Lohnes was calling the race on the radio while I was doing that over and over and he said, "If we were bracket racing, this guy would own it."

I got a tuner for Bluebelle.



I told her to turn off the speed limiter, shift hard and burn 93 octane. That was good for 131 instead of 111.8.

Then I got the CAI for her and wanted to tune it to get the most out of that and try it again. Man, was that ever a mistake. It would barely crank and was running in "emergency" mode. Dyno Man couldn't fix it with the computers he had, he sent me to the dealership where they re-flashed the computer to factory tune. Wow I had already promised to buy Unit a new car because I messed that one up so bad just f-ing with it trying to make it go faster. The CAI is still on there, the factory tune will remain forever.

[Red_Kitty]

Say, do you still happen to have that tuner? Do you use it for Red?

[Red_Kitty]

Tim Vath and I found out that the limiter on his Honda truck is at 110.701mph in July - the "Hunt Brothers Special" hit the same speed 3 runs in a row:

[pdub]

Say, do you still happen to have that tuner? Do you use it for Red?

I'll mail it to you but I don't know what (your Focus?) it'll work on. It's got bought tunes loaded on it that are specific to the 3.0L Fusion and you'll have to have you or somebody clear Bluebelle's VIN number out of it before it'll light up. Or should I keep it to read her codes with?

[Red_Kitty]

I'll mail it to you but I don't know what (your Focus?) it'll work on. It's got bought tunes loaded on it that are specific to the 3.0L Fusion and you'll have to have you or somebody clear Bluebelle's VIN number out of it before it'll light up. Or should I keep it to read her codes with?

Hi pdub

More research suggests it won't be useful because SCT doesn't have canned tunes available for my year Focus, so I would need a custom tune anyway it looks like - e.g. from Steeda.

[studemax]

Tim Vath and I found out that the limiter on his Honda truck is at 110.701mph in July - the "Hunt Brothers Special" hit the same speed 3 runs in a row:

Was he running time only? I thought you couldn't block off the grille....