My race.

[team39763]

I got a copy of the video, but for some reason it won't come up on my computer.  So I asked my wife to take a video of it with her camera phone.  I know it looks crappy, but you can still see what happened.
  This was the first race against the BBC Camaro.  He has a 468, high compression, huge solid roller cam, ported heads, 1050 Dominator, drag radials, tci 4500 stall, 3.90 gears.  He'd been telling me for months how fast his car was and how he would smoke me if we raced.  My reply was "no kidding, it's a truck...you should win anyways".  I honestly didn't want to race him because I thought I was gonna get embarassed in front of all my family and neighbors.  If you listen closely you can here me bounce off the rev limiter in 2nd(so nervous I forgot to shift to 3rd for a sec), then I hit the brakes before the finish line.  It usually takes me a few races to work out my jitters and get focused.  I ran 12.0 in this race while my buddy ran 12.6.


This second race was against a Saleen Mustang.  He beat my neighbor's 81 C10 with the built 406(which everybody used to say would have smoked me bad)....well this mustang beat him by 2 or more cars.  Anyway, my neighbor called me and asked if I would race him.  Everybody that was hanging out with me looked worried when I took this race.  I wasn't sure what to expect, I just knew the car was fast.

[Blazin]

Sweet!!!

[fitz]

   I hear you about how it takes a few races to get back into the grove of things. The first time I raced my current 69 camaro ( runs 13.10's) it had been a few years since I was racing with my 86 and 92 vettes. It was embarrassing how bad I was staging the car the first time out.
  Haven't been to the track (New England Dragway) in a few years but hopefully this year I can make it happen. A 12.99 timeslip would make my day.

[SUX2BU99]

Dude, you SPANKED those guys! Your truck I'm sure by now is making quite the name for itself. It's funny how the big shots make excuses right away when they get beat. Sounds like high school, or elementary school!

[Jeff]

You showed them "actions are louder than words".  Keep on truckin'!!!

[smitty77]

One of my faculty advisors in college was a huge gearhead.  He ran the shop where the mechanical engineering students built the yearly Formula-SAE racecar.  (He's the older gentleman standing on the right side of the first photo in a red shirt and jeans - R.I.P Bobby.)  Whenever talk of HP, speed, and performance came up he used to always say:  "Guys, it's all just 'talk' until you can back it up with a time-slip."  He raced at New England Dragway more than a time or two - he kept some of the patches he earned on display on a corkboard in his office.  The 100mph patch always caught my eye.

Nice work toasting the competition.  Like I said before - HP don't mean diddly if you can't put it to the pavement.  Sounds like you have the traction dialed-in on that truck.

[team39763]

Thanks for the comments guys.  I plan to take the truck to the real track next week.  I'm looking to get it in the 11.2 or 11.3 range, then do little tweaks to get it into the 10.9 range on the next trip.  It's been raining a lot lately, so I haven't been able to get out there and do the little things I need to get done before we take off wednesday.  I was told by a buddy that they will stop me if I run near 11.6 at that track and tell me to get a roll bar.  I know it's a safety thing, but I'm not looking forward to it.  If I put in a rollbar, I'm gonna have to do some weight reduction to offset the weight of the cage...and that's gonna cost me more $$$. 

[SUX2BU99]

^ That's right. I believe the rule is a vehicle running under 12.00 requires a 4 pt. roll bar. For convertibles it's under 14.00. That's quite an atiquated rule though since a number of factory convertibles can now run under 14.00 and a few bone stock cars can now run under 12.00 (that's just scary) and they don't require the roll bars since they are stock. Our local NHRA track operates that way anyway. My buddies Viper has ran a best of 12.3 so far and they don't hassle him since the car is stock. You may or may not get past tech inspection since your truck certainly does look like a race-only truck. They might not think that your truck runs as fast as it does and gets past the roll bar requirement but once you crack off a mid-11 second pass, they could kick you off the track and say you can't race anymore at that track until the roll bar is put in.

[team39763]

That's what I'm worried about.  I'm now planning to make a few 1/8 mile passes until I get a time slip that indicates a possible mid-low 11 second 1/4mile time.  I think I need a 7.1-7.3 1/8mile time to get me in the range I'm happy with.  Then for my last run of the day, I'll run the full 1/4mile.  I really can't afford a rollbar and all the little things that go along with it.  If I do put rollbar, I'm also gonna tub the bed the right way.

[treestandjunkie]

That is one BAAAAADDD truck!!! And to think you built it yourself!! AWESOME!!!

[HAULIN IT]

Way to go! I guess you got your starting line problems sorted out...moving right along. What kind of weight have you got it down to? Lorne

[team39763]

I went to weigh it today, but the ticket they gave me was the wrong one, so I have to go back tomorrow to weigh it again.  One guy who saw me roll across the scale said he saw about 1800 for the frontend weight.
  I need to iron out some kinks with the motor I think.  If the truck is as light as I hope it is, it should be moving a lot faster(assuming I have as much motor as I think I do).  I definately have a transmission problem, 3rd gear is slowing me down...feels like I'm hitting the brakes.  I thought I had it fixed, but I guess not.

EDIT: 3240 RW

[team39763]

I forgot I had these other crappy vids.
Here's the end of the first race from my wife's point of view.


Here's a closer version of the Saleen race


CaptKaos, sorry about the language in post #1, it won't happen again.

[69byrd]

Its always nice to see a truck move like that! Great job!!!!

[malibu795]

11.49 is cage requirement last time i checked