Skwerl's first hot rod

[Timmbo]

Slips are looking great Brian. High five man!

 

[GallopingFord]

Great numbers Brian!

 

[FIVE-OH]

I think I saw you at OSW tonight. Went over to say hi after I made a pass, but I think you left LOL. If that was your car, it looks and sounds awesome!

 

[skwerl]

Thanks. The car didn't seem to be running right compared to Friday night even though I didn't change anything. My trap speed was down almost 10mph so I loaded it up and came home instead of beating on it with a potential issue. I was out of there by 8pm.

 

[429244]

Yesterday I drove my car down to Sunoco to get some more race gas after switching wheels. My Hoosiers are spooky as hell at speed and not very stable at all. Also, a friend with a fox body Mustang just bought the MT ET Street Radial Pro tires and knocked 3/10 off his best time the first night out. I'm running out of rpm at the top end and due to step up to a bigger diameter tire anyway. This is a list of excuses why I just bought 2 new tires from AM. Hopefully I'll get them and have them on the car by next weekend.

If you are not driving the car home, why don't you just get regular racing slicks instead of drag radials?

 

[skwerl]

Everything I've seen to date tells me the radials will be faster for me.

Been busy this morning working on exhaust. Out with the old and in with the new.

On the driver's side I had to clearance the T56 bell housing (which is freaking huge). I really didn't want to dent the pipes.

While I had the exhaust open I took a couple pictures inside the exhaust port to see what it looked like in there. Everything looks good!

I'm off to get some lunch and will continue with the passenger side later this afternoon.

 

[07TGGT]

Aren't Radials better for MT cars anyways? I've read nothing but slicks are good for autos, not manuals.

 

[FIVE-OH]

Aren't Radials better for MT cars anyways? I've read nothing but slicks are good for autos, not manuals.

Depends on the particular car and chassis set-up.

 

[Weou09]

Aren't Radials better for MT cars anyways? I've read nothing but slicks are good for autos, not manuals.

That is completely backwards. Radials are harder and do not take the shock that a stick car produces like a slick can. Your ETs might improve only if you can keep your 60' reasonable.

 

[555]

Nice numbers Brian, I see you're finally gonna let that baby breathe with the addition headers. Good luck... Gonna need a cage soon LoL

 

[Scott]

LT's are looking good, best of luck with the passenger side!

 

[stkjock]

Aren't Radials better for MT cars anyways? I've read nothing but slicks are good for autos, not manuals.

That is completely backwards. Radials are harder and do not take the shock that a stick car produces like a slick can. Your ETs might improve only if you can keep your 60' reasonable.

/\ this

 

[skwerl]

The new 275 Pro radials hook better than anything else out there according to every single person who has used them. The sidewalls have a lot more give than the regular ET Street radials so I think that will work for me.

Just got in from working on the car and calling it quits for the night. Passenger side went in fine after I took off the K member brace and loosened up the AC compressor so I could slide the pipe past an AC line. Got my H pipe installed, resonators installed and the tail pipes are cut to length. Everything up front is put back together and I could fire up the car now if I wanted to. Tomorrow after work I have to unbolt the mufflers so I can move the tail pipes back far enough to slip them into the resonators, then bolt everything back up. My camera is still under the car so no more pics until tomorrow. My hip simply won't allow me to crawl under the car one more time tonight.

 

[WARstang]

Great times!

 

[golkhl]

With the new tires and new headers, I think you will run a new best of 10.1@138! Car is an absolute beast skwerl.

 

[07TGGT]

That is completely backwards. Radials are harder and do not take the shock that a stick car produces like a slick can. Your ETs might improve only if you can keep your 60' reasonable.

Well, isn't that what we try to do? Improve our ETs...

Maybe my dyslexia is kicking in, cause I coulda swore I've read that Radials are better for manual cars. Guess I'm wrong.

 

[skwerl]

Ryan, radials are typically recommended for automatics only because the shock loading from dumping the clutch is often too hard for the less flexible sidewalls. Standards with radials often end up spinning a lot or breaking axle parts. However the new MT 275 pro radial has a lot more flexible sidewall. This tire seems to be rewriting the rules as far as what works and what doesn't.

The other reason I wanted to go back to a radial is because the bias plies are so damn wobbly on the top end. As I get faster it keeps getting scarier and I don't want to wreck my car because my tires can't handle the speed or react properly to steering wheel input.

 

[skwerl]

OK, I went out and retrieved my camera from under the car. You can see just how much room there is to work with the BMR K member.

Some shots of where it stands now. Cam's OCD will probably start acting up because there isn't enough frame clearance to turn the clamps and tuck them up out of sight and the resonators had to go in at an angle to clear the driveshaft, floor pan and each other. I had to grind off some of the metal box holding the emergency brake cables as well.

I used the 'clamp trick' to mark my line on the pipes and cut them square. Worked great! Tomorrow the tail pipes will get finished up and I'll see how it sounds.

 

[vnmous1]

Do tell.... What was Jakes counsel to you?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[skwerl]

Just to feather the clutch a little and get some resistance so I can start building boost sooner. First time I tried it I redlighted.