Good 1/8 mile trap, slowish 1/4 mile, also Paxton 3V vs 100 shot FBO 5.0

PaxtonGT05

Junior Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2017
Posts
48
Reaction score
1
Location
Tennessee
Hey all,

So I finally went to the drag strip, just to do some baseline runs with street tires. My mods are Paxton 2200 intercooled at 9 psi tuned by Lito, offroad x pipe, 4.10 gears, and some weight reduction but still heavy 20s.

Not thrilled with the results, however I'm thinking the DA had some to do with it. I calculated a 2200 DA and the calculator corrected my mph to being about 1.5 mph slow compared to standard.

Anyhow, my best trap speed in the 1/4 was 116, and assuming the DA calc was correct that number in ideal situation would be 117.5. Not bad for heavy 20's and stock intake manifold/exhaust manifolds.

However, my 1/8 mile speed was only an 87 as I was spinning terribly.

The odd part, I had another run where I trapped almost 96 mph in the 1/8 which should calculate out to about a 119 mph 1/4 mile, however on this pass I only managed a 114.8 mph by the end of the 1/4. This run I did have a lot less time for the blower to cool... I know with good DA, and a set of light wheels/tires this car can crack 120, if not 121 based off online calculators that I have seen extremely accurate with friends cars. My only guess is with it being about an 80 degree day the car never really cooled down and it was pulling a few degress of timing on the top end? So starting off strong in the 1/8 then losing steam up top possibly. My first run of the day was a 112.9 mph trap in the 1/4 and I was quite angry lol, I am attributing this to not allowing the car to cool from the 1+ hr drive and poor shifting though.

Now per my power:weight the online calcs/DA calcs do confirm that in ideal conditions I would only get about 118, but the 1/8 traps I was pulling today indicated 119+ 1/4 mile traps and that was without any correction factor for DA.


I know I'm rambling a lot about the calculators, but I'm trying to make sense of all this, and I have seen these calculators be very accurate previously.

Edit: Follow up question, I always thought my traction control was turned off in the tune as I can fry 1st and 2nd on the street and no trac control comes on... however I tried to roll the tires over today on the sticky track and the damn trac control came on and the car bogged, same thing then happened on the 1 to 2 shift, I later manually turned it off on the dashboard, then on the way home, the car would light up the tires on first gear rolls without a blip of the trac control coming on... very strange stuff.

Edit 2: Also raced a buddy with a full bolt on auto 5.0 with a 100 shot and drag radials.
That run I ran a 12.5 at 115 mph, and he ran an 11.8 at 121. He was having issues with the track prep so his 60 ft was only 1.9 and I did manage a 2.0 on my all season tires... surprisingly our 1/8 mile trap speeds were identical at 95 mph, then of course he pulled on the top end. But this illustrates what I am talking about, why is this happening? Is that the difference between nitrous running cooler and my possibly heat soaked blower?
 
Last edited:

PaxtonGT05

Junior Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2017
Posts
48
Reaction score
1
Location
Tennessee
Well guys basically answered my own question by doing some more research. Turns out the DA was actually about 3000 yesterday, played around with the hp loss/mph loss from high DA and found that on the 116 trap, the corrected DA would have me at about 118 mph. This shows up in the 1/4 mile calculator as about 480 whp which sounds correct to me for my mods. The 116 trap shows about 445whp... definitely not thrilled with that, but again a bad DA, and the car not being able to cool off enough seem to be the culprit. Need to go back when there's about a 500 DA, I believe on the big 20s it would still trap about 118 in the low 12's. Then with drag wheels/tires and good DA I'm confident it would crack the 120mph mark if not 121, and upper 11's to mid 11's depending on how much balls I'd have at the 60ft lol

Hopefully this info may help someone searching on the internet for similar issues. To me it all makes more sense, I was worried the car was not making any power after the 1/8 mile, and the DA seems to be the culprit of the missing 2-3 mph traps.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that a high DA affects the 1/4 mile trap speeds more than the 1/8 mile trap speeds. My 1/8 traps were on point and would leave one to believe it should pull a 119 1/4 trap, but after the 1/8 is when the mph wasn't there, my guess is the DA affects the back half MPH more due to obviously needing more HP the faster you go.
 

RED09GT

Equal Opportunity Offender
S197 Team Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Posts
2,630
Reaction score
488
Location
Kelowna, B.C. Canada
It is probably the combination of heat soak and DA that affects the back half more than the first half.

Best way to tell for sure would be to data log a full pass. Get out there and keep practicing.
 

PaxtonGT05

Junior Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2017
Posts
48
Reaction score
1
Location
Tennessee
It is probably the combination of heat soak and DA that affects the back half more than the first half.

Best way to tell for sure would be to data log a full pass. Get out there and keep practicing.

That's what I came to the conclusion of. And I agree more practice will help as well .
 

46addict

13726548
Joined
Aug 25, 2016
Posts
1,832
Reaction score
56
Location
Lawrenceville, GA
I think 430-450whp is more realistic on a 9psi car with stock manifolds, so those 115-118 trap speeds seem right. Also a full bolt on + nitrous 5.0 should be putting down 480+ so his higher trap speeds make sense.

Keep in mind your trap speeds may go down further with better traction, with a reduction in ET. The surefire way to trap higher is to add power and/or reduce weight.
 

PaxtonGT05

Junior Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2017
Posts
48
Reaction score
1
Location
Tennessee
I think 430-450whp is more realistic on a 9psi car with stock manifolds, so those 115-118 trap speeds seem right. Also a full bolt on + nitrous 5.0 should be putting down 480+ so his higher trap speeds make sense.

Keep in mind your trap speeds may go down further with better traction, with a reduction in ET. The surefire way to trap higher is to add power and/or reduce weight.

Yes I think you are right. With the heavy wheels and bad DA I may have only been putting down 430whp. Hopefully with good DA and drag wheels/tires should bump me up to 470whp or so .
 

PaxtonGT05

Junior Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2017
Posts
48
Reaction score
1
Location
Tennessee
And/Or revving a little higher to try to hit 10psi could gain a little. I think I was shifting around 6100 but the limiter is actually around 6350 or so.
 

Latest posts

Support us!

Support Us - Become A Supporting Member Today!

Click Here For Details

Sponsor Links

Banner image
Back
Top