^ at what HP would you say line lock becomes necessary?
My joke was the the new Stangs come with 420 at the crank, that you buy the line lock first.
Actually, all kidding aside, IMHO, I don't have the patience to learn how to get a burnout, plus I've not run into anybody at the track that I would feel comfortable about giving me some coaching. As my linked video indicates, getting a John Force burnout in both my 05 GTO and 09 G8 GXP wasn't a problem at all. Now why did I need a John Force burnout on drag radials?
Let's go back to 12/3/2006 (
http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2002434&postcount=1) and it was a cold night with great DA of around -1500. I was having all sorts of problems getting in a good run. One of my buddies who I really respect basically told me to quit f***ing around and do a good burnout. This was an 2005 auto GTO with bolt ons including a 3200 stall and Nitto 555R drag radials. I hooked like a mofo and beat my best ever time by about a tenth.
Since then, I've always been a big believer in getting a really good burnout on drag radials. I may be in the learning curve with the manual Mustang, but on at least 2 occasions my GTO was the fastest bolt on, and my G8 GXP was also the fastest bolt on. This isn't to brag or get involved in a pissing contest, but to show that getting a great burn out to heat up the drag radials has always paid off for me.
...........and at this point in owning my car, around 4 months and 4,000 miles, as far as racing goes I'm still in the learning stages. IMHO spending the $200 for the line lock and $150-200 for the install allows me to heat up the tires in a quick and simple manner. I've also talked to a couple of young guys who were having the same exact problem I was having and they will possibly buy a line lock each. After I get the drag radials, what good is it to have them if I can't heat them properly? The line lock makes this far easier to do. It's also embarrassing to get to the staging lanes and look like some sort of newbie racing wannabe trying to do a good burnout.
Then again, here is a funny story about some brake 'problems' I had one night.
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So, I needed a small allen wrench as I had broken one of mine. Before going to the local Home Depot, I put the old allen wrench in the cup holders and head on out. Since the allen wrench was one of the smaller sizes, I had to wrestle in the cup holder to finally get the old allen wrench out.
I found what I was looking for and got in the car to drive off. I noticed a bit of hesitation as I was backing up, and as I was leaving the lot, I noticed I had to use quite a bit of gas to get moving.
Heading out of the lot and on to a toll road feeder, it felt like the brakes were stuck. I finally made it to the nearest light, about a block or two away, and I could not move forward.
Try as I might, the car just wouldn't move. I turned the motor off and back on, still nothing. The light turned green and the car wouldn't move, and the tires started burning rubber, like I would at the track.
Sometimes it pays to hide the line lock switch better than I did on this car...............
Well........................that won't happen again.