So we had a little group outing to US41 Dragway last night. Myself, with my brother and his wife with my W-31. My friend Ed (who I've planted the seed about taking a car to PSMCDR) and his 10yo gear head son Kyle with an 02 Mustang GT convertible. Another friend Dave and his gear head son Mike. Son's car is an 85 Cutlass with a 455. Dad's car is a 70 442 4sp. And fellow Pure Stock racer Paul Panczuk joined us with a 69 H/O. Tami was at home watching the kids. Not many cars were their last night, which was good for those of us running test and tune. First up was Dave vs Mike. Earlier Mike was talking trash to Dad, "you're going to be seeing taillights". Ed and I were next up. We watched them both do burnouts. Come to the line, lights come down. There goes Mike. But why isn't Dave going anywhere. o No: They pushed Dave's car back. Ed and I ran next. A few weeks ago, Ed went back to the dragstrip for the first time in like 8 years. Got in 3 runs with the mustang, including back to back 15.02. Ed cut a great light, .046 to my .197. I 60ft him, 2.18 to 2.27 and I just continue on with the beating. We cross the line, I look back thinking Ed's back quite a bit, but no, he's right there. I'm thinking damn, either he ran quick or I ran kinda slow. 14.24 @96.60 for me. 14.73 @ 95.36 for Ed. He was VERY happy. As was I since that was my new personal best et. I came back to the pits to learn Dave broke an axle in the 442 :af: . Second time it's happened at US41, so his night was done unfortunately. A pair of Moser axles will be going in the car next time. Paul and I decided to see who had the quicker 69. We already know his car is MUCH nicer looking. We had near identical 60ft, 2.1482 for Paul, 2.1467 for me. And we were neck and neck most of the track. Then we start getting into the cam of the W-31 and the fact it likes to rev and I slowly start pulling away. 14.05 @ 96.33 for the W-31 to Paul's 14.25 @95.31. :shock: I was laughing most of way back on the return road. Trimmed a quarter of a second off my previous best at Route 66 and still zero tuning to the motor. I did finally put in a fresh set of 43S plugs and aired all the tires up to 40lbs. I'm sure the 40 degrees temps helped quite a bit too. Paul and I made another run as he wanted a baseline. Paul 2.24 60ft, 14.34 @95.73. Me, 2.18 60 ft, 14.10 @ 98.44. :TU: A new fastest mph and I can tell the car really likes the air pressure, plugs and cold temps. So Paul makes a change to the secondary rods on his H/O, a step richer. We line up again, Paul 2.17 60ft, 14.21 @ 95.77 to my 2.20 60 ft and 14.12 @ 98.05. Another win for the W-31. :TU: But Paul sees good improvement and richens the secondaries more. We finally play with my car. Adjust the secondary spring wrap as it was rather tight. We line up again, I do a real good burnout. I come to the line and I can tell something isn't right with the car. Idle is not too good and I can tell it's going to die, which it does. Car won't start so it gets pushed back. o No: You can smell fuel so I think it's flooded. It eventually starts but won't idle at all. Drive it back to the pits, it dies once. We check plug wires (all tight), plugs (all dry and look fine), spark (there on all 8 cylinders). We then check the idle mixture screws. They were out 2 turns (the carb has all the Doug Roe mods on it from the person who rebuilt, replated and restored it). We put the mixture screws to 3.5 turns. Car still won't idle. We bumped the idle up and while a very slight improvement, she still won't idle. So we throw out other things to check when it isn't pitch black out and the only light is a flash light; fuel filter, needle and seat, float. Meanwhile, Paul keeps playing with his car and shaves off another tenth. Ed manages to shave almost a half second off his best time from Route 66 and is running 14.5s. The car is a bone stock 5sp convertible with a Mach 1000 sound system taking up most of the trunk. Mike makes several runs with his 85 Cutlass and finds some traction. 13.001 and then he finally gets his 12, 12.96. I don't know what the mph is, but it's the first time he's raced the car on a 1/4 mile track. His local track is 1/8. Except for a broken axle on the 442 and my car not wanting to idle it was a great night. Paul and Ed ended up turning it into a hot lap night before they closed the track early.
