Made the trip again to the track today, testing new pinion angle setting and lower tire pressures were the order of business.
Temps were in the low 80's but the black top was still pretty hot from all the 90+ degrees days this week.

First pass is always the nervous pass, with 28 psi in the KDWs it did a 2.089 sixty foot, 12.643 @ 114.96. Pretty good for first pass, slight wheel hop in 2nd gear.

Second pass was 2.015 sixty, 12.488 @114.95, felt better but still not able to run it flat out in 1st and 2nd, slight hop when shifted to 2nd.

Before the third pass I rechecked the tire pressure, RR had dropped to 15 psi, hmmmmmmmm. Pumped it back to 28, car hopped bad 10' out and I left off, cruised down the track for a 14.4.

Went to the pits, checked the tire, a sheetmetal screw stuck in the tread, most likely someone donated a screw from their rear slick setup. Called it a night and went home real early. That was a shame, air was very good and not a lot of cars running, could have made many more runs working on launch and tire pressure. Just have to try again in a couple weeks.

Sitting next to me tonight at the track was a 65 Belair with an LSX454, carburated, TH400, 3.73 with slicks. Saw the car two weeks ago at a local Thurs night show and was impressed by the install and the overall appearance of the engine bay, sweet. These engine are rated as the highest hp rating for any crate LS from GMPP, 620 hp/600 lb-ft on a carb. Car ran a 11.80 @ 116 first pass out, said he's run 118, not bad for a 4300 pounder. It did make me feel pretty good that I wasn't much off his mph. Think his car will get much quicker as he dials it in.
Bob

Props for your runs... What suspension mods have you done to your car ?? Also tire size ,gears ,,

Last time I was at the track, I wheel hopped real bad on the first pass and when I got back in line then walked around the car, I noticed that my right rear was real low also...

Turns out it had a screw in the tread as well. Felt very fortunate that I found it then before I ran it again as that would have ended badly.

Sucks that you had a short night Bob, especially with the good conditions...but at least you didn't tear anything up because of it.

So was this the best outing to date for wheelhop? I'm jealous how many potential runs you could get when going to the track. It seems like our local track is always so packed.

Nice work though Bob, and I still wanna see what it would do on some stickies.

The 12.488 was the fastest pass to date on the car. The pinion is set about 1 1/4 degrees lower than I usually run on the street, next time out will set it another 3/4 degree down which puts it at 1 1/2 degrees up, still not a drastic change. With only two passes that day it's hard to say how much improvement that made, but, hop was was minimal at the 1-2 shift.

On my car all the changes I make to the chassis are to improve the 330' times, need to get to 5.15 sec to run a very low 12. On the 12.49 pass it was 5.38.

When I get the car into the low 12's then it will be time for stickies. The new wheels to mount them to are already in house.

Believe me, I've been to the track and spent a whole day there for 4 passes. Sometimes you get lucky, good weather and not a zillion cars or 10 oil downs, but that's not the norm. Fri could have been one of those few good days, but the screw in the tire spoiled that.

A friend was there with his new 2011 5.0 Mustang, ran 12.86 @110 with 500 miles on the odometer, bone stock. Looks like Ford has done it's homework and they will outrun the new Camaro and Challenger in bone stock condition. Had to believe that 5.0 will make 425 hp, 360 rear wheel, but apparently it does.

gwssmonte: The chassis is set up for, and I hate to use the term, Pro Touring, would rather say it's fast street driving with very good cornering and braking. The past year it's made 70 passes at the track trying to improve it straight line accel problems, wheelhop and traction issues in 1st and 2nd, by the way, it's a 6spd car.

Front suspension is still pure street setup, 640lb springs, "old school" B spindle swap, 36mm sway bar and Koni adj shocks, Delrin bushings. The only change I made to the front is the Koni are set to the soft setting, sway bar still funtional.

The rear set right now for the track is an 8 1/2" rear with 3.73 and a new Eaton, Edelbrock adj UCA, HR Delrin bushings on the axle side of the UCA, Global West 130lb springs, Spohn 215 adj LCA with Del-Sphere joints, Spohn Pro Tour rear adj sway bar set at it's stiffest setting. LCA relocation has been done and at the track it's set at 2 1/2" lower, street use is 1 1/2" location. Edel UCA to LCA braces are installed and I welded in the LCA frame reinforcements.

My street shocks are Koni adj but Comp Eng drag shocks are on the car for testing right now, they have opposite adjusting functions than the Koni. Also I run an air bag in the RR with 8 psi, on the street 0 air pressure.

Tires are BFG KDW, 245/50x16 on GTA wheels. A very good street tire but sidewall stiffness hurt you at the track.

Once I get the car to meet my 1/4 goals, 12.2@117 on those tires I will put DRs on it to see what happens next. Then the plan is to put the street tires back on and reverse mods I've done to see what really worked and what didn't.
Bob

.. Watched the tests on YouTube, 5.0L rated 412HP, but many claiming more like 450HP from the dyno results... Mustang wins over 425HP Camaro in most of the videos... Camaro wins if Mustang screws up the launch at all... heavy 426HP Challenger a ways behind both...

.. Looks like your car is running good... time vs MPH shows regular street tires... DR's should let you smoke that '65 BelAir...

Thats getting it done! Low 12's on street tires with a 6spd is very cool! I lover to see videos or pictures. Congrats on the new times, Bob!

Fixed the flat tire today and did my usual tire rotating after 8 passes or so. Just don't want to wear out the backs running at the track. The screw in the tire wasn't from someones slicks, it was a 8-32x1" stainless machine screw, go figure.

Will dial in another 3/4 degree down pinion and try again in two weeks.

What I've been doing is putting my little Canon Power Shot on a tripod, lay it on top of the seat and use the headrest pressed down against the tripod to hold it in place. You can get the tree, top half of the dash, and see a good bit of the track. But importantly I can see the shifts and how the tires plant, or hop, through 1st and 2nd. I've got 2 passes in each of the last three times out on video. Pretty neat to watch them on TV.

But as I said in the Autocross post I don't do you-tube or any of those video/pic places. Just bothers me to have stuff pirated.
Bob

Happy to see you're getting closer Bob, congrats on the new fastest time.

Can't really beat that for a car that's a true pump gas driver running a Gen 1 SBC with street tires. Nice work Bob!

Thanks guys. It's always nice when a plan starts to come together.

Even though the engine is large cubic inch, it will pass PA visual emissions, but actually it's more a truck engine as I like to think of it, small cam, emissions 2050 headers running through a cat-back, lots of torque. The torque is what is causing most of my problems, but a good problem to have.
Bob