Well, I was hoping for 13.8-14.0 at the track tonight. Here in Vegas, its Midnight Mayhem as about 450 cars lined up (what a cluster ****) to race the 1/4 mile. I was confident that my stock MS3 could do something decent. And then I discovered what it is like to have the entire front end of my car slam up and down into the pavement, grabbing for traction and hopping hopelessly and destructively for the first 100 feet. The video link to race 1 below is the bad first pass I made.
The problem was that I left in too great a hurry, I think. I had a difficult time staging because I couldn't see the light triggers (well they weren't marked too well), and as soon as I saw two lights, I revved up to about 3k. I intended to slip it out just a bit and hit second, but I botched it. That, and that they just covered the track with super sticky stuff that gave me WAAAY too much traction. Pre-race (and pre-knowledge that they treated the track so agressively), I adjusted my front tires to 25psi (which turns on the low pressure light on the dash), and thats it. As you can see and here from my run, I pretty much got lucky that I didn't break down right on the track. The noises heard both in the cabin and out at the race track were excruciating. Listen to it and tell me what I almost broke! Or maybe did break, but haven't found out yet. The entire crowd flinched and gasped when they heard it. Anyway, after that horrible first gear launch (actually it was a great 2.3 second 60 footer, but I'm talking about the hop), the whole transmission acted dead. So, as you can see in the video, I can't find any gear to move forward in. I tried 2nd, couldn't get it go, then went to 3rd, and it was as if it was disconnected. I coasted another second, and tried 2nd again, and managed to get it to slip in. 3rd, and 4th were also super hard to get into. I pretty much thought I blew something! But, on the cooldown run back, the car was completely normal. I had power, gears, everything. So, my thought on it was that with all the rubber mounts and every bushing shoved in aggressive ways, the linkage must have been out of alignment. Who knows, but it made for a terrible 16.3 second pass.
Second run, I was extremely fearful of hopping and destroying something, so I left the tree at about the same pace as I would if I was on the street just going to work. Then I realized about a second too late that I left the traction control ON! Woops! So, naturally, the engine cut power at the end of first gear. I shifted to 2nd and simultaneously turned the DSC off, and from there on out, I was golden. The car ran good, and the trans didn't act up. It was nice. I still had a sucky 1/4 mile time, as well as MPH, but I attribute it to the fact that I left the DSC on. Anyway, not a great time out there (since the amount of cars forced incredibly long waits. I probably waited 3 hours per run.) Its so funny, because on the way home, I blew the doors off several cars that must have seen my racing numbers and wanted to play. I don't know for sure, but it seems like the car has more confidence off the track then on. And surely the engine and trans mounts are incredibly soft and crappy. That is my next mod, so I don't end up having to get a tow out of the drag strip.
Anyhow, look at the videos, critique, comment, make fun of, whatever. I'm just glad I was able to drive it home. I seriously thought I was screwed on the very first pass.
These are huge videos, I just don't have the software to downsize them. They were shot off of my Sony DSC-H2 camera in video capture mode. Pretty good resolution and pretty good frame rate IMO.
Race 1
Race 2