Betsy the B2300- Bluej's Build

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

So, questions:

-Has anyone taken a set of these tires (Hankook Ventus V12 EVO2) to the drag strip?  Or, alternatively, a low power, open diff, pickup truck?  Any advice on starting pressures?  I'm guessing around 20psi for a decent launch without worrying about the bead slipping?

-I'm going to put it on some scales; any guesses for weight as it currently sits with a full tank of gas?

I feel like there's going to be a balance of you figuring out what rpm and how hard launching works vs. the tire pressures. Might be that the pressures are higher than ideal for max hook, but that lets you spin a little helping actually launch better. It's not the best clutch for drag racing at all... :-/

I also already shared with Chris, but I had a best offer accepted last night for the most complete nitrous kit I'd seen on ebay. still doing research on a way to pull timing, but I've got ideas..

dps214 said:

Just in case you didn't already know, you should probably keep an eye on those bump stops. They're designed around living on a damper shaft so not having that constraint anymore I'd guess they have the potential to wear out or deform pretty quickly. Especially if they're doing a substantial amount of the suspension work.

I'm aware and check them every time I drive it- this is as much a "wonder how long these last" as it is an actual solution.  For the moment, though, they seem just right.

Not too bad for a truck!

Wow! That is WAY lighter than I expected. Sweet!

Let's see, bluej, with a bluekid and a bluewife, I think this needs to be bumped from the stereo at all times:

https://tinyurl.com/cyzrbkt

In reply to 95maxrider :

I kinda prfefer the variety of this one:

I'm at a dragstrip somewhere in NJ, I don't know anybody, and the gate lady's eyebrows nearly went into orbit when she asked "spectating?" and I said "test and tune entry please"

I didn’t know testing was allowed before the challenge? 

Betsy seems to prefer flat shifting, 18psi in the rear tires, and a gentle launch.  I could keep at this all night but I really think the 17.5xx was about the best I can do.

I forgot to ask where last night. My former shop mate runs at Island and complains a lot about the track prep, or lack of it. His Nova ran 9.9 at 136 down at Capitol. He sees 10.6 at Island, still with 136mph.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

It was at Island, and I have no complaints about any of it as a slow person- no idea what was going on with the fast cars though.

So, the story of last night- drove to Island Dragway, had the above interaction with an incredulous ticket saleswoman, and got through tech.  I was almost immediately yelled at for being out of the vehicle while it was running, since apparently that's a big drag racing no-no.  Oops.

As other cars started to arrive, I was quickly surrounded big big fast things.  Real drag cars, lots of things with Ecoboosts, SRT-somethings, or LSxs, and a number of diesel pickups were among the many things much faster than Betsy.  Some notable ones include an extremely quick manual transmission 70s Charger and a 5.0 powered Merkur:  

Before runs started I talked to some of the track workers- the announcer knew about the Challenge and two of them owned Rangers so I had a lot of fans right off the bat.  The two Ranger owners predicted a time in the high 18 second range while the announcer was more optimistic.

When we began lining up in the "street tire" lanes there were a lot of really bad choices to square off against, but I found some good competition in the form of an 80 year old woman in a beige Saturn SL2.  I had somebody to race with!

And race we did, for my first pass I left everything alone and was rewarded with lots of wheelspin off the line- the clutch in this thing engages super high off the floor and is very grabby, so I was fighting that and good reaction times all night.  The Saturn smoked me and I got a 19 second time.

For the next pass, I dropped the rear tire pressures to 22psi and tried flat shifting right at 6k rpm- Betsy is actually geared decently for the current amount of power, and crosses the line right at 6k rpm in 3rd.  I spun coming off the line again but knocked off a little over half a second.

Third pass, rear tires down to 18psi, flat shifting at 6k again.  I got off the line better but not perfectly for a 17.8 at 76mph while the Charger in the other lane disappeared.

Fourth pass, all alone this time, same setup, tried shifting a little earlier since things feel like they fall off over 5500rpm or so.  No great improvement and ran a 17.9

Fifth pass, the Saturn was back.  We lined back up and I ran a 17.594 which was the best of the night for me and Betsy, but every time I shifted (as fast as possible, punching the dash on the 2-3 shift thanks to the clunky truck trans) the Saturn would creep ahead.  On my best pass of the night I still lost to an octogenarian in a plastic economy car:  

I did a sixth run which was nearly identical to make sure I had it down, then aired the rear tires back up to 31 psi and did a seventh to ensure that the tire pressure really did make a difference and I hadn't just learned to launch it- that experiment rewarded me with lots of one tire fire and an 18 second pass so I called it quits there in the name of not beating on the truck any more than necessary.

Overall it was a fun night and I feel like I have my drag technique down unless we add nitrous.  Betsy performed as well as I think we could hope for, and ET/hp calculators say we have about the stock 140hp for the original engine right now.  I can probably launch slightly faster just by improving my reaction time, which is probably mostly down to knowing exactly where the clutch engages and not having to "feel for it" as I launch. 

I want to go back to Island Dragway with one of the bikes at some point, it would probably be really fun with something that's actually fast- I'm pretty jealous that drag racers can just plunk down $30 on any given Friday night and go run to their heart's content, but then again a drag strip is a remarkably compact operation all things considered so it's hard to pretend there could be a real equivalent for most of the stuff we're into.

Before you go to Island again or any other track in New Jersey look up the state rules on auto racing. The no running engine thing might be a state law, or not. I did not read the drag racing section when I had to familiarize myself, the road and oval sections were long enough NJ has onerous state laws regarding motorsport, one of the reasons I no longer live there.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

When we began lining up in the "street tire" lanes there were a lot of really bad choices to square off against, but I found some good competition in the form of an 80 year old woman in a beige Saturn SL2.  I had somebody to race with!

Hahahaha!

Nitrous you say? Something like this?

Damn, maybe I should have bit the tire bullet and kept those wheels for my ranger.

This is very nice.

That Saturn driver sounds awesome

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

You should have seen if the Saturn last wanted to do the Challenge. She might beat you in autocross also. 

The Saturn and its' pilot are absolutely better than Betsy and me in every way.  Autocross is tomorrow and the SCCA is picky about battery stuff so I made a tiedown and added a terminal cover:

I think after the challenge you will have to bring it to rallycross as well in order to complete the motor sports cycle

I'm here for the contingency dollars:

First run, beat the Tesla but it's close:

Pretty sure I just won CAM-S.  Betsy loves autocross.

Yes, more Gastropods autoXing today! Why Cam-S instead of -C?

In reply to gumby :

Too light!