nickolbag

Current setup is a forged 347, 12lbs on a F1A, and I'm making 700rwhp. I have the fuel and drivetrain to handle a lot more. Is it worth upping the boost to 18lbs and tuning on race gas for the event? It's likely I will only run the 1/2 mile one event. What kind of gain will I likely see?

Quickshift_C5

With 700whp, you'll likely be in the 168-172mph range. I run consistent 164's with 638rwhp with a forged 347, 12psi, and V3 Si. So, I guess it depends on how fast you want to go and if that's worth it to you.

You'll need around 800whp to get into the 180's.

nickolbag

I figured I'd be around 170mph. I have a tr6060 and c6z rear right now. Since I'm likely only going to do an event like this once so I'm considering going all out. I'm assuming 6 more lbs of boost and race gas should put me well over 800rwhp. Closer to 900 right?

What has me wondering is I'm currently on Nitto drag radials. I'm assuming there will be no track prep. Will the extra power be useful?

neverstop

if the car can handle it why NOT up the power?

extra power pulling through 4th and 5th will be huge benefit. You'll be surprised how slow 800-900whp feels out at an airstrip with nothing really around you. with 19" nt05r drag radials I can barely hook 3rd (usually not) but car eats up 4th gear like crazy at 900whp

I'd say go for it but keep the tune conservative. the loads on the car gets really crazy when you go WOT for 25+ seconds or whatever, and 5th gear WOT in these cars is really hard on them since it's so tall. I've found my car behaves very very differently at the 1/2 mile in 5th gear than during a 3 second dyno pull but each car is different.

I always tune it on pump gas and then throw in a few gallons of 100 octane unleaded for safety

Smoove

If it can take the power, do it. I see you're in Florida,...going to the ocala event in January? If so the track grip isn't stellar, although people are able to put down some power there.

nickolbag

Yea I'll be there the 22nd. Do they do any track prep? I was thinking of bringing some VHT with me. I'm leaning towards boosting up.

Smoove

Nice. Gunning for the event myself. Registered for both days in the FRC. I have never seen them do track prep honestly. The first year the track was a little dusty...strong cross wind so 4th gear occasional spin was evident, in the sub 500rwhp C4 I was driving. The year after(which was last year) I drove a gen 5 viper, makes under 600rwhp, and I didn't have too hard of a time getting traction...I think 2nd, is the only gear I really spun.

Since it IS an active airport(private) they probably do not want anything on the surface of the strip....but last year(this past january) they did have a blower but I do not recall seeing it in use. The extreme cold weather was harsh on tires, and made things difficult for the big power guys. If you are gonna put VHT on...I would do it like a car or two back from the staging area...and see what happens. Ultimately,...you're gonna have to lace up those driving shoes a little tighter at this place.

I'll see you out there.

stevieturbo

It would be relatively slow if it's taking 25s to cover a standing 1/2 mile.

Anything with half decent power should be sub 20s or certainly no more than 20.x secs

And absolutely, more power will be needed to make the car go faster. Turn it up !

If the build/tune is right, there should be no issues with pump fuel or pump+meth
If you're very high CR which is a current trend, poor charge cooling, or ambients are very very hot, then you may need to play things a bit safer though. So it just depends what you're working with.

With race fuel etc I'd imagine it be very difficult to hurt any motor though so that could always be some insurance.

stevieturbo

If it's anything like racing on a live runway here....they dont allow burnouts, again for fear of damaging the surface. So it's always cold tyres. Although the 1km event in England we race on the runway return road, so they allow burnouts on it. Debatable as to whether it really helps. Some tyres do, some dont.

Quickshift_C5

I was wondering what your thoughts were going to be on this until you posted the last little bit. A little sense of security is a good thing. I ran a Torco mix for a while, but didn't like the orange residue it left all over the plugs. I just bought a 5gal can of Sunoco 104 for the last 1/2 Mile event and mixed that with just under a 1/2 tank of 93. I know the tune isn't running on the very edge, but I haven't been logging and don't know what's going on in the longer pulls like this. It's an AES Forged 346 at 10.5 CR and 12lbs.

I figure a $70 can of fuel a few times per year is not a big deal compared to a $10k motor build going south. My first 1 Mile event is in June. I assume Sunoco 104 with 93 is good enough, right?


For reference, my C5Z at 638rwhp runs 164mph in the 1/2 Mile in just barely over 18sec.

stevieturbo

Race fuel is clearly safer....although what tuning changes may be needed after adding or switching to race fuel I don't know.
It seems some fuels are different...some burn faster, slower, etc. So what will work best on any combo....hard to say.
A small mix, should add safety all round with no tuning concerns I'd think

I just use pump+meth in my own, havent had any issues even up around 28-29psi boost for standing 1km runs although my CR is 9.0:1 because I always use pump.

I am considering some race fuel for next years event though, but it's a huge expense

Mike04

I've ran 116 in my car and the safety it gives for detonation is nice. My meth kit didn't activate on a run and I saw the AFR in the high 12 to mid 13 range at 16lbs of boost with 17 degs of timing with no issues. I wouldn't run that AFR again though.

neverstop

keep in mind some race fuels like different AFR though with different stoich so if you are going to dump some race fuel with with your pump gas without changing the tune you should really try to choose a race fuel that likes a stoich/AFR as close to whatever pump gas you are running or it could cause issues.

because of this I just use the sunoco Gt100 which is almost the same ideal stoich as the pump gas I run.

I have never noticed a difference in performance also but like the safety compared to my $15k motor

Quickshift_C5

I'd like to learn more about this. Not many options available in my area, so that's how I ended up with Sunoco 104. Looked up the information on their site and it says stoich is 13.7. I know my car is tuned to 11.6 or 11.8 and I use 93 pump gas.

http://www.sunocoracefuels.com/fuel/260-gt-plus

What does this combo mean?

stevieturbo

Unless your car was tuned on the ragged edge in the first place...I cant see the change in overall AFR from mixing really mattering. Add to that the safety margin the race fuel would give in the first place.

But I guess without proper testing, tuning and monitoring....nobody can really say for each application.

It's quite common in the UK for people to add methanol to the fuel, up to around 20% in most cases. However this will require tuning changes otherwise it can run lean, and the fuel system will need to have some reserve flow capacity.

I know others who add a little toluene too. This only seems to have minimal affect on AFR's, but will increase overall octane and like methanol is pretty cheap.

Although it's more popular in the US to use methanol injection.