I took my car to Bristol dragway for the "street nights" for the first time last night. WHAT A BLAST!!! You go early enough after it opens and it's as simple as driving up to the line, doing your run, and turning around and immediatly lining up again. Anyways I got 4 runs in in less than an hour, and that was after a 10-15 minute cool down after each run. My only car problem was a wandering distributor. I should have predicted this. I have not torqued down the distributor holder so I can retard it with a firm hand nudge if needed if I get pinging (bad gas, hot day, etc). It was just loose enough I guess for the vibration or the cam movement of the gears to move that dist. back a nudge or two. After a run I would notice the idle speed dropped down a few hundred RPM, I would pop open the hood and nudge the housing back (I have a mark on my valve covers to what the ideal timing should be) to the right position. I must have been only running 25 degrees total during the last half of the run, damn!

In spite of that I did better than I thought, my best run was my last:
r/t .592
60' 2.219
330 5.921
1/8 8.948
mph 80.53
1000 11.6
1/4 13.837
mph 98.69

Reaction time sucks I know, but who cares. My best 60' time was the first run @ 2.085. I wish I remember what I did right, every run after that traction was a major problem. My worst time was 14.289 on the second run where I mistakenly shifted from 1st to 3rd (manually shifted the auto).

Best thing was I won each race! Raced a modified late model Camaro in my third run where he got 13.889 to my 13.839.

I know my weakness was the back 1/8, I felt like I was being run down near the end even though I won, two of my competitors actually had higher MPH at the end. That sneaky timing self-retarding feature of my car definetly hurt me, I could probably also pick up some more steam with a 750 holley over the 650 I have.

Still I am happy, not bad for a "no fancy high tech mods" street car with a 355 and 700R4 that drove an hour up to the track and an hour back.

 

Not necessarily...

The NHRA 'factor' for 1/8-mile racing is .64, so a 'typical' 1/8-mile run for a car running 13.837 would be 8.855 (13.837 x .64 = 8.855), as-opposed to your 8.948...

A 'typical' car running an 8.948 1/8-mile would be 'back-factored' to 13.981 (8.948 div/by .64), so your top-end charge isn't that bad...

What's really knocking the snot outta your ETs is that 2.2xx 60' time:
my 3.73-geared Cross-fire ran 15..004 @ 90.89 with a 2.118-second 'short' time...

Get that Shark to go 2-teens or even 2-high-ohhs, and you'll be WELL into the 13s!!!
:thumbs:
Have fun @ Thunder Valley!!!
:chevy

 

My first run was a 2.085 in the 60'. But during that run I wasn't concentrating to much at my shift RPM and I ended with a 13.849 @98.56. It just seems my MPH at the end should have been faster and it seemed (although with everything going at once it was hard to tell) that my competitors were catching up to me in the back half.
Traction was a major problem except for that first run. With the high numerical gearing of the 3.73's and the 700R4 I think I just have launch at idle RPM and feather the gas off the line. My tires, at least 7 year old BFG radials, suck too.
Bristol is at 1,500 ft altitude more or less, I wonder if there is any significant correction to see what I would run at sea level.

 

My first run was a 2.085 in the 60'. But during that run I wasn't concentrating to much at my shift RPM and I ended with a 13.849 @98.56.
None-the-less, with a 60' time .13x quicker, your 330' time should be better on that run...try checking the 'split' (incremental) times...

It just seems my MPH at the end should have been faster and it seemed (although with everything going at once it was hard to tell) that my competitors were catching up to me in the back half.
Finish-line MPH will not vary much from run-to-run in-regards to ET:
ET & MPH are not related, per se...

Traction was a major problem except for that first run. With the high numerical gearing of the 3.73's and the 700R4 I think I just have launch at idle RPM and feather the gas off the line. My tires, at least 7 year old BFG radials, suck too.
18-month old BFG T/A Radials don't hook much better, even with a woefully-underpowered Cross-Fire. The 3.06:1 First Gear & 3.73 rear gears make hooking tricky-at-best...

Bristol is at 1,500 ft altitude more or less, I wonder if there is any significant correction to see what I would run at sea level.
NHRA does have an altitude-correction factor, but I'm not sure what it is...
Quaker City Dragway, in Salem, Ohio, used to print-out BOTH your 'actual' ET, and the 'corrected ET' on the time-slip;
I believe my '79 Z28 ran a 13.56, corrected-to 13.26, at the track, approx elevation is 1300' (?)...

 

Thanks for the information, you are absolutely right about the 330 time.

The problem with my 1/8 time may be that, according to a gear/RPM calculator I have, I was probably shifting right before the 1/8 mile point and then dropping for a second out of my best RPM power points. At 80MPH at the 1/8 mile point otherwise I would be 6,500 RPM in second, just a bit too high. I can see now why the 700R4 guys say it's not ideal for drag racing, but it sure makes for an easy quite drive home from the track.

 

Yeah; in a 'true' performance application, the 700R4 sucks...
The gear ratios are too-far apart (3.06:1, 1.63:1, 1:1, and .7:1), and the only way to combat that (I'm guessing) would be to build torque-motor, with a broad torque-band, so it could 'pull' the wide RPM drop on the gear-change (383-421 SBC, or a 4"-stroke Rat-motor comes to mind).
Now that you have a stump-pulling torque-motor, why bother with the light-weight (and power-robbing) 700R4 in a 'race-only' car; with all that torque, you can:
A: 'pull' the taller 1st gear in a THM400 (2.52:1)
B: keep the motor 'up' in it's power band due to lower RPM drops on the gaer-change
C: not lose as much HP 'thru' the THM as you would in a 700R4
D: enjoy the durability-benefits of bullet-proof THM400 design
E: enjoy the wide availibility of parts & converters for the THM400
F: make one less shift, increasing chances of consistency (and 'winning' in bracket-racing)

 

4 runs in less than an hour. Consider yourself lucky. At St. Louis, we're doing good if we get that many in one nite. Sounds like you had fun. Chas

 

The key I think was getting there early. I got there a little bit after it opened at 6PM. It wasn't crowded at all. I literally drove in, payed my money, went through tech, and then lined up at the lights to run - all within 5 mintues. Pretty disorienting for your first time. Once you turned around after a run it was never more than a 5 minute wait to run again. If I wanted to I could have gotten 10 runs in that hour.

When I was leaving at 7:30 PM they had a line of cars out to the main road waiting to get in.

 

...and there-in lies the problem.
At my local strip, the surface is prepped (swept & sprayed) before any cars go down the track, but the pad still isn't 100% until after a few cars lay-down some rubber and the line is treated a second time.

Plus, when I took my younger ex brother-in-laws racing with me, I insisted they watch AT LEAST one session of time-runs before their maiden runs, so they'd KNOW what to expect;
which staging lane to enter; how & where to begin their burn-out; make sure their A/C was turned off, that their radiator cap was tight, etc.

This would do two things:
make them more 'comfortable' on-track, so they could 'enjoy' their 1st time at the races,
and keep them from embarrassing themselves by slowing-down the test & tune session, which makes the other racers angry...

SpyderD, I'm sure that your next trip to the strip will produce more fun, and better runs with the knowledge you gained recently!!!
:thumbs: :chevy :thumbs: :chevy :thumbs:

 

Glen I know your right on most of this but man do I enjoy my 700 r-4

A. the 3.73 rear would help this on a pretty much stock motor
B. My 383 has no problem with the drop, the mild 350 I had was ok with all but 4th gear, which I never hit at our local 1/8
C.True
D. My 700 r-4 was built to withstand 650 HP in writing. It was a little pricey but definatly bulletproof. I also like the violent 2 gear downshift at 60 mph that will break the tires loose an start them to smoking
E. There are alot more options on the martket now for the 700 r-4's
F. True but the 700 r-4 is just as do able, you just have to pay more attention
G. The only thing I don't like now that I have the 383 in is that 1st is a little to low. No traction what so ever on street tires. Marginal on ET streets. I have to roll on the gas now instead stab and go.

I'll let you know this Fall how it holds up to a full year of pounding with 554 fps torque. It is nice on the street though to have that extra gear

 

EDDIEJ82:
I guess I'm kinda lucky;
my '82 is a 'street'-car I take ocassionally to the strip, while my Z28 is 'strip-only', but only needs street-legal tires to be driven...

I've known a few street/strip guys who swap to the 700R4 not for the mileage/streetability gains, but thinking the deeper 1st gear will provide even better ETs than their current THM 350/400s.
Once they get the car into AOD/4th, they're happy, but most everything else is :U