In honor of my beautiful bride blowing out a tire today, I thought I would discuss my tire prep for Hot Rod Drag Week. But this may not be what your thinking when I say tire prep.

Tires are going to be my weakest link. 99% of the Drag Week racers will be trailering their cars to the start/stop location at Cordova International Raceway. I'll be driving the roughly 850 miles there in my car. And with no trailer, I won't have any backup tires.

So the concern starts with the requirement to run drag radials. At my power level, the factory Michelin Pilot Super Sports actually hook pretty good. Being Zero Pressure (ZP) tires, I would have no concerns if I ran over something during the trip. Plus I'm sure I could source replacements locally if need be.

But the organizers have mandated drag radials.
Thankfully, I have some experience with this. I had a 2014 Silverado I raced and drove daily for two years with drag radials and no spare. So I'll be carting the following with me to account for any tire problems.



All the above fit snug as a bug in a rug in this...

I'll also be packing the following for any needed tire repairs.



The drag radial I'll be using is the Mickey Thompson ET Street S/S Radial Tire P285/35R19 (Jegs). So glad they just recently came out with this size, which is a perfect fitment for my car. Saved me from having to futz around with new wheels or odd sized tires.

So if I damage one of these during the trip or event, I'll be screwed because I doubt there's anyone local in that area that I can source from. Hopefully, it won't come to that.

 

Interesting stuff. I would recommend a different tire repair kit. Let me find it and get back to you.
Here are couple examples:
I got mine at NAPA it looks like the second one I listed. It works fine. I used it on my ZL1 with the Good Year track tires and ran at road course speeds with no issue.

 

First one looks good. I'll compare it to the one I have above. Thanks.

 

Heads are in hand. CID heads ported by Reher-Morrison. Titanium intake & nickel exhaust. These will go any direction I decide to go. I need to repair my wallet, now.

 

From my research in the past, I feel better about the mushroom type plugs than the plug strips.

 

Looks pretty good. I'll keep it turned on.

 

I just noticed I was missing a bolt on my Halltech airbox. Anyone know what this is I need to get?

 

Woof! Driving around today my IAT was in the 170*s! I didn't do any formal logging prior but I don't remember seeing IATs that high with the stock airbox.

The Halltech definitely flows more, but at what price? I'm considering removing the Halltech.

 

Got new tires installed. Mickey Thompson ET Street S/S Drag radials in back (285/35R19) and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S (245/40R18).

Car rides much quieter and smoother. There is a definite seat of the pants difference in the feel of the car with the softer sidewalls on the drag radials. The car seems to float a bit at highway speeds; like a Caddy. Surprised there is such a difference with such short sidewalls.

I'm right at 10k miles. The old front tires are right at the wear bars and the rears almost are. I've never road course tracked this car and the rears have plenty of burnouts on them. Definitely at odds with people getting 20k+ mileage from the PSS ZPs.

http://blackjackc7.com/2017/08/12/woohoo-new-tires/

 

Those rears look pretty cool.

 

While I think they are fine from a stability point of view, there's *no* way I'd attempt to road course track this car with the M/T's. :O

 

Aggravation! This was the weekend I was going to get some 1/4 mile times in but it looks like Harvey will rain it all out. Looks like I'll be heading to Drag Week without any further testing.

On a bright note, Darin Morgan at Reher-Morrison is working his magic on an intake manifold for me, that will match up with the heads I got from them. This is *not* a port job. He's predicting 90-100hp from the heads & intake alone.

We will see.

 

Hmmm. What;s going on here?

 

Well, that's your intake mod. Man they hack it up to do magic with it. Can you explain what's going on?

 

Cutting out the runners to improve the flow. Likely will move the power band up too.

 

Made it to Des Moines. 12 hours. Oy vey.

Saw a guy with TX plates towing a Camaro with 1 BAD LS plates. Pretty sure he is heading to Drag Week too.

https://blackjackc7.com/2017/09/10/drag-week-prelogue/

 

Day 1 notes...
https://blackjackc7.com/2017/09/12/drag-week-day-1/

No chance in hell making the Quick 32. :-(

Good run...4hr, 55m, 21s. I'm behind the white Mustang.

Bad run...4hr, 4m, 38s. I'm behind the red Falcon.

 

Well look what just showed up in my inbox. :-)

 

Best run of the day

I got strung out trying to find E85. I think my phone was totaly on the fritz yesterday. Ended up on 93oct. Today, while overcast and cooler had a vicious headwind (Irma?).

Racing at the historic Byron Dragway tomorrow. Hoping for an historic run for my car.

 

Finished product looks good. Are the heads already installed?