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2025 E Ray, bone stock except for drag radials, more to come later on drag radials on a mid engine car.
Basically it took me 3 trips go get my azz in gear and make proper runs. I spent two days at a 1/8th mile track getting things together. I'm not new at drag racing, but this E Ray isn't a typical race car. It took me to my 3rd trip to finally get launch control working properly in sport. My two prior trips I ran 2 passes on one trip and 3 on the other, so by the time I made my 6th pass, I had almost gotten it together, but it took me to my 4th trip to finally get it all together and have launch control in race mode instead of sport mode.
Let's talk drag radials for a quick second. I don't think they are a game changer like the C6 and C7, and they sure aren't a game changer without a line lock. I will almost guarantee that I can make the same passes with the tires that came with my E Ray ($500 Michelin Pilot Soprt 4S high performance tires), versus spending good money on 2 new rims and a pair of Mickey Thompson ET street R drag radials. Over the years I've always enjoyed getting my best times by really heating up the drag radials using a line lock, and to be honest, you just can't heat up these tires like they need to be heated up. So IMHO, the drag radials or slicks on an E Ray are a none item. One more thing to add. On my first trip to run the 1/8th on 2 passes I had 20 psi on the drag radials for a 1.72 sixty foot time and on the last pass I had 32 psi and got a 1.75 sixty foot. Even the DA getting worse can have influence of .03 on a sixty foot time, which reinforces my belief that on an AWD vehicle drag radials make very little difference.
Here is a video that really sums it up far better than I can. To put things in context, I'm relating the line lock with drag radials. https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...line-lock.html
Ok, through 5 quarter mile passes at Pine Valley near Lufkin Texas, my PB was 10.92 @ 123.76, nothing to write home about, DA was between 1650 and 1700. I felt with the weather getting warmer in Texas and the DA going up and up, my goal was 10.75 @ 124. Which I thought was attainable. I did leave Pine Valley bummed out, knowing there were better times in the car. By the way, the new management has done a terrific job reopening the track, props to them. (Pine Valley in Diboll is 250 miles round trip, while Evadale located the other side of Lumberton is 210 miles round trip from my house. Houston Motorsports Park is 30 miles round trip, but it's only 1/8th mile drag strip.)
So March 28th finds me at Evadale for a night of test and tune. The DA was started at 670 and was at 800 when I left, so being in the heat of Texas, this is probably the last weekend of good DA until November comes running around. As mentioned before I had gotten my launch control down pat and I was ready to see if I couldn't get the 10.75 I wanted to get.
First run, 10.72 @ 127.12 with a 60' of 1.59. Hey, all is well, I got my better than 10.75, which I kind of expected, however the 127.12 was the big surprise. I had only 2 out of 5 passes at 124.20 and the 127.12 blew me away. Since there were very few cars there, I turned right around and ran a 10.76 @ 125.67 with a 60 foot of 1.59. So what this tells everybody is that the 10.72 wasn't a one time 'hero run'. My 3rd run was 10.85 @ 126.58 with a 60' of 1.65. On this run, as the runs before on this trip, the launch was still at 4,000 rpms, but I moved the slip from 5% to 7.5%, and the last run was 10.91 @ 126.69 with a 60 foot of 1.78 and the slip was 10%.
So leaving Evadale, I was naturally in a pretty good mood. I bested my goal of 10.75 and the 127 mph really put a smile on my face. No way in hell did a I see or imagine a 127 mph run.
About my remarks about the drag radials, they're really a 'must have' when attending some test and tunes and all track rentals. A lot of the hard core racers hate normal tires as they claim it tears up the launch area of the strip. I would hate to have an invite on a cool November day with negative DA and find out all cars must either have drag radials or slicks and not own a pair. Every Sunday at HMP requires drag radials or slicks as did the rental at Pine Valley,, and my day at Evadale. So, in a nutshell, all four of my trips to the drag strip had mandatory slicks or drag radials.
What I've learned on my 4 trips to the drag strip
