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1.6TD Caddy beats 1970 Chevelle (& others!)
by
funkaholik
on 14 Oct, 2013 00:49
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Brought my little Caddy to the Wednesday night drag races at Infineon Raceway last week. What a conversation piece: among all the muscle cars, supercharged new mustangs, Subarus, and turbo'ed Hondas, so many people kept coming up and asking about the truck, or sharing a story about one they / their dad / their friend had back in the day.
Started out running 19.1 @ 70 mph. After some fuel adjustments on practice runs, I got it down to 18.5 @ 72 mph. Engine is stock except for boost turned up a bit, and I don't have an egt gauge yet, so I kept it pretty conservative - no smoke, just a little haze on WOT. So I wrote 18.5 as my dial in and the racing began. First race, I'm up against a beautiful red 70 Chevelle with a 400 and a Tremec 5 speed. His dial in is 13.9, so I get a 4.6 second headstart. I'm off at the green with a decent reaction time, and then a little ways down the track I see the win lights flashing in my lane. He jumped the light early and the VW diesel wins! Knowing I'd won, I lifted at the end of the run for an 18.76. So, I line back up and he goes home. Next race is against a black supercharged Mustang. I get my lights, take off down the track, and hear the Mustang coming up fast and loud in the left lane. I roll up to the booth in anticipation, not knowing if I won or not, only to have her hand me my slip and say, "Too bad, you went too fast." 18.49 @ 72.88 mph on an 18.5 dial in. I couldn't believe it: I broke out! All I can think of is that since the air temp had dropped significantly, I made too much power on that last run.
Oh well. I sure had fun, and I'll be back next week.
Pics or it didn't happen, right?
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#1
by
745 turbogreasel
on 14 Oct, 2013 20:02
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Way to play the game!
Not bad times either.
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#2
by
air-cooled or diesel
on 14 Oct, 2013 21:36
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it may have been ?engine temp? a cooler engine runs faster, .01 break out too bad, nice run though, chevelle didn't let off in spite of red light.
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#3
by
funkaholik
on 15 Oct, 2013 16:36
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My guess is both: cooler air AND cooler engine. I checked over all my runs for the day, and there is a pretty consistent 30 minutes between each run (26 min to 33 max). Each time I lined back up, I shut off the engine and raised the hood for cooling. The air temp drop in the evening should mean that not only is the incoming charge denser, but that my engine temp should have cooled down more during that last 30 minutes (unless it hits dead cold). Right?
What I should have done was not lifted once I knew I'd beat the Chevelle. If I would have stayed in it, and run too fast that time, I still would have won due to his red light, and I could have lowered my dial in for the next run. Thing is, the Mustang ran only .098 sec over his dial in, so I still would have had to be really good to beat him. Here is that final run. Notice that my reaction time was almost twice what it was against the Chevelle.
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#4
by
air-cooled or diesel
on 15 Oct, 2013 17:02
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probably right on both, his red light was an immediate disqualification, you didn't know this, but I wouldn't worry about this, you have what 2 practice runs before competition starts, that's not a lot, if your really serious about your times you'd be out there on a trial(non-comp nites).
this next part is more important, I wouldn't worry about it much, as I wouldn't get caught up in dragging your TD, dragging and german cars don't go together normally, unless you have overhead or deep pockets, you drag once in a while, cool, if you have overhead you've built a power train, if you have deep pockets your willing to pay repair bill. i'd definetly go pretty easy on the clutch, and gear box, unless you have deeppockets, you don't, I know this. too much racing of these motors and you'll be dropping parts on the track.
real good story, you did real good! .01 break out good 1.
keep the car and story, not just the stories and the resulting break down that ensues.
I dragged my tdi 1 time. porsches are a nono for dragging too fyi.
I've said before you go rather easy on these cars and they last A Long time...like my 1 would turn a million in not too long (apx 800k-850k on no longer working clock, clock stopped short of 700k). i'll never drive it again, I don't think, not the biggest loss.!.
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#5
by
funkaholik
on 17 Oct, 2013 14:21
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At the drags again last night. This time I remembered to remove my tailgate before I left. 29 pounds lighter (of course I had to weigh it...) & less drag at speed would hopefully make a difference. boy, did it. My first test run was 18.19 @ 75 mph. .3 seconds and over 2 mph better than my fastest run last week. A few more runs & I got it down to 17.90 @ 75.12 mph, even with a crappy reaction of .311. Couldn't reproduce that time, though, and the next 2 runs were 18.2 and 18.3. Had to pick a dial-in now, and scared I'd run too fast like last time, I chose 17.95.
First race was against a 94 Mustang 5.0. We line up, I take off, and again see win lights a ways down the track. Another redlight win for me, but still running 18.3's. Second race against a Subaru WRX with a 13.61 dial. I go, he goes, and we meet at the finish line. I rol up to the booth and find that I won, still running 18.3 to his 14.14. Lucky, but I can't count on being lucky again. I change my dial-in to 18.20 and line up against a supercharged Mustang dialed at 11.90. Yikes. I take off. What seems like forever goes by and I see him coming up so fast in the right lane. we meet at the finish again and when I get to the booth, guess what? 18.07. Too fast. I lose. He ran 11.95, with a reaction time of .000 (!) so he's obviously got it down. If I would have kept the 17.95 dial, I still would have lost to that guy.
I kept an eye on engine temp this time out, and it stayed at 195-200 the whole time. Even after 30 minutes cool down between races, by the time I creep up to the start line behind all the cars lined up in front of me, it was always in that range. Just to allay fears of me breaking anything, I don't do high rev clutch drops, and shift at 4200 rpm, which is 100 rpm shy of where my crappy governor cuts off my fuel.
Here is the best time of the day:
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#6
by
81 vw pu
on 18 Oct, 2013 22:09
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A few more runs & I got it down to 17.90 @ 75.12 mph, even with a crappy reaction of .311.
Reaction time does not affect your ET or mph. Reaction time starts when the green light comes on and stops when your front tires roll through the light beams, and then your ET time starts.
Good job and have fun!!!
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#7
by
air-cooled or diesel
on 20 Oct, 2013 04:09
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just watch you gear/levers , real weak to shift hard/fast, too, you'll be in that engine before 200kless or more, but it'll come apart early, if you keep those revs up too long/often.
gl hf
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#8
by
air-cooled or diesel
on 20 Oct, 2013 04:10
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just to show you last time I dragged, light was .5--
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#9
by
air-cooled or diesel
on 23 Oct, 2013 14:23
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that end of crank and tranny are testy, but spinning tires in and after water box,
2nd gear, vw 1st gear will give out on you if you spin in 1st, and getting to spin in 2nd stressing clutch, can cause early failure, but spinning in water box and roll forward, try that, ,
try to get tires to spin after ,box. all that rubber in early part of track , and in box, note time(s), go easy on spin, and ,,well give us some times,
heheh
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#10
by
air-cooled or diesel
on 23 Oct, 2013 14:48
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getting your times down and your r/t is the main thing.
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#11
by
funkaholik
on 23 Oct, 2013 18:52
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I go around the waterbox and don't do a burnout. Mainly because I can't. I can get a little bit of chirpy tirespin if I try really hard, but I don't want to put that stress on the truck. I am not making enough power to have traction issues or need to heat up my tires for stickyness.
I'll be taking my big block 67 Mustang there next week for the first time. That will be a very different traction situation...
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#12
by
air-cooled or diesel
on 23 Oct, 2013 19:54
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not a burn out, if you feel good about it, or learn spin 3-4 revolutions in water and 3-4 in burn out box. if you can get front tires loose in 2nd gear, but clutch assembly isn't really made for much shock stress, but try spinning in water a little and come forward and try in burn out, you'd be surprised your times may go down ; I had a low of luck and did lightly in 1st, but the bug 1st its a nono, for this tranny, im not too hot at using 1st.(or 2nd, but your times should come down).
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#13
by
air-cooled or diesel
on 26 Nov, 2013 12:58
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on further thought I'd say getting the tires to spin in the water box (a little) and with still spinning pull out of water box, just a few times, not too much. I'd probably use first gear and lightly as possible get the tires to spin and pull out of water box using spinning. I know in a type I (bug,etc) using 1st gear for a burn-out will kill the trans, and in these water cooled, front wheel drive, the input shaft takes a quick left turn, this is a real weak spot. getting tires to spin in water box is easy on drive system, and pulling thru box with still spinning is no real strain to trans, the real strain is breaking loose tires on a dry surface(esp on a track surface). becareful using 1st gear though. you need just a couple of spins.
the other advice I have is during the night keep the engine at a constant temperature, this means running motor all night, you wont burn much fuel at idle, but a constant temp gets you more consistant times, if motor cools off it will change times, more consistant times allows a more accurate dial-in. if you make a run on a cool motor you'll run faster, but as engine heats up from start up through the run your time changes, and theres no way to guarantee your temp on any given start up. a consistant temp works better.
