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1.6TD Caddy beats 1970 Chevelle (& others!)

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funkaholik:
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?

745 turbogreasel:
Way to play the game!
Not bad times either.

air-cooled or diesel:
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.

funkaholik:
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.  :(

air-cooled or diesel:
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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