Drag Racing This Sat in Royal City WA
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I bet you run a [email protected] 106mph
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Not sure but I'll probably pass on the launch control to start. If I get enough runs, I'll give it a a try.
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Saturday was about 400 miles round trip to the event and back. The place was packed. They actually stopped admitting cars to race. Make a run and then an hour plus wait in line to get another. Got a total of 4 runs in. Not really enough to figure much out. The wind blew away the time slips and a gust even knocked over the tree so they had to go old school on the starts. Still had fun though. Had my buddy with me and he got to ride along each run. For sure more fun than watching from the pits.
Here's one of the runs:
I was crossing the line at about 100 to 105. The issue is that I could not get it into third gear on every pass. Go to shift and it was like the gate wasn't there. Delay and then it would go into gear. I'm having a hard time figuring out driver error on that and wonder if maybe there is something peculiar to the Corvette that may cause this.
Here's one of the runs:
I was crossing the line at about 100 to 105. The issue is that I could not get it into third gear on every pass. Go to shift and it was like the gate wasn't there. Delay and then it would go into gear. I'm having a hard time figuring out driver error on that and wonder if maybe there is something peculiar to the Corvette that may cause this.
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Looks like you had a fun time!
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It was a good time and the people there were cool too. Next event is July 12. No details yet but I thing I need to go.
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That should be enough time to figure out what is happening with 3rd gear.
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Hope so. The downside is that will put me in position to shift into 4th a little bit before I cross the line. Hmmm, need drag radials an inch or two taller that the stock tires.
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Don't really know as the wind blew them away (BLUAWAY - lol). The Camaro say he's normally in the 12's. I counted time in the video and low 13's. Easily could see 12's if it would got directly into third gears.
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Cool! Drag racing is always fun. You can break into 11's with practice... Also, if you really want to run the best time, you'll have to lose the passenger. That extra weight does make a difference.
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I went to the Sacramento Raceway this last Sunday for the NCCA Vette Magic all Corvette drag races. They held a car show on Saturday and drag racing on Sunday. It was a well run event but they are talking about opening it up to all Bowtie cars next year to help with attendance. They had about 75 cars at the show and about 50 showed up for the drag racing. I learned several things about the C7 by running her down the 1/4 mile track and talking with several other C7 owners.
1. Launch control is fun but it does not yield the fastest acceleration times.
2. Holding the shifter correctly will make the difference between a clean 2-3 shift or a missed shift.
3. I hate the 4/5ths tree that they are using these days.
We were given three dial in runs before the elimination rounds started and I missed the 2-3 shift twice on those runs. The one run where I actually made the shift yielded a 13.65 ET, which was disappointing to say the least. A few minutes before my first elimination run I took a walk through the staging lanes and I noticed that the other two C7's were running in the mid 12's. An automatic was running 12.55 and a seven speed was running 12.7 ET. I talked to them both and neither one was using launch control, the guy with the manual told me that the best run he could get with launch control was a 13.60, by turning it off he improved his ET by close to a full second. When I told him that I was having difficulty making the 2-3 shift he asked me how I was holding the shifter. He said that a pistol grip or an open palm will not work with the C7. He was instructed at the Ron Fellowes school to use a finger tip approach where you hold your hand over the shifter and grip it with your fingers like you were picking up a baseball. I tried this method on my next and last run (red lighted) and it worked perfectly 13.49ET.
I did not want to take the launch control off at this point because I had already dialed my run time in and I was stuck with it. If I had run a faster time I would have been eliminated anyway. So the next time out I will try running the car without launch control and just deal with the inevitable wheel spin at the line and through most of first gear. It sure was fun driving her down the strip though, I love this car!
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