Track day = FAIL

So I went to the track again on Saturday, was hoping to run some pretty good times. Anyways here is the story. Saturday morning I was gettting the car ready to go and did a few pulls logging the car and checking for knock. Car was running awesome and was at around 23.5psi of boost. Injectors was about 92% DC but I figured it was alright since it was for only a few runs. Anyways get to the track and I get the car ready to run. The first run I tried my something new and launched in 2nd gear. Held the car on the studderbox at 4.5k and took off, tires just smoked off the line and all threw second gear. That run ended with a 14.9 at 104mph with a 2.9 60'. Launch too hard but it was just the first try so I was hoping to get better at that. When I looked at the log I noticed I was only at 14psi.... I f*ckin forgot to turn the boost controller on.. So I go for another run.. starting in first this time.. got real bad wheel hop in first for some weird reason so I let off a little to smooth that out and stepped on it once I got it to second. That run was a 14.0 at 111mph with a 2.8x 60'. Horrible but I was excited to run such a good time with a horrible launch again. Car was running pretty well so I was excited about that but thats when things started to go bad.... First my computer battery took a shit, I had an AC converter so I could use the charger but the computer still wouldn't run good at all. That had me pissed a little but I went up for another run anyways... The launch was bad again on this one (not sure what was going on with me today) By the time I got to 3rd the rpms started climbing really quick.... This car has never broken 3rd loose so I was like what the hell is going on... Half way threw 3rd I thought O SHIT the clutch... Let the car roll the rest of the way down the track. Got on it a little on the return road and it was slippin bad in 2nd. My clutch disc is kevlar so when it gets real hot it slips easily but it wont mess it up if you unless you really smoke it up. So I let the car cool for an hour or so and figured I would give it one more run. I lowered the boost to 20psi or so and gave it another shot. Launched it easy off the line and hit second and got on it...clutch started slipping a little so I put it in 3rd and to the floor again. As soon as the turbo spooled the clutch let go and the rpms went to 6k so I put it in 4th and it still wouldn't hold... Let the car roll back down again for a time of 18.9 at 65mph I think. I knew I was done at that point. The other guy I was with blew a headgasket in his trans am.

When I left the track I hit a little boost in 3rd and the clutch wouldn't even hold that. On the way home this morning the clutch was better. It would hold 13psi but drives horrible so Im sure I warped something up. I haven't decided what Im putting in there next but I will keep yall updated on whats going in there next. This was the last thing I was expecting to fail. Now that I think about it the car was slipping it a tiny bit when I was tuning last week but I thought it was the tires trying to break loose some. Too bad I didn't find out till the track.

EDIT - I looked over the log for the second run at the clutch was slippin in 3rd a little and the car still ran 111.8mph so Im pretty pleased with the power it pushing. Should be around 330whp Im guessing.


PS - Dave I will talk to you tmrw about your clutch. Not sure what you want to do at this point.

man that is a heck of trap speed. Faster then I have ever gone. I'm kinda jealous right now. Sucks about your clutch but We've all had it. I've lost 3 clutches so far but the awd does chew them a bit more then the fwd. Nevertheless I am very impressed with the track speed and it looks like you might need to invest in some slicks that will gurantee you some 12's passes. I read your facebook statuses so I knew the ending to this story but was hoping you got a least one good pass in on that 20g so I could see how she goes.

Keep up the good work buddy!

Edit
Also Jealous that you have a track open in february. ours are closed NOV to April

Thanks Stevie. I will post up a time slip for proof of the time. Also have the log to show that shows the clutch slippin. I dont know if I would have hit 12s this weekend but if I can get some slicks and learn how to launch them good the car should be good for low 12s possible high 11s. The car was pulling 2-3* of timing in 3rd and 4th bc of high intake temps so the car has more potential then what it ran. Also our track is open year around as long as the weather is above 45* and sunny. If its cold they cancel it.

PS - Dave I will talk to you tmrw about your clutch. Not sure what you want to do at this point.

Ya we'll talk about it. I know as soon as I get something good, I'll break it.

Very nice numbers. Get that clutch fixed asap.


Also our track is open year around as long as the weather is above 45* and sunny. If its cold they cancel it.

Must be nice. 3" of snow this weekend. 9" farther North.

I agree, I think you did a pretty good job, all things considering. A 112 mph trap with a slipping clutch is good as hell... better tires, a better clutch, and some practice should bring that shit down for ya. An SRT friend of mine consistently put down 13.8's at 103-104 mph, put an extra 10 mph on that and you should be blazin. You really should get some bigger injectors though, 92% IDC is kinda scary.

It only hit 92% on the shifts. The DC would bump up a little when the rpms jumped a little when I pushed the clutch I guess. As the intake temps got higher the DC decreased to 87% or so. I wasn't to worried about it for a few pulls at the track.

The clutch is completely f*cked though. It will hold 14psi but anything over that it wont hold at all. I wish I knew what kinda damage I have done. Either burned off all the kevlar or warped the pressure plate/flywheel up BAD. I have talked to my dad and they have come out with a new material for their clutches that supposively holds as much power as a ceramic button but drives better so I may be testing one of those out once they make me one. Its either that or go with a 6 puck ceramic button which will hold the power but will drive worse and will wear out in a year or two. I dont really want that but I may not have a choice. I will know something in a week or so... In the mean time I did get some good data from this weekend but dont have time to explain it now. Ill post it up tmrw.

So I was lookin over the logs again today and noticed on both of my runs my WB was pinned on 10.1AFR which is as low as it goes so I have no idea how rich the car was running. It was fine 2 hours before at about 11.0 so I dont know what happened. Also on the last good run 2-3* of timing was pulled for intake temps and the clutch was slippin. Car still hit 111.8mph so it should have been a couple mph higher.

Ok so in between the runs I iced the intercooler down to help lower intake temps. Without cooling the IC down the intake temps where 132* and still climbing by the end of 4th. After cooling it down the temps flatlined around 83* by the end of 4th so it helped out a ton. Now tracks usually frown on IC spraying but it may be worth building something. I may post up the logs later on today.

Toasted the clutch. No way!! I thought ZOOMs were indestructable?

Atleast you got more of your moneys worth out of yours...my ZOOM only lasted for 5k miles. Maybe now you will beleive me when I say that they are boo boo, as if the pictures of mine weren't evidence enough.

There was no problem with the clutch. The problem was I over powered it. I only had a stage 2 which is suppose to hold up to 350wtq I believe. And I should be pretty close to that. I never thought it would be a problem since the car is fwd but I guess I was wrong. Dont blame it on the clutch when it wasn't designed for that much power.

Play nice now kids. :p

Track frowning or not, IC spraying is something I've always thought about... particularly in my "sleeper" supra SMIC days. I would spray CO2 though, and I just dont know if the $400 kit would be worth it or not.

they wouldn't care about Co2 but they dont want water drippin all over the track. Ice water worked really good though. I may be able to score a fogger kit cheap so I may run co2 to the IC. That and meth should keep the intake temps down in this 100* summer weather

There was no problem with the clutch. The problem was I over powered it. I only had a stage 2 which is suppose to hold up to 350wtq I believe. And I should be pretty close to that. I never thought it would be a problem since the car is fwd but I guess I was wrong. Dont blame it on the clutch when it wasn't designed for that much power.

I hear ya. I guess my car has more power than I thought. :grinyes:

damn those numbers are good. 14.0@111. that trap is quite amazing. better clutch and slicks and you should be in the low 13s with a good trap. did you remove any thing from the car to make it lighter?

A 112 mph trap is worth a lot more than a 13 second 1/4. With better tires and a good clutch and if you can get the 60 ft down to or below 2 seconds and keep your AFR's straight, I wouldn't be surprised to see a mid 12 lurking in there.

On the 14.0 run the 60" was like a 2.8. Im think the on slicks the car will hit high 11s. Maybe super low 12s but Im betting on 11's. Also remember that the run I ran 111.8mph was with the clutch slipping in 3rd horrible AFR and 3* of timing being pulled from air temps so it should have been higher with a good run.

Your cars definatly fast man. Mad props. I'm really interested to see what it will do once you can put the power down. I cant see 11s though. Prove me wrong!! Good luck.

Im getting a new clutch in there over spring break which in the middle of March. Going to have to put it to the test so maybe hitting up the track by the end of March or so. The clutch isin't built yet but it should be up for the task when it get finished. Just as long as everything goes through ok.

I think 11's is pretty lofty too but hey man more power to you if you can pull it off. if you do you're gonna have one of the fastest 420's i've seen.

hmm...11s eh?! that will be quite interesting. i forgot about the clutch slipping factor. I can see 12s but 11s is hard to get...just strip the damn thing! :D but yeah, nice set up indeed!