Driving tips
Beating a more powerful car is often easier than it looks. Here's why -Lingenfelter's Corvette is SLOWER than the Corvette from the factory.
Why?
The Lingenfelters can't hook.
After spending a few minutes with some of the younger 3.8L drivers, they've been able to knock 1 sec off their times with some simple adjustements.
Most had never heard of power braking, & most had never figured out what RPM to launch with.
Most never added a sway bar, and some were letting air out of their rear tires, thinking that that old trick from the bias-ply days would work.
With some simple steps, they find out they can beat standard WRXs, one even beat a new Accord that had 40+ hp on him. (FWD cars -especially with all-season tires are hard to hook).
Here's some definitions & strategies from my old 1968 302. Now, I've already given you some tips on the mechanical aspects (sway bar, subframe connectors, etc), I'll go into that a little more later. Here's some advice for the other 50% of the equation -Just as important as modifying the car, is modifying the driver.
This means You!
You've got to figure out how to drive the car. If you can't drive, you can't win, no matter how much hp you have & how much you put into it.
#1) It's not the car it's the driver
There was I guy I know with a built 1st gen Chevy Nova. His dad owned a Semi-truck building factory, & this kid was rich. He put more money into that car every month, than most of us could in a year. It had a built big block, drag radials on lightweight wheels (including the skinnies up front) custom built rear end, huge stereo with subwoofers, etc.,
He never beat me.
Why?
I did recon, and always knew what he was running. Knew how he drove, & knew enough about him to make him make errors.
Common Errors
One.
He made several mistakes, beginning with his launch. He'd burn out the tires (I often wondered how much his dad spent on them) in giant plumes of smoke. While he was sitting there burning rubber, I was halfway done with the run.
To be honest, I'd goad him into doing it. He fell for it every time.
To launch, you only need enough wheelspin to keep the engine from bogging. NEVER more NEVER less. On automatics, you need to powerbrake -put one foot on the brake, and bring the revs as high as the converter will let you, without spinning the wheels. when you launch release the brake and hit the throttle at the same time
(on stock cars around 17-1800 RPM). On my 1968, it was 2500 RPM which was perfect I was in the cam when I left the line, and I got great gas mileage 25-27mpg in a 325 hp Mustang 302 was great!
If you've got a manual-learn how to speedshift. I learned from riding motorcycles, and if you've got an extra 250-500 dollars laying around get a used dirt bike & practice it. Leave the throttle on the floor, & shift quickly, never dropping off throttle.
Your clutch & tranny may not like it much, so you don't want to learn on a $1700 transmission, learn on the dirt bike.
Of all the manual 5.0/4.6L Mustangs (along with the WRX) that I beat, they all lifted on the throttle when shifting. You lose several seconds per 1/4 mile. -seconds I can make up for easily.
Two.
Get rid of excess weight.
This means YOU.
The rich kid finally caught on as to how I was beating him, and started spending a ton of money for fiberglass components (his car weighed close to 1000 lbs more than mine from the factory (The Mustang was among the first unibody cars -his was still a car on frame).
The only problem was that he weighed 350+ lbs, and he always rode with his buddy who was as big or bigger than he was!!!
I weighed 172 lbs. my car weighed 24-2500 lbs. His car started out at 3700 lbs, + he had a couple of sub woofers, amps, stereo, etc. (at least 2-300 lbs of not more) -So his car weighed 4000 lbs. at a minimum.
The rich kid's big block was a gas guzzler, so he had to run with the tank full most of the time (and that's when I'd race him!!) and on top of all that, there was another 700+lbs of human lard the poor car had to carry around.
I rarely run with a spare -I just keep a tire repair kit & a can of fix-a-flat . . .
Compute the power ratio:
the Kansas Coyote: 325hp/2700 lbs -me, car and 1/4 tank of gas
the Rich Kid: 475 hp(rough estimate based on his combo)/4700 lbs.
I figured each time I had a pretty good shot at knocking off the rich kid, every time. Even when he started spending a ton of dough on fiberglass. I had him beat anyway using the psyops which provoked him into wheelspin. (Only part of the race is handled by the car -the rest is between your ears).
If you wanna' be fast, put down the cheeseburger & fries -Drop the Chalupa! -If he and his buddy dropped 400 lbs of human flesh from the car, he may have had a better chance than spending a ton of money on fiberglass trying to catch me. He would've saved a ton of money on food, too -but what the heck! It made for great entertainment for all, & he wasn't hurtin' for cash!
Three
Know the weaknesses of the opposing car.
Big blocks make a ton of power, but also weigh a ton, and putting down the power is tough. (The rich kid made it even worse by installing 4.11 gears.
I laughed out loud when I heard about that. He was already destroying his tires with the gears he already had! Why multiply the torque even MORE?!?!? -I sent word that I was shakin' in my boots -There was no way I could get him with those gears!
-Then I beat him again.
I think this is O'Lindy's Chevelle - same block same year, but when I last saw it it was white.
Turbos have lag. choose someplace that will give you an advantage. (I once beat a modded Shelby Daytona by putting a heavy friend in his car, and putting his friend in mins (ostensibly to make sure he didn't use nitrous (which I knew he didn't have). Not only that, I sandbagged him even more by racing on an incline. He bogged, fell out of boost, and I ran away from him.
One of the WRXs I beat was an auto who didn't know how to powerbrake. -That was easy, it's a 2.0L car until the boost comes up & on an automatic, it shifts before you hit redline, anyway. The other guy lifted when he shifted, dropping the car out of boost for 50% of the run. He'd start to make a move& fall right out of boost, where I'd put another couple of lengths on him.
VERY FEW boosted rally variants (WRXs, Eclipses, etc) will do what it takes to win (4-6000 RPM drops + speed shifting to stay in the boost) because of the non-warrantied & expensive repair bills that await them.
If I blow my tranny (low chance of that no matter what I do to it) I could put another one under there for $400 & find a low-mileage one at any salvage yard. Same goes for the engine - $400 (compared for a couple of thousand dollars for a well used Mustang GT Engine -MORE for a low mile engine)More likely to go is a U-joint, or something - even cheaper. -That's the beauty of domestics.
BTW: I've gotta' give props to Shelby & Dodge, they were the first ones to make a fast FWD with over 200hp. Most newer FWD "sports cars" today are STILL slower than those old Daytonas. I've been looking for a clean one for a while. I knew somebody who converted his to a RWD with a 318ci.
No one ever bothered to look at the pumpkin under the hatch. By the time they figured out that was a V8 RWD, it was too late.
He made a LOT of money with that car . . . I never ran him. It would have been a good match, though.
But that goes to show you -do your recon work. Most of these guys talk about everything they buy, how much power they're making, etc., they more they talk, the more info you have on what you need to do to beat 'em. So engourage them to brag as much as possible, & keep your own combination quiet.
There were people who thought I was making 600hp+ some thought I had a Cleveland under the hood, or that I'd transferred my built 351M from my truck. The few people I showed my engine to couldn't believe it was a moderately modified 302 with a 600CFM Edelbrock carb.
-Not even a double pumper.
