AT THE TRACK

I attended the DFWStangs Spring Cruise 2005. It was a day at the Texas Raceway in Kennedale, TX for all DFWStangs members. About 100 cars from all over the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex showed up. I met with a group at the Hooters in south Fort Worth, then we convoyed to the track. Other groups from the around the metroplex did the same.

Like all first timers, I was really nervous but the guys were very helpful. I didn't get to concentrate on my launch at all. So much was going through my mind and I was having a blast. If you are modding the heck out of your car and haven't been to the track, quit wasting time and effort trying to squeeze out that extra HP or two on the dyno. Get out on the track. It is 100x more fun!

My best 1/8 mile ET for the day: 9.329. My best 60 foot ET for the day: 2.186.

Not bad for a first timer! I wasn't really worried about the ETs. I just wanted to go through the motions and learn. There are a lot of How To Race articles on the web. Read them. Learn them. But for the first few runs, just go through the motions and have fun. Don't worry about reaction times and elapsed times.

A week later, I went to the San Antonio Raceway in Marion, TX (along I-10, just outside San Antonio) for some Friday night fun. They have a 1/4 mile track and my 1/4 ETs were 14.5x secs at 96.4 mph. The 60 ft ETs were a little worse than Kennedale.

A week or two later, I was back at Kennedale for more Test and Tune. I bumped up my timing to +10% using the Predator. The car was running strong and I ended up with new best times.

My best 1/8 mile ET for that day: 9.157. My best 60 foot ET for that day: 1.876.

But it doesn't stop there. It just gets better. I installed the first cut of a custom tune from Runnin' With The Devil and made another trip to Kennedale and Marion, TX for more Test and Tune.

My best 1/4 mile ET ever: 14.163.

After repeated visits to the track and a few more mods, my best run now is an 8.897 at the 1/8 mile track.

A tried to add a link to this video of my car at the track but Cardomain doesn't seem to like it. Cut and paste the following URL into your browser:

http://media.putfile.com/04-Mustang-GT-vs-03-Mustang-GT

This next picture isn't really a picture of my car running an 1/8 or 1/4 mile. It is a picture of my car on the Texas Motor Speedway (a famous venue for NASCAR). This was taken on May 14 during the Laps For Charity event. $25 donation gets you three laps around the speedway. Going high on the banked curve and looking down was such a thrill. We've done this twice already and will do it again.

(Did any of this help? Leave some comments in the guest book. Let me know you were here.)