first time racing on a radial

[prasac]

last week we transformed the Capri from a race car that we sometimes drive to a street car that we sometimes race

bit of back history, the car is fully engineered and registeredthe build follows all of the guidelines provided and the engineer ticked off everything.

the car is driven on weekend, does about 200km of driving a week.

we decided to race in the new APSA x275 class, what this meant was we would now have to weigh 3200lbs (1451kg) and race on a 275 Street Radial. the quest began, the cars usual race weight is 3050lbs (1380kg) on went the steel bonnet and boot, nice comfy front seats, back seat and a full exhaust system with not 1 but 2 cat converters! we preferred to put the full exhaust on then putting weight in somewhere else. the car weighed in at 3220lbs (1460kg) the car is now not only in full race trim, but also in full street trim, same way it gets driven on the street

we wondered what could a 4L V8, yes, 240ci V8 with 2 turbo's do on pump fuel. pump E85, direct from the bowser from United Petroleum in Rozelle.

we drove to Sydney Dragway (the car gets driven to the track not towed) and anxiously waited for our time to test. what happened with a 275 street radial? well obviously something good or i wouldn't be telling the story

we got 3 passes and didn't waste a single one, we pumped out a
8.53@161 1.38 60'
8.49@162 1.39 60'
8.42@162 1.36 60'

we were ecstatic, not only were we quick but consistent as well.

video's of the runs
track level and rear of the car (the rear looks really cool, shows what a radial tyre looks like at 260km/h, and we think we destroyed a cat as one threw some flames out ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-ODlOTc7-U

from the stands
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_aYDZlaEwc

[CFOUR]

Nice, Now That's definitely a streetcar.
That thing launches so hard it looks like it has a rolling start.

[red80]

Awesome mate well done, you guys have the rear end sorted on that thing, no wheelstand, no wheelspin just up and go...nice.

[prasac]

Originally Posted by CFOUR

Nice, Now That's definitely a streetcar.
That thing launches so hard it looks like it has a rolling start.

thanks, she is definitely hauling some ***, she is less than 1mph down to half track then when it's all lightened, that was a surprise.

Originally Posted by red80

Awesome mate well done, you guys have the rear end sorted on that thing, no wheelstand, no wheelspin just up and go...nice.

thanks, good old 50-60yo leaf spring suspension doesn't do too bad at all finally got everything together, first pass it held the front left up to around the 330', second pass took a little out still only using the eBoost2, alot of people knock it, but i think we have proven it can work

[Sorted]

Street trim ready to drive to AFF Drag Nats ;)

Wanna see this thing in the flesh one day - what a weapon - love it

ORSM results

[prasac]

Originally Posted by Sorted

Street trim ready to drive to AFF Drag Nats ;)

Wanna see this thing in the flesh one day - what a weapon - love it

ORSM results

thanks, i'm not sure if he will race it at Heathgoat, he went there a few times in the good old days and wasn't very impressed with the track and safety.

i think after the Top Doorslammers wen there the other month and he saw the good times they were running he may have changed his mind. i keep telling him its not like the old days. i wouldn't mind all 3 of us taking cars down there.

the other brother loves Heathgoat, he used to race his rotaries there, one weekend he trashed and rebuilt 5 engines there his racing philosophy used to be ''if you aren't breaking stuff you're not trying hard enough'' when he started blowing too much money that philosophy went and so did the rotaries

[Sorted]

Heathcote is no WSID, that's a given - the return road is not pretty - the pits aren't made for a king but the run off area after the 1/4 mike is huge and the strip looks better than ever.

At Heathcote Mayhem there was a Camaro that ran consistent 8's - it was a sweet ride - it actually looked like a street car, nothing too wild on it but it was FAST!

It hooked up well and had no problem pumpin out 8's - you can do it too ;)

[prasac]

Originally Posted by Sorted

Heathcote is no WSID, that's a given - the return road is not pretty - the pits aren't made for a king but the run off area after the 1/4 mike is huge and the strip looks better than ever.

At Heathcote Mayhem there was a Camaro that ran consistent 8's - it was a sweet ride - it actually looked like a street car, nothing too wild on it but it was FAST!

It hooked up well and had no problem pumpin out 8's - you can do it too ;)

will see how we go, would be good to get down there and catch up with some people. the ultimate would be to drive the Capri down it get's pretty good fuel economy for an E85 car 15L/100km mixed city/highway driving.

[Sorted]

Originally Posted by Sorted

At Heathcote Mayhem there was a Camaro that ran consistent 8's - it was a sweet ride - it actually looked like a street car, nothing too wild on it but it was FAST!

It hooked up well and had no problem pumpin out 8's - you can do it too ;)

Said car not too wild lol

[pro346]

Awesome street car mate!! nice times!! just seen your injector testing good work!!

[Cam]

That is out of control! Cannot believe how well it gets off the line with the leafs!

Congrats!

[prasac]

Originally Posted by Cam

That is out of control! Cannot believe how well it gets off the line with the leafs!

Congrats!

thanks, leaf springs aren't that bad, obviously they are no 4-link or ladder bar setup, but you can 60' quick on them. we have went 1.28 on a 28x10.5'' slick, car was around 200lbs lighter. i think we could consistently 60' in the low-mid 1.30's after a bit more testing. i knew we would only get a 2-3 passes so i didn't want to waste any by giving it too much at the line. i would have to deal with an unhappy driver also

Originally Posted by Sorted

Said car not too wild lol

not too wild no wonder it hooks up well look at the size of the boots on it, they are twice the size of ours and are slicks

Originally Posted by pro346

Awesome street car mate!! nice times!! just seen your injector testing good work!!

thanks, we tested the ID2000 against the XSpurt2000cc results were the same but the spray pattern was totally different. im not sure if i accidentally deleted that video or what i can't seem to find it.

[dalts]

Hey Paul is there any more word on mts new drag radial that you posted on fb a while back!
It's a pretty aggressive tread pattern!

[prasac]

Originally Posted by dalts

Hey Paul is there any more word on mts new drag radial that you posted on fb a while back!
It's a pretty aggressive tread pattern!

yeah mate, they are now DOT approved, the yanks have been breaking all sorts of records with them.

have spoke to guys that run 315's and they have said the new Pro 275 sticks better.

do i think they would much improve our times, or times of car running say mid 8's, 9's etc? no, i don't believe they will, the yanks are pushing mid 7-sec times out of the cars, i believe the best 60's are only 1-2/100ths better, however because they can put more power down earlier they can run quicker..

the ET Street's are good, don't let them fool you, we left on about 15psi (98kpa) and 5500rpm which is somewhere in the vicinity of 500-600rwhp, with these M/T 275's that is very similar power to what we leave with a 28x11.5'' (17psi, 5500rpm). i believe we may be able to leave with the same power as we do with the 28x11.5'' slick, the car is heavier, which helps a little for traction, but, then again it also slows the 60' down a little. pretty much by the 60' we are on full boost and at full power, we didn't notice any traction loss, the rpm climbed like normal.

[prasac]

for those that haven't seen this is what the new Pro Street 275 radial looks like


now compare that to the old one

[dalts]

Thanks that's very interesting!!i still can't get over the look of the new style pretty much a slick with a couple of grooves here and there,wouldn't like to be pulled over on the street with those strapped to the back !!!

[prasac]

Originally Posted by dalts

Thanks that's very interesting!!i still can't get over the look of the new style pretty much a slick with a couple of grooves here and there,wouldn't like to be pulled over on the street with those strapped to the back !!!

in the old days, Joe used to drive to the track and back on slicks. he hit the white lines and lost traction one time, did a 1080 apprently the car stayed in the same lane the whole time and when got it under control was pointing straight and they kept going like nothing happened the passenger confirmed the story but i dunno

another time in the rain, what is a 15-20 minute drive from the track took over 1 hour thing was just all over the place, back then (1990's early 2000's) he was going out every street meet, so if someone couldn't go with him, he would just make the trek on slicks, he was very lucky he didn't smash or hurt anyone.

i dunno how these new Pro Street 275 would drive on the street, i doubt anyone here in Oz would be crazy enough to continually drive on them

[dalts]

They sure are hairy in the wet,I got caught in a heavy downpour on the way home from track one night,just going around a corner cause the back to step out and that was a 40km/h!could only imagine what those would be like!

[prasac]

Originally Posted by dalts

They sure are hairy in the wet,I got caught in a heavy downpour on the way home from track one night,just going around a corner cause the back to step out and that was a 40km/h!could only imagine what those would be like!

better be careful when the new Precision PT6466 goes in, will have more power than you can believe

[dalts]

Haha I hope so!!

[guscorty]

I was at Sydney Dragway last weekend as a spectator and saw all 3 of the Capri's runs. "Unbelievably Impressive" is not enough to describe this car. I was blown away by this car.

[prasac]

Originally Posted by guscorty

I was at Sydney Dragway last weekend as a spectator and saw all 3 of the Capri's runs. "Unbelievably Impressive" is not enough to describe this car. I was blown away by this car.

thanks for the kind words mate. we are literally quite shocked at what the car has become, it was always intended to be a low-mid 9-second car that you can cruise around whenever you want. then all of a sudden we are close to breaking into the 7's, the latter is still the same, it gets driven all the time.

the reception from people has been good also, being a small cube Jap DOHC V8 with turbo's in a car which usually sees big cube yank V8's etc we were expecting to cop a bit of flack but everyone has been great. we always appreciated a car on its merits and not the badge it wore so glad there are like minded people out there.

it's always humbling to have spectators and other racers coming over to talk to us or congratulate us about the car. we are just a bunch of mates/family that has banded together and did a no frills combo that has worked.

[prasac]

we took the Capri out tonight for a little Wednesday night fun and some final testing and checks for the APSA Pro Street Shootout. back on the radials, being a Wednesday night we aren't allowed to run faster than 9.0 so we were only doing half track testing, wanted to get the tune right down low. we weren't expecting much from the track, being a Wednesday night it's not usually prepped.

1st pass: she knocked out a 1.389 60' and 130mph to 1/2 track, we were definitely not expecting that good a 60' but we were gonna take it. back to the pits, she was a little fat, so we put a bit of timing in and took a couple % of fuel out.

2nd pass: 60' a 1.26 and 128mph, happy with the 60' not so much the 1/2 track. back to the pits, car didn't seem to like the extra timing, so we took it out and left the fuel as it was.

3rd pass: wasted pass. it blazed the tyres off the line, 1.46 60' didn't bother staying in it, data would have been useless. left the tune as it was.

4th (last) pass: we spoke to a track official and asked if we could do a full pass, he gave the ok. track had a bit of heat in it and it was nice cool air, staged the car nicely, came out of the hole sweet and a 1.336 60', best 60' on a radial by 3/100ths, car sounded strong, ran 131mph to 1/2 track, won't say what she ran, watch the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBZWdGmj15M

Joe was on fire with his lights tonight, cut like a .040, .018 and a .014 on the full tree and a .140 on the Pro Tree

we are now 7 passes in on a radial tyre, we are extremely happy with the progress, the car seems to love the extra weight and the radial tyres, hopefully we can continue to improve.

[prasac]

we had the APSA Shootout on the weekend and the car was on fire, not literally we have got the radial tyres sorted now and it's time to try and push them harder, see what we can get out of them.

we had 6 passes on the weekend, all but 1 pass had a 60' time between 1.33-1.36 and the car was as consistent as i have ever seen any car at the track. the first passes were 8.41, 8.40, 8.40 & 8.38 4 passes within 3/100ths we were ecstatic, as it was all different times of the day. the 5th pass we had a staging duel and the gearbox oil got burnt, was slipping down the track, still ran an 8.69, went back out 45mins later to check if there was any damaged, knocked out a 8.48 so we were happy no damage had been done.

couple video's
this one is tyre view, i slowed 1 pass down to give a great look at just what the tyre does at 160mph+
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78VGsmQry7Q

track level
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmJ89ujoLVM

and from the stands, thanks to Mark from www.fpv.net.au
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wsDaSrYSsk

hopefully we can continue the great run on the radial, since we have changed the spark plug leads on the car 5-6 months back the car has been unbelieveably consistent, even though the converter is not 100%.