well guys, here's the story,
yesterday at school, i raced this kid at lunch, he has a 90 somethin ford f350, i had no clue what he had under the hood. my truck, 97 dodge ram ss/t, 5.9L v8 360, k&n airfilter, headers, some type of computer chip, (i wish i knew about engines better, i dont know crap) and all that i thought my truck was fast as hell, my dad has been painting cars and working at body shops since he was my age and he said it probably has close to 280 or 290. well where i live is this little 2 lane highway that is rarely used, its right by my school, 1.2 miles from where we started to where we stopped. we started from a redlight, and had to turn onto the highway, he had the inside lane, i had outside, i got past him on the turn and mashed the gas, i was a good car length in front of him for damn near the whole way, then he hit his 7th gear, (i found that out later) and started coming up on me, i was in my top gear and was going about 105 and was crawling up the speedometer, he passed me with about .3 or .4 tenths of a mile left to go.

so tell me guys, did i disappoint and embarrass myself or did i give it a good run? my friend watched and said i basically won, but i cant get it out of my head that i lost, and now all i want to do is make my truck faster so i can challenge this kid again, but i'm pretty much broke. so basically what im asking is you all's opinions on the race and tips on what i can do to make my truck faster. thanks guys, i know there will probably be some hating on me, so just say the rude stuff and let that be it

 

When setting up a vechicle for racing you have to determine if you want a truck that does really well in the 1/8 and 1/4 mile or if you want to set it up for longer distances. It is hard to have it both ways without spending a lot of money.

 

heres the thing, i beat him in 1/8, and 1/4, and 1/2 and 3/4, we raced on a highway that was 1.2 miles, he beat me close to the end, my fuel cut-off is at 115 and i didnt even get to that speed

 

No matter who you are or what you do, someone out there has a faster vehicle.

 

7th gear?

 

Im guessing you have 3.55 gears? Were you in overdrive when the f350 started to catch you? We have a fairly tall od gear in the 46re trans (.069)
3.55x .069 od gear gives 2.45 final ratio which means it will barely accellerate.

 

90's f350 (assuming 98 or earlier, not a super duty) - At most a 5 speed manual, or a four speed auto. They didn't even have 6 speeds - your friend is an idiot or he was messing with you with the 7th gear. If it is a gas it would have a 351W or a 460ci big block. If diesel it was the 7.3 IDI, 7.3 IDI Turbo, or a 7.3 Powerstroke.

Also 1.2 miles is a long race, as racing in OD is just not smart, as there is no power (as Indy said) and it will create a lot of heat and could damage the trans.

 

yea, like i guess i was in overdrive, cuz i didnt push my o/d off button. i thought it was a long race too, once i got up there in speed, i barely accelerated at all, i didnt think it was a fair race cuz it was so long, but he said he won, and he was in front of me at the very end so i guess he did, but 1/4 mile and up to a mile, i was a good car length ahead of him.

 

Challenge him to a real 1/4 mile race to settle the issue. Just don't get hustled--he may have been sand bagging you.
If you start racing a lot, you'll start breaking things and it'll get real expensive in a hurry, even more so than trying to add this and that to make it a little faster.

 

1/4 mile is a real race.What does he wanna do next?? 24 hours at Le Mans?? You beat him in the quarter so be happy.