This Sunday at Kansas City International Raceway they are having a highschool drag day for area high schoolers only. $15, a helmet, a valid driver's license, and a car and you're in.

I'm taking my truck up there to finally get some official results. It will be the first time I have ever officially drag raced on a track. I will be going all-out, I'm taking everything out of the interior (floor mats, owner's manual, jack, etc.) and I will also be removing the tailgate and spare tire. I should have near 360 horsepower with my dual exhaust, other than that it's a stock HEMI. I've read about different times for it in magazines, the best I have seen is a 6.5 0-60 and 14.9 @ 91 1/4 Mile, but I have also seen a 6.8 0-60 and a 15.1 @ 90 1/4 Mile. That one guy in the video on here of the three races in his HEMI ran a 14.8. It didn't sound like he had dual exhaust so I'm guessing he had CAI.

Does anybody have any estimates on what my times may be? It's a 1500/sport/regular cab/short bed/2x4 with the 20" aluminum wheels.

 

2004 Dodge Ram SRT-10 (any day now)
2003 Dodge Ram 1500 SLT HEMI Sport
2003 Dodge Ram 1500 SLT
2001 Pontiac Bonneville SSEi
1977 Ford Mustang II Mach 1 302


all this and your in High School??? You either have a silver spoon shoved so far down your mouth its comming out the other end or you have one hell of an after school job, or your full of it!

Either way...let us know how you do!!

 

Wow, high school has really changed since I graduated...we raced chariots and horses.....[sm=smiley36.gif]

 

They are my dad's cars, I didn't buy them.

 

Hug your dad, he's a good guy...[sm=smiley20.gif]

 

Yea he is a good guy.

Can anyone offer me any starting advice? Reving it in Neutral and dropping it into Drive is out of the question. My dad said I could "torque" it by pushing the break down as far as it would go and then reving it. He said if the brake is down far enough it won't burn out. Does anybody know if this works?

 

Whoa dude, don't rev-and-drop!!! You'll screw up the tranny for sure. Just heat the tires a little, pull up and turn on the lights. Keep your foot on the brake once your staged and bring the RPM's up against the converter. Keep the tranny in tow/haul, put the tailgate down if you don't have a bed cover, and mash the pedal on green. Let us know how you do. Good luck.

 

Yea I never had plans on dropping it, people have told me to do it but I don't feel like buying a new transmission. I heard that roughly every 100lbs you can drop is a 10th of a second off your time. I was screwing around after school and took the spare out. It was very very heavy, though I doubt it was 100lbs. I drove around through the neighborhood and I could feel a slight difference when I turned corners. I went out onto the main road and gunned it. It felt slightly faster than normal with the spare out and the tailgate down. The tires screached a little more than usual so I'm going to run it once with and once without tomorrow and see what happens. The track here has a reputation for being slick so I might need the weight back there. I'm going to have my friend film me so I'll try to put it up here later in the week.

 

Don't forget to make sure you take everything out of the back before putting the tailgate down at the track, I don't think they would appreciate a bunch of stuff left at the starting line. Pull up to the light, step on the break, bring it up to around 2,000 RPM and then when the light changes let off the break and get on the gas. With proper distribution of the two, you can do a really good burnout.[sm=smiley20.gif]

 

A couple of things here will help you out. Go ahead and pull all the weight you can and run 1/2 tank of fuel. This is only for speed and time. It will do nothing for bracket racing since it is all about consistency.

If you are really worried about traction take the truck to an area that has a flat piece of concrete that is clean. Hold the brake and do a small burn out. Look at the black mark and see if the mark is even across the tread pattern. If it is lighter toward the center add air, if it is lighter toward the outside let out some air. Most street tires do well at 5 pounds over normal pressure settings. Use this pressure at race day. Run the front tires at max pressure for least rolling resistance.

At the line: Step on the brake and bring the r's to a 1500-2500 rpm. Whichever you choose be consistent. 2000 was mentioned, I think it is a good call. Do it the same everytime. Once the brake is pressed and the r's are set concentrate on the tree. You should see 3 yellows then the green. As the last yellow light lights up take your foot off the brake and press down the gas. If you wait for the green your RT or reaction time will be slow. If you are naturally quick you need to anticipate the yellow .5 lag. That means that you don't go right when the yellow lights up but right after it does. With this method I can cut .55 lights, without I cut .8 lights and usually loose.